digital magazines: is 2010 magazines' ipod moment?
DESCRIPTION
Presentation to the Magazine Publishers Association, Auckland, 28 April 2010. After years of promise, false starts and dire predictions that came to little, there's a sense that 2010 might indeed be magazines' "iPod moment" - the tipping point when a breakthrough technology changes the digital landscape. This presentation aims to give magazine publishers an understanding of where the opportunity is, and what their options are for publishing in the new digital environment.TRANSCRIPT
Digital Magazines: Is 2010 the Magazine’s iPod
Moment?Presentation to New Zealand
Magazine Publishers AssociationMartin Taylor28 April 2010
Introduction
• Martin Taylor– Long involvement with technology,
magazines, the internet and more recently books and ebooks
– Director, Digital Publishing Forum, a book industry initiative
Today’s talk*
1. How big is this market and how fast will it grow?
2. How to get magazines on the iPad (and others)
3. Some things to do today
* A bit techie … but alas you need this stuff
How big is this?
• This is happening in the midst of a generational shift in technology– Decline of PC, rise of mobile web and “the
cloud”
• Proliferation of smart mobile devices connecting to the cloud– standards wars (but has Apple already
won?)
• Google, Apple, Amazon are early drivers
Music’s iPod moment
• Disruptive technology changes the game
• Apple sells billions of songs in the face of free
• Five years for 5 billion, 1.8 years for next 5 billion
• iTunes share now 69% of online music sales (Amazon 8%) and 24% of all music sales in US
Source: MacRumors.com
iTunes reaches 10 billion music downloads, 24 Feb 2010
Books’ iPod Moment (courtesy of Amazon’s 90%
share)+333% Q4 2009 vs Q4 2008
US trade ebook market growth, 2002-2009
Amazon Kindle launched
Sony Reader launched
Source: ASA and IAB
NZ Advertising Market 2003-9
Magazines?
Skiff Hearst / Plastic LogicDell Streak
Google Android
HP Slate Windows 7
Google Nexus One
AndroidNotion Ink
Adam Android / Pixel Qi
Speed of consumer technology adoption
Source: NY Times
Is this already a one horse race?
Source: Flurry.com
Mobile App Development by Platform
How to get content on the iPad
(or iPhone or iPod Touch)Three routes*:
1. An App sold through the App Store 2. Thru the web via web browser3. Thru the web via an e-Reading App
* Similar options for other devices, Android
1. An App• Software, sold via App Store• One-click purchase, 150
million credit cards• Apple takes 30% cut• In-App sales: New content
can be purchased from inside app via Apple iTunes store
• Programmed in Objective C• Must be approved by Apple
(days, sometimes weeks)• iPad/iPhone lock-in
2. Thru the web
• Content via iPad’s Safari web browser– HTML (HTML5), CSS(3), Javascript– No Adobe Flash support (eg most ads)
• Completely bypasses Apple ‘ecosystem’ eg iTunes store, App store
• Ultimate in cross-platform but not as pretty as an App
2. Thru the web
1. Simple: Website can be made iPad-specific– Use custom style sheet for iPad (or iPhone)
2. Web apps: HTML5 / CSS3– Offers local storage, web apps work offline– Interactive rich media: javascript, video, audio,
geolocation– Google Editions (late 2010) will use this
technology approach3. iPad-specific tuning of web apps
– Browser window and toolbar can be turned off, Apple styles (buttons etc) added, some hardware features accessed, eg Accelerometer, etc
– (using eg JQTouch, PhoneGap, PastryKit)
3. E-Reading Apps
• New content can be delivered into an e-Reading App via the web– Bypasses iTunes store,
Apple’s 30%– Bypasses Apple’s approval
process
• Users must register with you or your payment processor (eg PayPal)
• But rego/payment process often complex
Kobo iPad App
3. E-Reading Apps• Magazine e-Reading
apps– Publisher-branded:
Woodwing (eg Time magazine)
– Aggregator-branded: Zinio, Blio
– Coming: Next Issue (Conde Nast, et all), Skiff (Hearst)
– NZ: M2 Magazine (iPhone)
• Ebook e-Reading apps– Kindle– Kobo (ePub) – NZ in
May’10– Apple iBooks (ePub)
Kobo iPad App
Could the ePub standard for eBooks work for magazines?
• Yes …– Uses web standards: (x)HTML, CSS, JPG/SVG– Reflowable, Downloadable (wrapped in .zip file)– Wide device support, plus Apple, Google, Adobe etc– Instant paid distribution: Kindle (similar to ePub),
Kobo (NZ launch May 2010), Google Editions, iBooks– D-I-Y or cheap conversion services (from PDF)
• But …– Limited rich media and interactive support– Not yet article- or page-centric– ePub 2.1 will be much better, 18 months away
Magazines on the iPad and iPhone
• Multi-touch: Pinch, swipe, tap
• Page vs scroll• Accelerometer,
geolocation, websites
• Text readability on many screen sizes
• Multiple media types• File sizes/bandwidth• Online/offline (DRM)
Source: YouTube, woodwing.com, the wonderfactory.com, zinio.com
Can I use my Adobe software?
• Sad: Adobe’s cross-platform strategy stymied by Apple’s banning of Flash, stalling the much-demo’d Wired iPad edition
• Easy (sort of): Extensive ePub support inside Adobe InDesign
• Slick: Third party plug-ins combined with iPad e-reading app– Woodwing.com (used by Time mag)
Where to from here
• Learn what mobile digital readers want • Use the technology (iPad, iPhone etc)• Do something simple to get in the
game, eg a special issue with ePub on Kobo or iBooks, or an outsourcer such as Zinio
• Consider the international market• Experiment early with paid content• Build online marketing channels
Questions
• Slides at slideshare.net/nztaylor• Martin Taylor, Digital Strategies
– [email protected]– Twitter.com/nztaylor– Blog: activitypress.com/ereport
• Also available for questions:– Michael Carney, NetMarketing Services,
[email protected] – Roger Shakes, Kiwa Media
[email protected]– Karl van Randow, CactusLab, [email protected]