MediaShift looks at how a digital store or an “iTunes for magazines” announced in December might work and make use of Apple’s much-anticipated Tablet touch-screen computer.
The digital magazine project will be led by Time Inc, Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith and News Corporation, but details of what it will offer and how it will work are scant.
This piece takes a look at what’s known about the project, how the business model might work and what it means for the print magazine industry.
Web ads will not be lost on articles printed out from websites thanks to a new development from Hearst Digital Media and Format Dynamics.
The CleanPrint service, which will be put into action on GoodHousekeeping.com and soon spread to Esquire and Cosmopolitan’s US websites, will provide new opportunities to advertisers:
[B]oth a “re-messaging” opportunity or a separate, contextual placement at the point of printout. Most often, using the “print” function on a web page to obtain a hardcopy eliminates the banner ads altogether.
In cases where new ads are created for printouts: “The ads only appear when the pages are printed, with the theory that users who print the page are inherently committed to the content.”
Ben Hammersley, editor at large of Wired’s UK edition, is part-way through a series of posts looking at ebooks and their potential for magazine publishers.
In part one he makes suggestions about the internal changes that must be made to a magazine editorial process to make it ready for ebooks.
In part two he deconstructs some common assumptions about the production of digital magazines.
Following in the footsteps of the Guardian, GQ’s magazine has announced its first monthly application for the iPhone.
According to a report from paidContent.org, the US version of the app, which offers an exact replica of the magazine, has been approved by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), which means purchases of the app will count towards the magazine’s circulation figure.
Unlike the Guardian, where a one-off fee is paid for unlimited access to content, in the UK GQ is charging £1.79 for each edition.
Publisher of GQ, Conde Nast, is also reportedly planning more iPhone apps for its other magazine titles.
Swedish Media Group Bonnier is experimenting with a new design for magazines, based around a touchscreen Kindle/iPhone-type device, reports Bobbie Johnson in this post.
The design team behind the project have tried to keep elements of print magazine reading that readers want, while abandoning some design features commonly used when creating digital editions of print products, such as page-turning technology.
It’s Listmas time, time for us media commentating types to predict what the future might hold for the industry. Not content with a top 10, Folio has 115 predictions for the media and magazine industry from top US-based media executives.
Accelerating competition for magazines on new technology platforms and realising that the magazine is only one product within a brand are popular choices in this list looking at what forces will be shaping the industry next year.
Magazine publishers are developing more mature products for iPhones now than when the industry first started making applications for smartphones, argues this article.
The apps were free, the features were a little weak compared to what independent developers could do, and the rich design of print didn’t translate to a touch screen.
But the iPhone edition that Esquire expects to release alongside its January issue will offer robust interactive features, and it won’t be free. The price, $2.99 a month, is small, but it is a big statement.
But can they use this experience to create better products for new tablet computers from the outset?
Big Spark Publishing has re-launched a new public sector newspaper, the NHS News.
The bi-monthly title has an initial print run of 35,000 and bulk deliveries will be made to NHS Trusts “by arrangement,” How-Do reports.
“NHS News, like Big Spark’s only other foray into the the public sector with Police News, existed prior to the Horwich-based firm’s involvement, but has not been published for some time.”
(…)
“MD Stuart Parker told How-Do that the 28-page free title has been written to appeal to NHS staff, procurement professionals and contractors, while ‘advertisers are companies wishing to target the NHS internally.'”
Rachel Singh, a student at University College London’s digital anthropology department, has launched an online study into the state of the magazine industry. The Shifting Landscape of Magazines encourages those who are working, or who have worked in the magazine industry to browse the site and post comments:
The aim of the study is to discover the ways magazines can (and are) reinventing themselves. The idea is to compile research to serve as material for a potential dissertation on the shifting landscape of magazines in the 21st century and how it’s shaping a new global medium.
Only comments posted before the 16 December will be used in the study. The study will run into 2010 and is currently asking for the participation of anyone who has, or is, working in magazines.
Kristine Lowe has details of how Norwegian magazine group Hjemmet Mortensen is bringing in a new measure of its journalists’ productivity: journalists and subs will each be expected to produce at least six pages of editorial content per week.