The iPad Puzzle Calls for Partnership

The iPad requires an unprecedented fusion of content and technology. Unfortunately, publishing companies worldwide are not only battling the clock to be first on the iPad but battling one another, hindered by deep chasms between editors and programmers that dim the promise for creating unique iPad publications.

Over the years, the turf wars have escalated considerably. At the start, publishing technology was a way to harness the power of desktop publishing. Technology directors were hired to deploy industry-standard hardware and software that supported editorial objectives. Then it became a way to save money, by shifting production to the editorial side. Along came the web, and an infusion of young programmers and producers. Another way to save money. Typically they were placed on separate floors or even separate buildings, far from the heart of the operation. Print and web operations operated independently, and as advertising moved from print to online, so did the power behind publishing houses.

Online publications abandoned the typefaces and graphic design that defined their identities in print, and revenue-starved editors had little choice but to accept their subordination. Web standards defined opportunities moreso than content considerations, and a sameness pervaded the internet. To this day, Road and Track looks like CNN looks like Newsweek. Same for the iPhone, where once again the formats are restrained by standardization. Regardless of whether publishers are serving wine or beer or champagne or soda, it all goes into the same utilitarian glass.

Enter the iPad, positioned as a way to:

(a) resurrect the failed business models of print and now the web; (b) present dynamic content with renewed emphasis on brand-differentiating look and feel; (c) reconnect with an advertising industry that has drifted from the web to social and viral alternatives; (d) engage a young audience that values screens over pages and has never experienced what newspapers and magazines can offer them; (e) provide a way for publications to reach a global audience for subscription and advertising revenue; (f) receive transaction revenue from online purchases that result from editorial content; (g) regrow hair, cure the common cold, and achieve world peace.

Whew.

No wonder people are excited. As I type, I am returning from Europe following strategy meetings with several large publishers, through my company's partnership with Garcia Media and Garcia Interactive. My company has also had the good fortune to be involved in one way or another with several projects in the United States, as a result of our newspaper and magazine expertise and animation capabilities. On both sides of the world, the same pattern emerges again and again: a lust to be first, a Willy Wonka-like wish list, and a reality check when confronted with the technical limitations. Finger-pointing ensues: This is an editorial problem; that is a technology problem. Your problem. Their problem. Never our problem. Never our solution. That's what needs to change.

First step: Put everyone on one team. Technology and editorial and advertising and marketing must become gears in the same machine, with no uncertainty about which gears turn which, and toward what intended result.

Editors need to know what an SDK is, and how it affects their decisions. Programmers need to embrace the editorial direction, and channel their innovation and creativity toward those common objectives. Art directors need to understand how design decisions trigger other events, potentially hours or days of programming. Salespeople need to learn what is required to create iPhone-inspired game experiences (not hours or days, but months and sometimes years). By working together, editors and programmers can apply their lessons to help shape the immersive advertising opportunities that will subsidize these new products.

Otherwise, publications will race manically toward their iPad launches, turning the development cycle into the streets of Pamplona with ambulances on every corner. Apple has provided few clues, leaving it to publishing houses to quickly build their own apps from the ground up. With this experience comes an opportunity to build new worklows and business models, and reposition assets so that groups work together instead of apart.

The next step is make-or-break, not only for iPad development but for the evolution of the publishing industry: the editorial, technology and advertising departments must buy into the same dream. The iPad demands nothing less. The benefits go far beyond the launch of the iPad and other tablets. The reward is an enterprise retooled for the challenges of the next decade.

Also: Dr. Mario Garcia emphasizes the need for partnerships (with a picture of my hand!)

The Envelope, Please

And the winner in the category of Largest Illustration Ever to Appear in a Newspaper is Joe Zeff Design, with the lead illustration in today's Wall Street Journal.

Thanks so much WSJ! (If only this could have come out a month from now, it would have been fun to animate for their iPad edition!)

And Away We Go . . .

Joe Zeff Design and Garcia Media have joined forces to help companies worldwide develop iPad content and business strategies. Details here:http://garciamedia.com/ipad/

Meet the New Guy

There's a new guy at the studio who just sits around all day with his feet up. (Hey, that's my job!) We made several oversized characters for an M&M's promotion at cinemas nationwide, and it looks like one of them, um, followed us home. Many thanks to BBDO Worldwide for a great project!

Saying Hello with a Kiss

Our KISS artwork welcomed visitors to Imagina 2010, the European 3D Simulation and Visualisation Event, at the world-famous Grimaldi Forum in Monaco earlier this month. Thanks NewTek and Imagina!

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Apple vs. Adobe

So now it really gets interesting.

Wired posted this video yesterday showing a tablet-ready version of its magazine powered by Adobe AIR, a standalone program that runs Flash applications on Macs and PCs, but not the iPhone or the iPad. (At least not yet.) Not coincidentally, Adobe announced that a mobile version of AIR is in the works, expected to power more than 250 million BlackBerries, Android, Palms and other smartphones by the end of 2012.

It appears that Adobe won't sit idly while Steve Jobs hypes his flashy, Flash-free tablet. And it appears that the publishing industry suddenly has an intriguing alternative to the attention-grabbing iPad.

Wired produced its electronic edition by leveraging its existing workflow, which suggests that newspapers and magazines may soon have Creative Suite-friendly tools to help them migrate from pages to pixels. Wrote Editor Chris Anderson, "The content was created in Adobe InDesign, as is the case for the print magazine, with the same designers adding interactive elements, from photo galleries and video to animations, along with adapting the designs so it looks great in both portrait and landscape orientation."

As publishers wrestle with the economics of producing iPad-only content — and holding on for dear life to their subscriber lists and revenue streams — another strategy emerges: Develop AIR-powered publications using existing resources that can be distributed not only on tablets but laptops, desktops, smartphones and netbooks. The user base already exists; no need to wait for the iPad and gamble that it will someday be as popular as the iPhone. The newsstand of the future becomes a wall of inexpensive touchscreens, enabling customers to peruse their favorite newspapers and magazines and download them to the device of their choice with a swipe of a credit card.

It's Apple vs. Adobe, unless the two decide that it's better to collaborate than to clobber one another. It seems unlikely though, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that Jobs bashes Flash in closed-door meetings with Apple employees, and Adobe planning to include a workaround in its next version of Flash that lets users export content in an iPhone-friendly format, subverting Apple's stance. Meanwhile, Amazon is likely rekindling its strategy in order to stay in the game; Google is determined to dominate the mobile internet; and Microsoft seems unlikely to watch from the sidelines.

To borrow a quote from the philosopher Terrell Owens . . . getcha popcorn ready.

Toyota's Troubles

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Toyota’s troubles translated to a busy week at the studio — a cover illustration for Time’s international editions, a full page in Time’s domestic edition, and an information graphic for Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Many thanks to Cece and D.W. at Time, and Steven and Arthur at BusinessWeek!

iPad, iPad, iPad

In case you haven't heard, Apple recently announced a tablet-style computer called the iPad. We've blogged about them once or twice, and now we're creating illustrations about them. Here's something we did for Fortune magazine. We're also working on two magazine covers on the subject that come out in the next month.

MythBusters: the Free iPad

In today's episode of MythBusters, we take on old pal Philip Elmer DeWitt's contention that magazine publishers can't afford to bundle iPads with subscriptions. Concludes Phil on his authoritative Apple 2.0 blog  this morning: There's not enough margin in a $60-a-year subscription to justify giving away a $499 iPad.

Not so fast, my friend. I believe there's a business model here that enables everyone to come out ahead.

As proposed here, it would require Apple to offer an OEM version of the iPad. The more aggressive Apple can be on the wholesale price, the more margin that resellers would have to bundle the iPad with content. The price differential would allow publishers to resell iPads along with subscriptions and digital sneaker phones — a searchable archive, videos and interactive content, exclusive access to features unavailable to non-subscribers — and still make a profit. While doing so, they seed a new generation of readers with a device that makes their publications relevant again.

If Apple made iPads available to publishers at $100 less than the retail price, Time could add $120 for a two-year subscription and offer consumers a Sports Illustrated-edition iPad for $519, payable in 24 monthly installments of $21.99. More aggressive yet, they could bundle trial subscriptions to every Time Inc. title for the first month, and a subscriber-only app that provides access to better seats for big games, and better prices on sports merchandise. That's where partnerships come into play, and entrepreneurial publishers find ways to create new revenue streams that surpass subscription revenue, driving the price of the iPad even lower. And maybe someday . . . free. (There's that word again. Free.)

There will undoubtedly be many consumers who pass on the iPad, figuring that they have enough capability in their front pocket without reaching into their back pocket to buy another device. A loaded iPad will be more attractive than a base model, if the price is right. A music lover might fall for a Rolling Stone iPad with updated playlists and access to artist interviews, and a business type might jump at a Bloomberg BusinessWeek iPad with commentary and real-time stocks. As noted elsewhere, the possibilities are limitless.

Maybe instead of buying the iPad from Time Inc., you lease one for the length of your subscription. At the end of two years, turn it in and get a new one (and another two-year subscription). Then Time Inc. donates the aging iPads to schools and takes the writeoff. Yet another incentive to buy an iPad from a publishing company, knowing that someday it will help a child who might otherwise never get the opportunity to use one.

What's in it for Apple? A powerful new distribution channel that turns every newspaper and magazine into an Apple reseller. All of a sudden Apple has more people crowding the aisles of its App Store, picking up apps and books and music on which Apple takes its cut. Ditto for AT&T, as iPad subscribers opt for 3G upgrades and monthly services for real-time updates to their subscriptions.

Myth? Not really. It will take partnerships to power the iPad. All that's needed is for someone to make the first move.

Ludacris in the House

We're looking forward to Ludacris' new album, "Battle of the Sexes," featuring Lil' Kim, Flo Rida, Ne-Yo, Fabolous, Pharrell . . . and Joe Zeff Design. No freestylin' for us — we just created the cover artwork. Many thanks to Alex, JP, Kristen, Amy and everyone at Def Jam, not to mention Ludacris himself. Look for it online and in stores next month.

(And you thought we just blogged about the iPad . . . )

What The iPad Needs Are iPartners

I drive a car that has a six-inch touchscreen embedded in its dashboard. That screen tells me where I'm going and what I'm hearing. If I had paid a little more, it would show what's behind me, so that I wouldn't back into anyone. That's pretty much all it does.

I have no idea what it cost the dealer, and frankly, no idea what it cost me. It came with the car and its price was one of many on the window sticker. I'm guessing that it cost at least $500. If given the opportunity to replace that screen with an iPad that clipped into place on the dashboard, providing navigation, entertainment and communication, and then unclipped from the car so that I could give a business presentation with it, and then followed me into the house so I could surf the web with it, I'd be all over it.

I'd buy an iPad if it came with my car. I'd buy an iPad if it came with my newspaper. I'd buy an iPad if it came with my daughter's college tuition. But would I buy an iPad just to own an iPad? Truthfully, I'm not sure. What Apple demonstrated last week didn't quite make me reach for my back pocket to replace what's already in my front pocket.

But with a little collaboration, all that could change. Imagine that your new Honda Element came with a detachable iPad that included a two-year subscription to Rolling Stone, including an exclusive app with a playlist updated every week with songs that you ought to hear. The Mobil app kicks in when your tank nears empty, showing directions on your Google map to the nearest service station and debiting your ATM card for the tankful of gas. Hungry? Summon a list of the nearest restaurants and have the food waiting as you pull up to the door.

Sounds futuristic, but all of those capabilities appear to be within reach of iPad 1.0.

What if your Yankees season tickets came with an iPad — pinstriped if you please — that included a subscription to a tabletized Sports Illustrated and an app that worked only at Yankee Stadium, providing video feeds from the dugout, bullpen, catcher's mask, pitcher's mound and each base; instant replays on demand; real-time scores and statistics; an interactive scorecard; play-by-play with between-inning player interviews; and a way to order a hot dog without leaving your seat.

Sell a few banner ads — Cold Bud? Click here! — and suddenly that iPad is nearly subsidized. The price tag goes down as its value goes up. Meanwhile, the Yankees sell more tickets, Honda sells more cars, Mobil sells more gas, and the iPad becomes the mass medium that the publishing industry craves, justifying the investment capital required to spend to develop enhanced newspapers and magazines. Across the board, everybody wins.

Perhaps one way to fast-track the iPad is for Apple to offer an OEM version that is meant to be bundled, in addition to the retail version that can be sold in stores. The OEM version would give companies a way to offer customers an iPad packed with content — value beyond the iPad itself. For publishers, it's a multiyear subscription, a searchable archive, or a collection of books and videos. Brokerages could offer tablets full of financial research, real-time streaming quotes and a way to trade anywhere. Airlines could hand them out as a premium to increase customer loyalty. The possibilities are endless.

It doesn't take an expensive navigation system to see where this could go. The faster that Apple can intertwine this technology with people's lives, the faster the future will come. With innovative partnerships, that change could come sooner than you think.

A Free iPad with Your Paid Subscription?

Maybe it's time for Sports Illustrated to bring back the sneaker phone. That's what it took in 1991 to get people to subscribe to SI, and it might be what's needed to sell a tablet version of the magazine two decades later.

Love it or hate it, the iPad remains the publishing industry's best chance at resurrection, but only if enough consumers buy in. The price tag is the biggest obstacle — $499 for an iPlane Jane model or $629 plus monthly service for 3G-powered Pad. But what if the publishing industry helped to defray that cost, bundling an iPad with a multiyear subscription to hundreds of newspapers and magazines? It's a short-term investment that could pay off handsomely, and one of many options that should be considered in order to lure a new generation of readers to a new world of possibilities.

With the iPad comes the power to custom-build your own newspaper, driven by settings you control. A front page designed specifically for you — by you — with content culled from your favorite news sources and updated in real time. Like Harry Potter's newspaper, it has pictures that move and words that change before your eyes. Unlike the web, where newspapers and magazines have become virtually interchangeable, the iPad offers the chance for newspapers to leverage their strength: hyperlocal coverage that's up to the minute. This is not your grandfather's newspaper. You don't just read it — you interact with it, through social networks, blogs and discussion groups.

Magazines, too, are poised for a revival, as Sports Illustrated demonstrated in December with its prototype tablet edition, produced in collaboration with The Wonderfactory. Its chances for success hinge entirely on the public's willingness to buy tablets like the iPad. Those chances improve with help from Time Inc. What if they bundled every one of its 23 titles into a single offering that includes a brand new iPad? A multimagazine subscription needn't be real-time, so the entry-level iPad would do the job. Build into the monthly fee the cost of the iPad, enabling the consumer to repay Time Inc. for the device over 24 installments rather than shelling out $499 at once. That's one way to get people to reach for their sneaker phones and pay for a tablet edition — throw in the tablet.

After all, what good are these innovations if there are experienced only by those passing time at the Apple Store? As newspapers and magazines tally the costs of reconfiguring their content, they should consider the benefits of subsidizing hardware costs in order to put the iPad into as many hands as possible, just as the cellphone companies give out handsets in order to collect monthly fees. By working together, perhaps there's a way for publishers to help distribute the infrastructure costs for this new delivery model — partnering with each other, with other industries, or even with consumers.

As lacking as iPad 1.0 may seem, it's the surest way to build a loyal audience for 1.1 and beyond. But somebody may have to, ahem, help foot the bill.

(Note: Thanks to Golf Digest's Tim Oliver for inspiring this blog post with his football phone anecdote on Facebook. Your sneaker phone is in the mail . . . Feel better soon!)

Yep, it's 3D

Thanks for asking!

iPad 1.0

It's important to see it for what it is: iPad 1.0. Yes, it lacks Flash. Yes, it lacks a camera. But it's a platform for building the publications of tomorrow. A standard, at long last. Gone are the Kindle and Nook, still promoted on Barnes and Noble's website as "The World's Most Advanced eBook Reader." Very funny. For all of its shortcomings, iPad instantly becomes the focal point for every publisher, editor and designer. It is the future, whether that future is two months from now or two years from now.

Will the iPad save newspapers and magazines? By itself, no. Steve Jobs can only build the 21st Century newsstand, he can't fill it. Its shelves are waiting to be filled with innovative products that leverage what the iPad can do. Those who fixate on its missing features run the risk of missing one of the greatest opportunities in publishing history.

It's 1.0, baby. Just wait until it's all grown up. Now it's up to the creative minds inside and outside of the publishing industry to get it there

Leveling the Playing Field for Tablet Newspapers

On the surface, the Tablet levels the playing field for publishers large and small, providing a way for everyone to sell their wares in an electronic form with unprecedented capabilities to connect with their audiences. But in reality, it may be that Apple has given a significant head start to a small group of hand-picked corporations that may make it impossible for anyone to keep up. Expect to see McGraw-Hill flaunt its futuristic textbooks during Steve Jobs' announcement today. Prepare to see Arthur Sulzberger on the stage with his generation-next New York Times, loaded with features that took months to develop. And then picture the thousands of publishing executives who weren't invited to Cupertino, huddled in front of their office computers and scratching their heads about how to replicate the efforts of Apple's hand-picked few — months of research and development, access to Apple's strategies and developers, and significant marketing advantages of being annointed by Steve Jobs himself.

The magazine industry has addressed this issue through partnerships. Last month, Time Inc., Hearst, Conde Nast, Meredith and News Corp. merged forces in a consortium headed by former Time Inc. executive John Squires. As a result, they stand a much better chance that someday soon their executives will get the toolset needed to Tabletize their publications and maintain pace with everyone else. The newspaper industry lacks that organization, and needs to immediately deploy similar strategies in order to keep up with the Sulzbergers.

Joe Zeff Design is partnering with Garcia Media and Garcia Interactive to help faciliate this process for the newspaper industry. Dr. Mario Garcia has 40 years' experience redesigning the world's leading newspapers (most recently The Wall Street Journal) and news websites, and has worked with more than 560 media organizations (mostly newspapers) in 90 countries worldwide. His son, Mario Garcia Jr., oversees the interactive division, and just finished the new website for the financial daily of Germany, www.handelsblatt.com. Joe Zeff Design is led by the former Graphics Director of Time magazine and a Presentation Editor at The New York Times. (That's me.) My studio has designed hundreds of major magazine covers, and offers a unique combination of editorial experience and animation capability that is precisely tuned to the needs of Tablet-driven publications.

Together we can provide newspapers worldwide with the tools and talent to thrive in this renaissance of newspapering. Mario and I are planning to meet in New York City on Feb. 20-21 to discuss the future of the newspaper industry, and we invite publishers and interested parties to join us. Once more information is available, we will post it on our respective blogs: joezeffdesign.com/blog and garciamedia.com/blog

We'll be glued to our MacPros today to learn more about the Tablet. Exciting times ahead.

On the Tablet, Everything Old is New Again

We created this illustration for The New York Times to use as a branding element for its Super Bowl coverage. Would have been much more satisfying if it were a Steelers helmet, or even a Jets helmet . . . but it serves to demonstrate a point.

It looks like a photograph but is actually computer-generated, giving us the flexibility to quickly change the helmet color and logos, and even the lighting, reflections and positions, from year to year. We've created these for The Times for the past six years, all leveraging the same wireframe model. As a result, we're able to provide this work to The Times at a reasonable cost.

I'm guessing that we'll make something similar next year using these very same wireframes. That's going to be a key part of any publication's Tablet strategy, extending the utility of existing assets as opposed to creating everything from scratch. Otherwise, publications will find themselves with two very costly workflows — one for print and one for the Tablet — and will be eventually forced to choose between them. At Joe Zeff Design, we'll extend our workflow to accommodate dynamic content rather than create an entirely new workflow — a model that will serve us well in the Tablet Era, and an example to publishing companies now strategizing about how to fund the brave new world.

Already this year we've received eight magazine cover assignments. (Who says print is dead?) No doubt we'll be creating animated covers for these publications a year from now — extending the pages-to-pixels experience so that the print version comes to life on the Tablet. That was one of the mistakes of the dot-com boom: Publications staffed their websites with whiz kids and code junkies who knew little — and cared less — about the publications they were putting online. It was all about coding Flash and making cash, with little regard for what sets one magazine apart from another.

The result: a homogenous internet newsstand where everything looks alike. Look on any magazine's website and try to find its cover, for decades its most valuable branding element. Prepare to scroll and squint. The cover usually get buried deep in a corner, with no way to make it bigger than your thumbnail. With the Tablet, the magazine cover makes a comeback, returning to its original role of selling a publication's unique point of view through humor, surprise, shock, emotion, curiosity, sex, sophistication and everything else that makes magazines great. Now that the newsstand is portable and personalized, it's more important than ever to stand out from the crowd.

Why The Tablet Matters

As we approach Wednesday’s unveiling of the most anticipated tablet since the pair that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai, carefully read and dutifully heed: Thou shalt not underestimate its ability to transform our world. The tablet is not just an oversized iPhone or undersized laptop. It is something entirely new, fusing communication and content in a user-friendly portable device like never before. For the first time, consumers will experience the portability of a mobile phone combined with the ease of use of a personal computer. Whether this is the product that Apple introduces Wednesday or someone else rolls out five years from now, hold on tight because things are about to change.

The publishing industry will drive this change, determined to undo the self-inflicted damage of the dot-com boom. Not only did they give away their riches for nothing, they did so in a form that bore little resemblance to the original product. The words were there, but stripped of the distinctive look and feel that made up their brand identity. Even today, there is little difference between the home pages of GQ, Popular Science and Newsweek, clinging to the vestigial formats that prioritized download speed over user experience to ensure smooth flow through a 9600 baud modem.

Watch closely as newspaper and magazine publishers bet their last nickels — not an exaggeration, in some cases — on this new medium. It provides the 50-somethings who run these companies a chance to captivate subscribers and advertisers by returning to their roots — producing and selling the terrific newspapers and magazines that made these brands valuable in the first place. But even better than the original, with up-to-the-minute content that can be individualized for every reader — and advertiser. Happy days are here again, along with the ubiquity, relevance and brand loyalty that has been absent from the publishing world for the past 15 years.

It doesn’t stop there. Advertising agencies will embrace new models, abandoning fractured campaigns with separate processes for print, web and television for a new integrated workflow. As if you hadn’t noticed, billboards are quickly going the way of Burma Shave signs, replaced by giant monitors powered by the same software as the tablets. Agencies will be able to streamline efforts by producing the same dynamic content for tablet newspapers and magazines as they do for outdoor advertising. And the same ads can be produced in longer form for higher-bandwidth television commercials. Until, of course, television comes to the tablet and true convergence arrives.

Soon enough, you’ll be able to sit in any restaurant and summon the menu on your tablet. The menu will emphasize your favorite foods, with discounts on whatever dishes are moving slowly that day or being underwritten by opportunistic soft drink companies. Can’t get the waiter’s attention? Why bother, as your order goes directly to the kitchen and you pay your bill right from your tablet. After dinner, you’ll return to your car and dock the tablet into the dashboard, where it serves as your voice-activated GPS, backup camera, movie player, television and phone. Again, more opportunities for advertisers — half-off hoagies at the Circle K a quarter-mile up the road! — and more ways to offset the cost of the tablet so that it quickly moves toward everyone’s favorite pricepoint: free.

The death throes of print accelerate Wednesday, but the afterlife promises to be glorious. Over time the tablet will do print better than print ever did, adding convenience and immediacy to a time-tested user experience that leverages page after page of compelling photography, typography, illustration and graphic design. The tablet will introduce newspapers to a generation that has never wandered out to the curb in their bathrobes to fish a wet newspaper out of the bushes, and it will leverage tools like Facebook and Twitter to create a virtual town square, just like the old days.

It won’t happen overnight. Few are saying what’s coming from Apple, but it will likely need several iterations — and even a few competitors — before it is foldable, self-powered, instantaneous, secure and free. But it’s coming. Fast. Powered by a publishing industry that desperately needs it to succeed, not to mention the slew of advertisers that will quickly jump on the bandwagon upon seeing the long lines in front of every Apple Store when the iTablet/iSlate/iPad/iHaveNoIdea is offered for sale.

For the good of the economy, desperately needing an infusion of enthusiasm and innovation, let us all say Amen.