The first batch of new tablet magazines for 2013 begin to appear in the Apple Newsstand

It's the New Year, and with Apple reopening its developer site and iTunes Connect, new tablet editions have begun to appear inside the Newsstand. As one would expect, the new releases are a mixed assortment of replica editions, as well as simple and more complex native tablet magazines.

One might think that a magazine called iPad Life would be one of the new natively designed digital magazines. But, no, the German publisher falkemedia has a sense of irony: releasing an iPad edition about the iPad in a replica edition of the print magazine. Sometimes you just can't make these things up.

The replica is also a universal app so you can read the print edition of the magazine about tablets on your iPhone. Whew.

The new app for Angie's List Magazine is quite a bit better. It is a very simply designed digital edition with pages that look like they might be a replica edition, but have the fonts and layouts reformatted for easier reading on the tablet.

The magazine is free inside the new app, though I don't know if this is to let readers preview the magazine before charging, or a permanent decision.

One magazine that is a bit of a mystery is Beautiful Design Made Simple. The app description is minimal, to say the least – and only one screenshot appears, as well, Maybe the release of the app into the Newsstand caught its publisher by surprise.

The app is still downloading the premiere issue of the digital magazine and probably will be for a while – it is going that slowly – so maybe I can return to this one later.

Another magazine released into the Newsstand is from Canadian Claude Barnes, Energy Works Magazine. This digital magazine is probably the best of the bunch and features a more professionally written app description.

The new magazine will require the reader to pay $3.99 for single issues, or $19.99 for an annual subscription, but there is a preview available inside the app that will give the reader a good idea of what to expect.

The short walk-through video gives you an idea, as well:

Hearst Magazines claims 'nearly' 800,000 paid monthly digital subscribers, though tablet edition pay policy for current print readers may skew the numbers

In a New Year letter to Hearst Magazine employees, David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines, claimed that the division had "nearly 800,000 monthly digital subscriptions in the U.S. across iPads, NOOKs, Kindle Fires and Android devices—the highest in the industry." Carey also said that after 24 months of investment their digital subscriptions were generating a profit.

Another claim, though, seems odd: that more than 80 percent of Hearst's digital subscribers were "new to our files." This would be hard to support knowing that Apple is not sharing user data with the publisher.

But most importantly, the claim runs up against their own digital subscription policies which require even print readers to pay again if they want to access their magazines digitally. The policy has made Hearst Magazines some of the lowest rated media apps in the App Store.

The total circulation claim, however, seems about right. By forcing print readers who have purchased an iPad to pay again, the publisher is essentially forcing readers to make a choice, and driving them towards their digital products and away from print.

In August the ABC reported first half circulation numbers for magazine publishers and, in general, Hearst showed mediocre results with magazines such as Cosmopolitan showing a small decrease in overall paid circulation. The results for the second half of 2012 will not be released for a few months and we will then be able to see what effect tablet magazines may have had on overall performance.

(My biggest complaint with Hearst's subscription policy is not so much that they are making readers pay for digital, but that they seem so oblivious to the concerns of their customers as exemplified by their tone deaf app descriptions that neither explain their policy, nor tell digital device owners what to expect in their numerous app updates.)

Nonetheless, it is obvious that Hearst is continuing to see its future in digital media.

"The company’s digital leadership team is working on plans to “future-proof” our digital business models for a world where more than 50 percent of our traffic will be on small screens, and our readers will demand fresh, high-quality content from our brands around the clock," Carey said in the employee letter.

Morning Brief: Stock markets rally as Congress passes 'Fiscal Cliff' tax bill; CBS Interactive issues updates to its CBS News iOS apps to fix Facebook sharing bug

In the end the 'Fiscal Cliff' was about as anti-climatic as the Orange Bowl, with the predicted results occurring, and no one really left satisfied. The House late on New Year's Day passed the bill sent over by the Senate which will raise taxes on households earning over $450,000, reinstating the payroll tax to 6.2 percent, and leaving more than enough contentious issues left to occupy the cable news networks for much of 2013.

But investors liked the idea of less Wolf Blitzer and Grover Norquist on their TV screens and as a result stock futures in the U.S. rose, with companies like Apple up sharply in pre-market trading.

In Europe stocks were up with the FTSE rising above the 6,000 mark for the first time since the summer of 2011.

The New Year means it will be back to business for most digital media pros, with Apple's iTunes Connect again available. Apps released just before the holiday in need of an update can now be fixed, and developers will once again be able to check their sales statistics.

A trickle of app updates have already been seen, with doubtless many more to be released later today and throughout the week.

CBS Interactive News updated both its CBS News iPhone and iPad apps this morning, fixing a bug that was effecting Facebook sharing.

So far at least Apple has made no additional changes to its App Store design, with the same holiday section appearing in the Newsstand category. That will most likely be replaced this week and the question is whether the ability to see the most recently released apps will be restored or whether Apple will continue to only let its own selected apps be seen by iTunes users.

Post #894 for 2012: a look at last year's TNM predictions

There were a few less posts to appear on TNM this year than appeared in 2011, the reason being a mid-year vacation and a pledge to slow down a bit. That didn't last, however.

On the last working day of 2011, Friday the 30th, I made a series of predictions that were more of an attempt to point out the silliness of predictions on media websites.

The first prediction was that the Giants would still not "be able to hit the broadside of a barn next year." Damn, wouldn't you know they would go on to win the World Series again. I could get used to this win the World Series every two years thing.

I look pretty good, don't you think?

I also predicted that Apple would release an iPad 3 at the usual time - no drama, no major surprises. I was right about that, other than the fact that they called the new iPad the new iPad. What I didn't think Apple would do was to release an iPad 4 in the fall. No one still knows why they did it.

I also said there would be no 7-inch iPad in 2012. Wrong again. Though, I suppose the fact that the iPad mini has a slightly larger than 7-inch screen could mitigate that error. No? Thought not.

My other predictions were dead on: the Sharks didn't win the Stanley Cup; newspaper consultants would continue to push aggregation, layoffs and fighting new digital technology (all in the name of being 'digitally focused'; and magazines as a print platform survived (even if more titles were shuttered); and I was right in predicting that Michele Bachmann wouldn't become the new President.

For 2013 I have few predictions other than the obvious: Congress will continue to be a joke; the iPhone and iPad will continue to sell, as will Android phones; the Sharks won't win the Stanley Cup; and tech and media writers will continue to bore their readers with Apple rumors that originate on Asian websites that are actually the Chinese equivalent of The Onion.

That's it for predictions.

...and that's it for 2012. Here is wishing you a peaceful and prosperous New Year. And thank you for reading Talking New Media. See you next year.

12 Apps of Christmas: December sees the promise of the new digital platforms needlessly endangered by the very players who invented them

The Twelve Days of Christmas runs from Christmas Day to the evening of January 5th, or Twelfth Night.  TNM's 12 Apps of Christmas, which began the week before Christmas, has looked at the significant media events and new apps of 2012. Today we have reached December.

The month of December has shown both the great promise of the new digital platforms, as well as the great dangers inherent in them. Fantastic new apps, such as KIDS DISCOVER, launched in December by Joe Zeff Design, show what can be accomplished with the tablet publishing platform. At the same time, the demise of The Daily was used as proof that the platform can not sustain a profitable new publishing venture.

My own enthusiasm for the new platforms – both mobile and tablets – took a major hit in December when Apple redesigned its own App Store in a way that now makes it nearly impossible for new apps to be discovered without the help of Apple itself or at great marketing expense. The redesign changed the outward look of all the international App Stores, but it was the change to the U.S. App Store that was the most discouraging to new developers.

Where do we go from here? Is the future of the new digital platforms a world where only the largest media companies will be able to show off their new products? Or is there still room in the App Store for start-ups and independents to thrive?

Tablet publishing is now a worldwide phenomenon.

In 2010, the year TNM launched, the big question was whether the new digital platforms were going to grow to a point where it made sense for media companies to create products for them. This question has been decided: smartphones and tablets are here to stay.

In 2013 the big question may be whether the new platforms will remain open to start-ups and independents, whether Apple and other platform owners will continue to promote only the big media players, those willing to pay-to-play.

We may be on the verge of a media revolution, assuming the big tech companies do not make more missteps. Like all revolutions, the old order will be shaken. The effects of online publishing is now being amplified by the introduction of the mobile and tablet platforms. Old media companies that have not proved able to hang onto their ad dollars online, will no doubt not attract ad dollars to the new platforms either.

But the mobile and tablet platforms are now a worldwide phenomenon. The next step is to make them pay, to build business models that will lead not only to new products, but to a whole new media industry. We need to dream big. It is time to think not about surviving the revolution, but in prospering.

It is time to make the new media platforms pay.

Morning Brief: Apple opens back up iTunes Connect; TNW hears back from Android owners; The Tribune Co. emerges from bankruptcy with a broadcaster's board

Apple opened up iTunes Connect over the weekend, releasing a handful or more of app updates including updates for several newspaper mobile apps such as those from the LA Times and MediaNews Group's Tri-Valley Times.

One hoped the week off would be accompanied by a rethinking of Apple's new policy of promoting only apps from big media companies or developers, but, sadly, this morning the App Store remains the same as it was before Christmas. It is hard to overestimate what a terrible decision Apple has made and how much this will drive away new developers.

On Sunday The Next Web published its own story on why it has decided to stop producing its tablet-only magazine for the Android platform (see TNM's story here) and will, at least for now, be iOS only.

The story has, and the decision, has generated quite a number of comments, as you would expect. While most readers are complaining about the decision, quite a number of them are also acknowledging that they were not even aware The Next Web had a tablet magazine available on the Android platform.

Some of this criticism is not justified – TNW promoted the digital product on its website regular, if I remember. But others said that they could not find the TNW magazine on their devices or within Google Play. This criticism has plenty of validity.

With the redesign of the App Store by Apple a huge opening has arisen for both Google and Amazon to attract developers. The issue is not the number of apps in either of Apple's competitor's stores – both platforms have plenty of apps at this point – but whether those apps can be found and whether the platform will, in the future, be a good place for media companies to appear.

Google's own App Store is terrible for media app developers. The store is built to promote replica copies of print magazines inside its newsstand, or else whatever Google chooses to promote within its app section.

Amazon's own store is a bit better in that one can still search for the newest releases. But developers are less than impressed with the company's developer program.

Finally, there is the fact that the iPad (along with the Kindle Fire) continues to outpace other tablets. This is probably what has enabled Apple to begin to act like Microsoft. (But, hey, how is Microsoft doing today?)

The Tribune Company has emerged from bankruptcy with a new board of directors made up of creditors and broadcast veterans – reinforcing the rumors that the company may divest itself of its newspaper properties, though the company's announcement tries to beat that rumor back.

"Tribune will emerge from the bankruptcy process as a multimedia company with a great mix of profitable assets, strong brands in major markets and a much-improved capital structure," said Eddy Hartenstein, Tribune's current chief executive officer and publisher of the Los Angeles Times.

The new chief executive is expected to be Peter Liguori, a former News Corp. and Discovery Communications executive. Other board members are all from creditors such as Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

(Ask any B2B company owned by a PE firm how being owned by a financial institution which only looks out for its own financial interests works out. This will be ugly.)

Meanwhile, the news today should be dominated by whatever developments occur in Senate negotiations surrounding the so-called fiscal cliff. Today is D-Day and if the two sides can not get together to solve the budget issues one suspects any announcement of the fail won't be released until well after the markets have closed for the New Year's holiday.