Two print magazine that come from very different sources have taken different approaches to launching their first iPad editions. While one might expect an old media newspaper like The News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida to use a replica edition approach; while might expect a more native approach to be used by the independent magazine Philly Beer Scene. But you'd be wrong.
First off, let me say that I tried to contact both publishing teams – with no luck. So many of the questions that I had about these apps will have to wait for answers, I'm afraid.
The new app for Philly Beer Scene, sold under the publishers name, Mat Falco, used Tapedition to create its app. Tapedition seems pretty expensive to me, especially for what you get. For $499 a month you get an app that supports Newsstand, but one wonders whether the vendor is really charging this amount.
The reason is that this app has pop-up ads, a first as far I can tell.
No one likes pop-up ads, but they are pretty hard to avoid online. But to get a pop-up ad in a digital magazine is really obnoxious. Then to get the same ugly ad (actually the colors change) every few pages of swiping is even more obnoxious. Had I drunk a few six packs of beer I might have been tempted to throw my iPad across the room.
The only thing positive to say about this new tablet edition is that it is free of charge, though I would make sure you are in a good frame of mind before opening it up. But if you are a publisher you might want to check it out if only to see what to avoid in your own tablet magazine.
Grandeur Magazine is a completely different beast. It comes from the Gannett newspaper in Fort Myers and is labeled as Volume 1, Number 1. Yet a check online reveals that the magazine used to be in print. Is it possible that this is a relaunch of this title in digital form only? Neither the newspaper's website or the magazine itself gives one a clue.
Unlike the beer magazine, however, this upscale title uses native tablet techniques such as scrolling within stories and swiping to reach the next story. There is also embedded captions, some video and added photo galleries here.
I found some of the font choices somewhat small for a tablet magazine, which might make you think this was designed for print first, but the scrolling text boxes show that would not be the case.
A second magazine, Southwest Florida Parent and Child, was released into the Newsstand just today, as well. While I did not download and install it, it looks like it was created in the same way as Grandeur.
Thanks to a tweet I was referred to a story that appeared on paidContent.org concerning the new eBook published by the photography staff of The Seattle Times, which then led me to download the eBook for myself. For anyone looking to create their own eBooks for sale within the Apple Bookstore this is a good example to look at.
Sold under the name Photo Staff of The Seattle Times, the eBook was created using Apple's own free software solution, iBooks Author. The software package, like any new software, takes a little time to get used to, but does produce an attractive eBook. What the staff of The Seattle Times has produced may be fairly simple, but it is attractive, professional in appearance, and worth purchasing. No, it doesn't have the fancy animations found in some textbooks Apple has promoted, but it a major step up from a simple Kindle Edition. The Seattle Times Pictures Of The Year | 2012 is priced at $2.99 and appeared in the iTunes store on December 12. Because the staff used iBooks Author the book will have a little icon displayed in the Book Description and should appear in the section Apple uses to promote eBooks made with their solution. Unfortunately, I did not see the book there (which is why I missed it when launched), hardly a good way for Apple to encourage new publishers.
I was not surprised to see that the staff decided to lock in the eBook into landscape orientation only. I did this myself with the first book I've produced, a vacation eBook for the family. Most pictures are naturally in landscape, especially when shot with professional DSLR cameras. But portrait shots can be accommodated in number of ways. One way is to simply let them be shown in landscape – sideways, in other words. I don't like this solution, but this eBook used that at least once.
Another way to handle it is to make the photo less than full screen in height, and then let the photo fill the screen upon tapping. Another way, not employed here, is to have the thumbnail be in portrait, then let then link it to another shot seen in landscape (sideways). None of these options are optimal, but they are not that annoying, either.
Obviously, the star of any eBook will be the photography, which is why the platform is perfect for the subject. The idea of publishing a first eBook of photos is a great way for any newspaper to start, and the costs are minimal.
Unlike the developer program, which costs $99 per year, Apple does not charge to set up an account to sell eBooks. But each book published, if one charges for the book, requires an International Standard Book Number (ISBN). The cost for a single ISBN is $125. One can also buy a block of 10 ISBN numbers for $250, which would cover you should you decide to publish your eBook in a format other than IBA, the iBooks Author format.
The obvious downside to using iBooks Author is that the eBook produced can only be sold in Apple's bookstore. Many independent publishers are struggling with the question of whether they should produce an ePub book instead so that the distribution is wider. But for early experimentation, especially in the area of photography, textbooks, and the like, iBooks Author seems to be a good solution.
If there is any disappointment with the platform it is simply that, while there were a few add-on programs created immediately after its release, these have been reduced to a trickle – and are rarely of much help anyways (just some new templates that really aren't that much different from what you get with Apple). Also, Apple has not brought eBooks created with iBooks Author to the iPhone – why is really anyone's guess.
The one thing to be pointed out with the eBook from The Seattle Times is the decision, which I like, to not use Apple's chapter mechanism to create a new chapter for each month. Instead, this eBook contains only two chapters: one for the monthly content of photographs, the other for the credits.
Update: I left out one detail from my original post: the size of the download. At just over 500 MB one might think that the eBook is too large. I'm not sure that is the case. First of all, Apple has a 3 gig limit on eBooks, this is far short of that. Plus, with over 100 photos and 12 videos in the book, one would expect it to be large – and besides, the download (and installation) was very quick.
I think the real issue here is the storage level of most tablets. If Apple really wants to sell interactive eBooks, movies and more, it will have to supply more storage in its iPads - cloud storage is not the solution, or at least the total solution. I'm constantly having to dump great apps such as Played in Britain simply because of space limitations.
Here is a brief walk-through video of a portion of the new eBook:
The Swedish magazine publisher Bonnier is a company that one has a tough time getting a handle on. On the one hand the company gave us Mag+, the digital publishing platform that many magazine publishers have turned to when creating their own, native designed tablet editions. On the other hand, most of Bonnier's own tablet editions show a complete lack of enthusiasm for the platform, being simply replicas of the print edition. Today Bonnier released a series of app updates for some of its titles, with most likely more to appear in the App Store over the next few days.
Saveur, Skiing, and Sport Fishing were among those updated (as well as others). Each of the apps are universal (meaning they will work on the iPad, as well as the iPhone and iPod touch).
The update brings these apps up to version 4.0 and the app description says that the update makes the apps iOS 6 compliant and adds support for the iPhone 5's larger display, as well as fixing bugs.
But my own experience with these updates is that there is no iPhone 5 display. I downloaded two of the updates, careful to take a screenshot before the update, then a new one after the update and, as you can see below-left, neither version appears to include support for the iPhone 5.
As hard to read as these replicas are on the iPad, they are just silly on the iPhone. Why these apps were made universal is a bit hard to understand. Then again, my eyes are older than some people's so maybe microscopic fonts are not a problem for others.
The biggest complaint most readers have with these apps, however, involve the pricing policy of charging print readers for access to the digital versions. Saveur's reviews, for instance, show about twice as many one-star reviews than five-star ones.
"I wrote Saveur and requested input as to why I pay for a print and digital version. No response," wrote a reviewer identified as Michael Stefko. "Businessweek does it right! Saveur, wake-up and understand that the party will soon be over!"
The management team at Newhouse Newspapers must be breathing a sigh of relief this morning following last night's airing of a segment on 60 Minutes about their decision to cut back to just three days a week the print run of their New Orleans daily, The Times-Picayune.
The segment's host, Morley Safer, spoke with Jim Amoss, the newspaper’s editor, as well as representatives of the community, the major, Mitch Landrieu, and NYT media columnist David Carr. Safer tried to reach Newhouse executives but was told to speak to Amoss.
What followed was a recapping of the situation at the newspaper chain, which not only cut back the print run in New Orleans, but at its other properties including those in Alabama. While the issues that have caused the decision at Newhouse were discussed, not much discussion centered on how the new strategy would succeed (and really what that new strategy is).
When asked by Safar whether he agreed with the company's decision to cut back the print run, editor Amoss answered by equivocating.
"Well, we'd been grappling, as all metro newspapers in this country have with what's happening to our industry," Amoss said. "And that is a steady decline in circulation, a steady decline in print ad revenue. And the solutions there aren't many. One is to act as though nothing were happening and continue business as usual. And to me, that's presiding over a gradual irrelevancy and a gradual death."
Is that a "yes"?
Later in the segment Lolis Elie, a former columnist at the paper, asked "how can half as many people cover the same amount of news with half as many resources? We fear for the quality of the journalism."
Amoss, while responding directly to Elie, gives a good answer back by stating that there "is no law of nature that says that kind of journalism is inextricably linked to ink on paper. We fully intend to continue to produce the kind of public trust journalism for which they know us."
That is true, but it gets to the real problem with the moves by the newspaper chain: while the paper may believe that the future of newspapering in online, no real plain, no real digital initiatives were announced at the time of the print cutback, and little evidence exists even today that the newspaper chain is truly committed to digital media.
Look at The Plain Dealer, the chain's daily newspaper in Cleveland. 60 Minutes ended the segment on the situation in New Orleans this way"
"And there are rumblings that an even larger Newhouse newspaper, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, founded in 1842 and with a circulation close to 300,000, could soon be next," Safar said.
If so, the folks in Cleveland will most likely be just as upset as those in New Orleans. They would be right to be even more upset. Because while the move in the south came as a surprise to many, a move in Ohio would be expected. Yet Cleveland.com, the newspaper's website, which was recently redesigned, is in no way ready to assume the news responsibilities for a major metro area. The redesign is blog-like and is not a suitable vehicle for volumes of Internet advertising.
The situation is even worse in the area of mobile and tablet platforms. The mobile app was launched long ago by Verve Wireless, and is sold under the vendor's name; while the tablet app is a replica edition built by Technavia. How does one do a replica of a print edition that does not exist.
The trouble is that no one believes most newspapers when they saw they are becoming "digital-focused", and for good reason. Most of the most "digital-focused" newspaper chains out there are the least digitally advanced when it comes to the new digital platforms or with selling digital advertising.
Should Newhouse actually go through with an announcement for The Plain Dealer, I would hope that they would, at the very least, accompany that announcement with a new website and new mobile and tablet editions, as well. If you are going to take something away, it is always good to have something up your sleeve to show off. There is very little trust left that would allow simply for promises.
If you've even worked in the food business you know the problems manufacturers face with retailers. The battle over shelf space and discoverability is never ending. A few years ago I walked down the aisle of a grocery store with the marketing manager of an organic food brand and watched as the marketer pointed out the obvious problems with the business: "how am I supposed to sell my product when the retailer hides it away like this?" he complained.
App developers now know that man's pain.
Since the redesign of the App Store by Apple, developers have complained of slowing app sales and a search function that seems to only favor the big guys at the expense of the very developers that made the App Store a success. Worse, there seems to be no one to complain to, as Apple has either decided to shut itself off from its developer community, or has decided that the future is about less apps, less developers, but bigger sales.
It's hard to argue with success: just this morning Apple announced that it had hit the 40 billion download mark. That is, 40 billion app downloads had occurred since the App Store's launch in 2008, and half of those came in 2012.
"It has been an incredible year for the iOS developer community," Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said in the company's announcement. "Developers have made over seven billion dollars on the App Store, and we continue to invest in providing them with the best ecosystem so they can create the most innovative apps in the world."
It has, indeed, been a good year for developers of apps for the iOS platform – assuming you have a marketing budget and gain the favor of Apple so that your apps are promoted prominently in the App Store.
"Our success on iOS has been incredible," said Samir Hanna, vice president of Consumer Products for Autodesk, one of the developers highlighted in the Apple announcement. "We set off with the modest goal of bringing SketchBook to iPhone users as a way of introducing them to Autodesk. Fast forward three years, we now offer 20 apps to iOS users that have achieved more than 50 million downloads, and we continue to roll out new creativity and design tools that appeal to both professionals and consumers."
But the opinion of this successful developer is not universally shared. Said one French developer in the Apple developer forums: "This whole search thing really start to get frustrating..........really starting to think it's not worth anymore to make iOS Apps..."
The problems of search and discoverability have been discussed here before. Now, in 2013, it appears that the situation is not about to change soon. One dev developer I spoke to last week was unaware of the changes to the store as they reside outside the U.S. and their own App Store appeared unchanged. "That explains a lot," he told me. "We expected better sales in the U.S., but most of them came from Europe. If you can't see the app you can't buy the app," he told me.
For some, the changes are being accepted but a new realization that iOS may not be able to support developers all by itself any longer. "I've never owned an Android device, but I went out and bought LG’s Nexus 4," said a media app developer. It is harder now to maintain my earlier recommendation of Apple first, Android second now," he told me.
A couple of years ago one option would have been to go with independent digital newsstands such as Zinio, LeKiosk, etc. But one wonders whether they will survive. Next Issue Media, set up by the big magazine publishing houses of Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp. and Time Inc., have accepted its first titles from outside the ranks of the original founders – ESPN the Magazine and Fast Company among them – but it is doubtful that the digital newsstand set up by media giants would ever be open to new titles from small, independent publishers intent on launching tablet-only titles that would compete head-on with the legacy titles of big media companies.
"The Newsstand is still the place you want to be," said a sales person with digital publishing software company. "It's not as if Amazon and Google are totally open, either."
That leaves the option of HTML5 apps that mimic the features of native apps, while staying outside the platforms of Apple, Google and other tech giants. That solution avoids the fee splits and limitations of working with third party platform owners, but does nothing about the issue of discoverability and search.
The BBC today launched a mobile sports app for the iPhone, with an Android version promised soon. BBC Sport can be found inside the UK App Store, but not in others, unfortunately.
"The Android version still needs some more development work and testing to ensure it works on the wide range of Android devices available and will be live in the next few weeks," said Lucie McLean, executive product manager for sport at BBC Future Media.
"The new BBC Sport app builds on the success of London 2012 to give users an even easier way to get the content they love, whether it's checking out how their team got on, following live text updates on the day's sporting action or catching up with the latest news," said McLean.
While BBC apps are launched under the BBC Worldwide name in the international app stores, this new one can be found under Media Applications Technologies Limited, the name seen for international versions of BBC mobile apps.
Two apps seen here recently received updates this weekend. The Lambrakis Press app for the Greek edition of Marie Claire, ΜΟΥΣΑ (Mousa), was updated top add new features and to support portrait mode. The app as originally released in mid-December.
The Greek digital magazine is a stand-alone serving up one edition and was built using the Adobe DPS Single Edition solution. A major update of the app would be needed to add Newsstand support for continuous publishing and automatic downloads.
Released a few weeks earlier, the app for Crain's Chicago Business has been updated this weekend (see original post here). The update is meant to improve the performance of the app with faster scrolling, improved synchronization, and stability improvements.
Those who use the Blogsy app will see a new update to the app.
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