KC Star launches first iPad app that replicates both its print and web editions, while bypassing the App Store; IHT updates mobile and tablet apps, adding improvements to the iPad's section navigation

The Indenpendence Day holiday is fast approaching, which means this site will be shut down on Monday the Fourth. But before I head off for the long weekend I felt I better make sure my desk is cleaned off and the floor is cleared of debris (oh my, the carpet cleaners are already here).

When it comes to new media apps I already have quite a backlog to look at. The Kansas City Star, for instance, has released its first iPad app, E-Star, iPad edition of The Kansas City Star. It is not what I would call a tablet edition because the Olive Software developed app presents readers with an enhanced replica edition of the print newspaper, as well as access to the Star's website.

The "enhanced" part is simply that readers can tap on the individual stories and pull a new window with the story alone. Otherwise, this is a replica all the way.

The purpose of the app is clear from the app description. The text is clearly a promotion for the newspaper and says nothing about the app itself. The reason is that this is one of those apps that use Apple's in-app purchase loophole: the app is strictly a "reader" app, only giving access to current subscribers of the newspaper.

Upon tapping on a newspaper one is confronted with a sign-in dialog box. Tapping it takes you to the sign-in form – but it also tells you how to go around the App Store, in this case by going to the estar website page where you are told a subscription will cost you $4.95 per month or $58.95 per year.

But while the publisher of the McClatchy owned newspaper may see this pricing as a discount over the home delivery price of $130 per year, the iPad owner will discover that they are not about to receive a newspaper designed specifically for the tablet, but a replica edition optimized in some ways for them. It's readable, but makes the reader to the heavy lifting.

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The International Herald Tribune has updated both its iPad app and its iPhone app this morning, while the latest update hit the Android Market two days ago.

The iPhone version adds some font features and fixes some bugs, while the iPad version adds its cartoon contents, and navigation enhancements, as well as the usual bug fixes. The navigation change will be much appreciated by readers: now, when reading within a specific section, one can move on to the next or previous article within that section without having to jump back to the section front (though that option is available, as well). It's a small change, but a welcome one.

The app remains free to download and provides readers with free access to the content through the end of the year, provided you register with the newspaper. The iPad edition continues to be single sponsored by Bell & Ross watches.

Morning Brief: Dramatic shift in trial could put the focus back on the media; the newspaper vendor is disappearing

The New York Times today is reporting that the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was the head of the IMF, and the presumed future head of the French Socialist Party, is "on the verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the housekeeper who charged that he attacked her in his Manhattan hotel suite in May."

The problem for prosecutors appears to be the credibility of the accuser, a Guinean woman who was working as a maid at the Sofitel hotel in NYC. According to media reports, the woman phone a friend who was in jail to ask for advice. Because the man was in jail the call was taped. It was also discovered that the woman has "unattributed money deposited in the bank accounts" in several states, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

While the news certainly may have political ramifications, in that Strauss-Kahn may be able to resurrect his career if charges are dropped, the case also will focus on the press's habit of jumping to judgment.

As for the politics of its all, that depends on one's perspective, but the NYT quotes Claude Bartolone, a Socialist legislator, as saying last night “I think Sarkozy and his friends are going to have a very unpleasant morning.”

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The BBC wrote last night about the end of newspaper street vending in Wales, quoting The Guardian's Roy Greenslade as saying the move was "sad but inevitable in the circumstances".

"Distribution is one of the most expensive parts of the costs of producing newspapers," Greenslade said. "And it's natural enough in such circumstances that you drive down and reduce costs where you can."

True enough, but the old fashioned and unique methods some newspapers have used to distribute their newspapers are more than mere "distribution". By ending the practice of street vending, or boys on bikes delivering the newspaper, the industry has done more than simply cut costs, they have also done great damage to their marketing efforts.

I am reminded of the conversation that went on years ago when Apple started building retail outlets. At the time Apple could look at competitors like Gateway and see that retail outlets were not cost effective from a purely sales perspective. But Apple went forward anyway because they felt that the branded retail experience would prove to be of great importance to the brands, and a great place to introduce new products.

But the retail stores would all be shuttered today if Apple measured their effectiveness as Gateway did, or how the newspaper industry looks at its old distribution methods. For Apple, their retail stores are part of their marketing efforts, which is why they have cut down in marketing on some other areas like MacWorld. Apple doesn't measure the effectiveness of the stores solely in terms of a retail P&L.

Likewise, looking at street vendors simply from the circulation department's perspective misses the marketing advantages of being closer to their customers. If some of the cost of the distribution was shifted to marketing then maybe the conclusion changes. But, of course, that assumes the newspaper has much of a marketing budget in the first place – but we'll leave that discuss for another time.

MSNBC's political etiquette policy: make sure you are bleeped before calling the President an expletive

Time Magazine's editor-at-large Mark Halperin said that President Obama was a "dick yesterday", referring to the President's news conference. That is OK, apparently, as long as the producer is there to bleep out the expletive. If not, well, you're screwed.

"I want to offer a heartfelt and profound apology to the President and the viewers of Morning Joe. My remark was not funny. I deeply regret it," Halperin wrote on Twitter, now apparently the place where all official correspondence between the media and the President occurs. By the way, Halperin's post says he used "Twitter for iPad" to post his apology (see, you were wondering what the "new media" angle was, right?).

MSNBC had its own story which was in fact no story at all, just the apology: "Mark Halperin's comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable.　 We apologize to the President, The White House and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air. Therefore, Mark will be suspended indefinitely from his role as an analyst."

What really interests me in these situations are the news sites that decide that Halperin called the President a "dick", and those that says he called the President a "@#$%".

NPR's news blog, written by Mark Memmott went with "@#$%", no surprise there. Politico, though, included the whole sentence from Halperin: "“I thought he was a kind of a dick yesterday.” Again, no surprise.

Huffington Post, now it its post AOL-acquisition stage, used "D*ick" in its headline, but the actual word in its body copy. Back in 2008 the HuffPost ran this headline: "Penis Size Preference Chart: SEE WHAT WOMEN WANT HERE!" (This may explain why so few people are truly concerned that AOL will negatively effect the site's editorial standards.)

The Drudge Report – which right now has the headline "Rubio: Obama 'Left Wing Strong Man'" – had no problem using the actual word in its headline, after all no one reads any on that site other than the headlines anyway (it then links over to Politico).

In the end, I find it strange that Halperin should be suspended from giving his opinions on MSNBC because of this comment. Everyone already knows what he thinks of the President, so actually verbalizing it seems merely what he is paid to do. Or does the Morning Joe program people actually bring on people like Halperin in hopes that they will do a good job of hiding their true feelings?

(By the way, for a grown-up look at this whole flap, as opposed to my simple ramblings, you might want to read Greg Sargent's post on the WaPo site, which is spot on.)

Reed Business Information acquires Ascend Worldwide Group, will be merged into RBI's Flightglobal

While the U.S. holdings of Reed Business Information have been divested to a minimum of properties, the UK division is in an acquiring mood today announcing that they have "acquired the entire issued share capital of Ascend Worldwide Group Holdings Limited."

Ascend will be rolled into RBI's aerospace business, Flightglobal.

Ascend is a 46-year old company that has offices in Hong Kong and New York, and lists as its areas of expertise aviation finance and insurance; aircraft manufacturing; aircraft leasing, airport investment and space.

The company has been run by CEO Gehan Talwatte. "I am very excited about the opportunities that the combination of Ascend and Flightglobal will bring." Talwatte said in the announcement release. "By combining our insight and expertise with Flightglobal's growing global audience, distribution capabilities and unrivaled media presence, we can significantly extend the reach of the Ascend brand."

"Ascend brings to Flightglobal an impressive position in the global air finance market," said Jane Burgess, RBI managing director. "This exciting acquisition adds important new data assets and expertise to Flightglobal's existing aviation data business and provides Ascend with access to Flightglobal's powerful global aviation audience and extensive marketing capabilities."

HP launches its webOS driven tablet tomorrow; like Android tablets, the Touchpad will have few apps available day one, though USA Today & Zinio are ready

Giant computer maker Hewlett Packard will be launching its own tablet starting tomorrow, and based on the early reviews it appears that you won't have wait in a long line if you plan on snagging one.

Since HP didn't send TNM a review copy I will not be providing readers a look at the new tablet – and this is probably a bit of a mistake on HP's part as the usual players are giving the Touchpad a thrashing today. But whatever, this isn't a hardware site, what concerns TNM is media.

But like all the recently released tablets, save the iPad 2, what has been missing is a solid app catalog, and an easy way (like iTunes) to access that catalog. Based on the the David Pogue review for the NYT, we know that there will be around 300 webOS tablet optimized apps available for early buyers of the tablet. Obviously that is a very modest number, but as Pogue correctly points out, that is still more than the total number of Android apps currently tablet ready, an astounding fact, if you ask me.

Based on HP's own site for the Touchpad we know that Time Magazine, NPR and USA Today will all have apps available tomorrow, as well as a Facebook app, which actually gives HP a bit of a leg up on Apple. Zinio, too, is ready to go with a webOS app, something I'm sure their publishing partners appreciate.

But the one thing I want to see, hands-on, is Pivot, HP's own digital magazine that will act to promote the company's app catalog.

One of the few to mention Pivot in their review was Jason Snell of MacWorld: "One clever thing HP is trying: It’s created a digital magazine, Pivot, and embedded it inside the HP App Catalog app. Think of an airline magazine entirely about webOS apps, and you’ve got the idea. It’s an outside-the-box approach to encouraging app discovery, and while I have no idea if it’ll work, it’s certainly worth a try by an upstart platform looking for a way to show off its apps."

The Modesto Bee launches its own metered pay wall, but can't come up with an original reason for doing so

The first line of publisher Eric Johnson's column on the Modesto Bee website "There is no doubt in my mind that what The Modesto Bee provides to our community has value." After that you pretty much know what will follow. It is like the employee who enters your office and asks "do you value my work here?" What will follow is inevitably a call for money.

And so it is at the McClatchy daily newspaper in California's Central Valley, the publisher wants their readers to pay up and so up goes the chain's first pay wall (or "paywall", I still can't figure out which way it should appear).

My own views on pay walls are clear and consistent, although a bit fuzzy: 1) pay walls have the best chance of succeeding when the newspaper provides valuable financial news, examples being the WSJ or Financial Times; 2) local news is becoming a commodity, and unless you are vastly superior to the competition – emphasis on "vastly" – a pay wall will only drive away readers; 3) Internet companies do best online when they provide free services, such as search or email, the track record of those trying to be the exception to this rule is not good; 4) experimentation is good so go ahead if you must, but if forced to bet my own money I would be betting against you; and finally 5) metered pay walls are often so porous that all the other rules can be thrown out except #1.

"I have worked in digital publishing for 15 years. In all of that time, especially early in its life cycle, the culture of the Internet was based on the concept of easily accessible, free information. Mainstream organizations that sought to charge for access were often criticized and condemned for their actions," Johnson continued in his post.

But then Johnson goes on to say that other papers are putting up pay walls and, of course, mentions the WSJ and NYT. But he also says smaller papers are starting to do the same, though clearly those papers would not have done so had the big boys kept their websites open.

But the Modesto Bee now has its pay wall, which started on Tuesday, and the details of the plan should be familiar by now: print subscribers get a free pass, "casual visitors" won't pay either because of the looseness of the plan, leaving those who frequent the site more often to pay – in this dase $5 per month, or $50 per year.

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What is ironic about these newspaper pay walls is that at the same time they are erecting barriers to entry they are launching web features more like the Internet pure plays. These daily deals that the Boston Globe, NYT and even the Modesto Bee are creating are completely dependent on traffic and mass penetration of the market. And though I doubt putting up a pay wall will serious effect the success of these group buying efforts, I do think they reflect the fact that companies like McClatchy still have no real web strategy other than to get revenue where they can while cutting staff and resources following the reporting of their financial results.

In the case of the Modesto Bee, the paper doesn't even have an iPhone or Android mobile app yet, something that developers have noticed so have launched their own. The Modesto news app from Brighthouse Labs, which likes to flood the App Store with apps – they have 3816 worthless iPhone apps currently available –– is so bad that the company used screenshots from a Vancouver News app for its Modesto app description. It doesn't matter, no one has complained, no one has written a review, but I'm sure a couple made the mistake of paying the $1.99 to download the app.