Now more than ever, companies need to tell their story effectively. We’re here to help.
We're excited about the new Macworld cover, our tenth for art director Rob Schultz:
Many thanks to Rob and the editors of Macworld, one of our favorite magazines. Here are the others we've done over the past five years — everything you see here is computer-generated:
Next week's TIME cover, our third this year.
Computer-generated, as usual. Here's a closeup:
Another fun image we produced for TIME:
Oink!
An annotated version of a presentation delivered June 15, 2010 at the Power of the Tablet conference at the Poynter Institute of Media Studies. The conference attracted attendees from as far away as Dubai and Germany to learn about tablet publishing from Dr. Mario Garcia, The New York Times, Time magazine, USA Today, News Corp., Adobe, WoodWing and, well, me. Here's what they saw and heard:
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It's still too early to know what will and won't make money on the iPad, but I'm here today to present one point of view, and recommendations based on my experiences since Apple announced its tablet in January. It's been a busy five months — blogging. consulting, strategizing, creating content and pursuing investment opportunities surrounding the iPad. It was bound to happen, considering the types of work we do at Joe Zeff Design:
We produce magazine covers . . .
. . . as well as advertising imagery, such as this computer-generated Porsche we produced at Joe Zeff Design at Splashlight . . .
. . . as well as information graphics like these, for Runners World and Rolling Stone . . .
. . . as well as animation, like this Nike running shoe (that spun onscreen but won't here):
For Joe Zeff Design, the iPad represents a place where our capabilities converge, and an opportunity to expand upon our existing relationships with newspapers, magazines, advertising agencies and corporations. But in order for us to make money, we needed to first understand how our clients were going to make money, so we could help them to make even more.
Everyone On The Same Page
The iPad forces all parties to come together as entrepreneurs. It is a joint venture between editorial, technology and business development, with a shared vision that is clearly focused on creating this:
Regardless of the quality of the effort, it is the business model that will ultimately determine success or failure. There must be sufficient value to drive revenues, and those revenues must exceed costs. A quick dissection of the variables that feed the business model:
Development costs vary depending on the level of customization. There are templated solutions like WoodWing's offering, and there are custom-built solutions that can be much more expensive to develop. Content can be repackaged or created from scratch; simliarly, production can be piggybacked onto existing workflows or independently pursued. Distribution is handled by Apple for a 30 percent premium, or through a browser for varying price points.
On the revenue side, it is important to note that advertising is but one of numerous potential streams. Inflows can also be realized through single-app sales, subscriptions, sponsorships and partnerships, commissions for helping to sell someone else's products and income from selling your own products.
The first of three steps toward developing a tablet publication with a reasonable expectation of profitablility is to define the audience for the product. What Apple has told us is that there is already a large and growing customer base.
Unfortunately, we have no idea who these people are.
There are no solid analytics at this point, and Apple is making it difficult for third parties to collect information about the iPad user base. It is in Apple's interest to keep that data to itself, as it has developed its own advertising platform, the iAd network. Meanwhile, publishers are forced to rely on anecdotal research to identify what demographics they're attempting to reach. One unscientific method: go to the local Apple Store and see who's clustered around the iPads.
But it's risky not to jump in this early.
As a publisher, you'll have to weigh the risks. You can leverage what you know about your print audience and the type of content you're able to deliver. Here are three possible approaches for delivering value to your potential customers:
Many publications are simply turning their print editions into pixels. In some cases, those newspapers and magazines are exported as PDFs and distributed through companies like Zinio, PixelMags and NewspaperDirect. Time and Wired have gone further, working with WoodWing and Adobe, respectively, to produce enhanced iPad versions with bonus content, interactivity and vertical and horizontal orientations. In its first issue, Wired sold nearly as many digital copies as traditional ones.
Another approach is to break up your publication and sell it in pieces. Instead of offering a $4.99 magazine, you might sell it a la carte — by the article, subject or even by the author — at a reduced price point. Many publications are offering free samples — Entertainment Weekly's Must List, New York Post Pix, and NYT Editor's Choice — to whet appetites for forthcoming paid apps. For newspapers, the real estate section would make a natural standalone app, easy for prospective buyers to carry along when house shopping. The iPad 3G's built-in GPS would help buyers identify nearby properties for sale, and provide a way to see inside a house without ever getting out of the car. Searchable fields by price, number of bedrooms, and days on market would add value, and make the app an attractive vehicle for advertising.
The Guardian Eyewitness leverages the crisp display of the iPad by publishing one incredible photograph every day. It is as simple as it gets, and one of the most popular apps available. (149,000 downloads, reports speaker Staci D. Kramer of paidContent). The Elements: A Visual Exploration brings the periodic table to life by presenting 360-degree imagery of rocks, metals and other objects. At $13.99, it is the highest grossing eBook in the App Store and an inspiration for any publication seeking to develop experiential content. Worth considering: a children's version of your publication, specifically for the iPad, to establish what may be a lifelong relationship with your future subscribers.
But don't stop there.
Partnerships are a way to reduce risk while expanding the potential for success. Among the benefits:
Money: Consumers don't want to pay for content, but advertisers routinely pay for audience.
Reach: Your audience plus their audience equals a larger customer base.
Relevance: Expanded opportunities to become part of consumers' routines
Many thanks to the Poynter Institute of Media Studies and Dr. Mario Garcia of Garcia Media for organizing this important conference, likely the first of many. More transcripts from other speakers here.
Our Newsweek cover oozes with computer-generated imagery, which made possible a one-day turnaround with no messy cleanup! Many thanks to Bonnie and Michelle — and Jon, of course — for the cover assignment, our first for Newsweek since Stephen Colbert a year ago, and hopefully not our last . . .
Interesting to note that Newsweek's cover no longer appears on the front page of its newly redesigned website. The screen capture above came from Newsweek's new iPad app. As magazines transition to digital, it's worth considering the significance of the cover. By abandoning it, a publication fails to capitalize on its most valuable branding element, the one with which readers are most familiar. Moreover, it signals a new issue with new content, and telegraphs the magazine's unique point of view. On the newsstand it lassoes the consumer through surprise, curiosity, emotion, sophistication, beauty and habit, and on the screen it does no less. Whether in pixels or on paper, the cover still matters.
Our last Newsweek cover, working with the fabulous Nigel Parry.
We've been experimenting with software that turns thousands of photographs into one large mosaic, with exceptional results. We've added some of our own R&D that has resulted in two really great magazine covers, one for Time and another for TV Guide. In both cases, the mosaics had lifespans beyond the print magazines — we created a downloadable poster for TV Guide and Time published a supersized mosaic in its iPad edition.
Our Time cover:
Our TV Guide poster:
And another image we did as a test:
The 50th anniversary of the birth control pill provided an opportunity for Joe Zeff Design to create the cover artwork for this week's Time magazine, both in print and on the iPad. We used computer-generated imagery to create a custom pillcase with 50 pills, one for each year. Many thanks to Design Director D.W. Pine and the rest of the team at Time!
Added: Another version of our image was used on the cover of an eBook that's available only on the Kindle:
Talk about a vacation — me and my iPad on the high seas for five days. We met at the Apple Store in Miami and went straight to the port for a Caribbean cruise. Some of the highlights:
• Trying to read a book on an iPad in the bright sun is futile. Kindle wins, hands down. Anti-glare, anti-fingerprint screen, anyone?
• USA Today was a big surprise. As I pointed out in an earlier post, the design seemed primitive at first glance (and still is, to be honest). But the usability is outstanding. It's become my default app for a quick review of the day's headlines. I expect that it will only improve as time goes on. (Now about that FBI teaser above . . . ) All in all, though, the web itself remains the primary source for news. The New York Times website and even the iPhone version are so much richer than the iPad sampler that it hardly makes sense to bother with the Editor's Choice app.
• Popular Science lived up to its "The Future is Now" pledge with its layered approach to presenting information. The graphics looked amazing, and I look forward to seeing them animated in the near future. The ability to remove text elements with a thumb press was a healthy baby step toward true interactivity — and something that other publications will surely emulate. One knock: all of the scrolling got in the way of reading, particularly when the type was layered on top of not-quite-opaque panels.
• Prediction No. 1: A camera-equipped iPad will be offered at Christmas, and children throughout the land will get their parents' hand-me-downs. Meanwhile, we're left to create Rube Goldberg-inspired cameras through apps like this.
• It took a while to download full magazines, particularly GQ. PopSci was worth the time, GQ not so much. Of its 57 pages, one Lexus ad is repeated six times, one Braun ad is repeated six times, one Gillette ad is repeated three times and another Gillette ad is repeated three times. There are four Armani Exchange ads and four Burberry ads. The editorial well doesn't fully kick in until page 39 or so, and the pages suffer from disintegration — the pictures and captions and type work on three different levels instead of coming together as they do so elegantly in the print edition. PU GQ — I'll stick to the print edition, where I only have to endure each ad once.
• Typing on an iPad is a joy. I wrote most of this blog on the plane ride home, and it was preferably by far to having a hot, bulky laptop wedged into my gut. In sideways orientation I can comfortably type with two hands, and Pages did the job as a word processor on the go. Suddenly the iPhone seems unforgivably tiny, particularly in portrait mode, and the MacBook Pro seems like an anchor. The iPad is definitely my new travelling companion.
• Magazines face three obstacles in the early going: the cost ($4.95 for Time magazine with no subscription option), the download time (as long as 15 minutes for some), and the payoff (the same content you get at the newsstand, plus video if you happen to be connected to the Internet). The solution, as offered previously, incremental apps. Allow the reader to download the menu and order a la carte. Perhaps throw in a free App-etizer. The price and download become less objectionable and the immediate payoff is a custom-made magazine.
• A WiFiPad is like a Vespa — you can putter around town with it but forget about the open road. All of that portability goes to waste without an Internet signal. 3G will make a huge difference, but whether it will be enough bandwidth to push rich media to the iPad remains to be seen. Again, another argument for incremental apps that can be crammed with the specific content and coding necessary for putting on a show.
• If you have any doubt as to what's possible on the iPad, plunk down $3.99 for ESPN Pinball. Thank me later.
• It seems like we are months away from truly integrated animation and video, for magazine covers and information graphics, which is going to be very noticeable when the Flash-powered tablets come out later this summer.
• Prediction No. 2: Within two years Apple will lop the keyboards off their MacBooks and the iPad Pro will allow you to store files locally and connect to peripherals.
• Buried one or two screens deep in the App Store, magazine covers take on a revised role on the iPad. Freed of the need to sell newsstand copies, covers no longer require so many words — the secondary and tertiary headlines that the marketing department insisted upon when the ship started going down. The primary job of the cover is to brand the content within. It is worth considering the thought that one magazine has five or six covers, allowing the reader to choose his or her own entry point from an array of words and pictures that exemplify the brand. Meanwhile, someone needs to configure a true electronic newsstand that puts these covers back on the shelves.
Note the difference between the iBookstore . . .
. . . and the iNewsstand:
Look carefully and you'll find Round 2 of Time magazine on the iPad, inconspicuously wedged between Gossipwiper, RSSBrowser and techNews HD. Apple? Google? Someone? (Be sure to check out the included bonus: a reproduction of the very first issue of Time.)
Oh well, vacation's over. Time to wipe off the smudges and spills from the iPad and return to the daily grind. After paying 65 cents a minute for seafaring WiFi, it's good to be home.
An iTunes update includes the key to the newsstand of the future, where iPad news apps are beginning to fill the shelves of the App Store. There are some bright spots — nice job, Rupert! — and a lot of disappointments. Of particular interest:
Time magazine has entered the building and they've set a high standard for magazines. The iPad edition is beautifully designed, as if every page were a poster. Every page has a dominant visual element, and even the pages without images use typography as a dominant visual. I may be biased — disclaimers galore: we do a lot of work for Time; I was previously its Graphics Director; Design Director D.W. Pine is a close pal; I used to subscribe — but this is the best of show to date. It will be interesting to see how their pricing strategy plays out; at $4.95, it had better be good. It even comes with a licensing agreement — never saw that in my newsstand copy!
The Journal maintains its look and feel, reconceived for the smaller screen. The landing page is clean and slick, like a gaming interface, and the front page bears the familiarity of the paper edition. I love the newsprint-like gradient, reminding the viewer that he or she is reading a newspaper and not a website. There's a typographic hierarchy in place that gives the page movement. Also interesting that they have a "Today" edition, which one would assume is posted at a set time every day, and a "Now" edition, updated whenever you refresh your screen via WiFi or 3G. It is interesting to note how the WSJ handled advertising — curious whether the Coke ad takes you offsite to a web page or to additional content within the app.
The understated design of the Times, where headline sizes tend to be fairly consistent, works against the design of NYT Editors' Choice, the sampler of the Times that is offered free through the App Store. It feels like TimesDigest, the fax edition of the newspaper that is distributed on cruise ships. No sign of the NYT newspaper app just yet — perhaps they have something more robust in store. The bylines seem a bit odd — are they gray because they are links? In general, these pages would feel stronger if there were fewer stories per page, maybe even one story. (See NPR example below.) High hopes for Saturday morning, and the non-Editors' Choice edition. If anyone knows how to make the online experience worthwhile, it's the NYT.
I can't figure this one out. USA Today, with its Times Roman headlines, Helvetica body copy and bad headline breaks, looks like it was produced by FedEx Kinko's. They've completely failed to transport their print experience to the iPad. Instead, their sample pages look like Netscape web pages. Boo hiss. I do think that their approach toward advertising is worth noting, however. The Courtyard ad is the best-looking part of the page. In addition, it is large enough to command good money, yet unobtrusive to the reader.
Somewhere along the line, the designer of the AP app (APp?) got carried away with the virtual thumbtacks and paper stacks and turned what could have been a go-to site into a mess. People trust the Associated Press for a quick read on the latest news, but the iPad app fails to deliver that immediacy. Instead the pages look like the walls at Applebee's. All you need are a few college pennants and football trophies. Pass the ketchup, please.
The iPad doesn't land in Europe until the end of the month, but the BBC app is already online and quite impressive. The digest resembles a box of candy, a tray of enticing choices presented gridlike and attractively. The articles are designed for reading. Very much looking forward to downloading this app. This shows the power of design on the iPad — I don't think I've ever visited the BBC website, but I expect this iPad site to be a much-visited bookmark. It also shows the global reach of the iPad. Launches are not just local, they're global. Suddenly the BBC has a potential subscriber in Montclair, NJ, and advertising reach as well.
Paris Match and Le Monde have also entered the scene, and both are impressive as well. So fascinating to see how different publications addressed the challenge of reinventing themselves for the iPad:
Strong poster-like graphic design can be particularly powerful on the iPad. Here's the landing page for a Gap app (Gapp?) that commands your attention. Perhaps newspapers ought to consider making their digests visual like this, transporting readers to single-story screens.
Here's another approach, from National Public Radio. It's helpful that they have two types of pages, a digest you can pan and scan, and a text-driven page designed to be read. Very friendly, and thoughtful.
Finally, The Elements: A Visual Exploration is not a periodical, but a gorgeous periodic chart is magnificently designed. Whether it's worth $13.99 is another story. But still, it represents the potential of eBooks and ePublishing, and a model for newspapers and magazines to consider. It's also an example of how incremental apps could provide additional revenue streams for publishers.
More info here. Please don't be an April Fool's joke.
As seen in BusinessWeek, with a story about how secretive Apple has been about its new tablet computer — you may have heard about it — called the iPad.
Have a great weekend!
As April 3 approaches, publishers worldwide are working nonstop to turn their magazines from paper into pixels. In many cases, they’re simply reformatting 8-by-10-inch pages into 1024 x 768 pages, and then 768 x 1024 pages. So far the magazine of the future is as exhausting as it is exhilarating, forcing art directors to work three times as hard to produce the same publication. Whether this approach will work is anyone’s guess. If people aren’t buying your words and pictures in print, what’s the incentive for buying that same content on screen? Is being able to see layouts in two orientations enough to win them over?
Lost in this approach is perhaps the greatest opportunity that the iPad affords: incremental publishing.
Instead of buying an entire issue of Golf Digest, maybe you just want to learn how to putt. Maybe you don’t want to spend $9.95 for a cookbook only to find out how to make an apple pie. A subscription to Time magazine may not be your thing, but a subscription to Joel Stein just might be. That Macworld issue seems tempting — particularly with that fabulous cover illustration! — but perhaps you just want to read about the iPad. You don’t want a whole travel magazine, just an interactive guide to Paris.
And so on.
There’s a huge opportunity for publishers to increase revenues by breaking up their content into narrowly focused apps. By keeping apps focused, they can pile on more multimedia capability. The putting lesson includes videos and diagrams that wouldn’t fit in an entire magazine, given the need to constrain file sizes. The apple pie recipe is designed for the iPad, keeping all of the content on one screen so you don’t get flour all over your new iPad, and incorporating videos and timers with every step. The pricepoint may be lower than a full issue, but the potential sellthrough may be significantly enhanced.
The incremental approach provides a way for publishers to introduce readers to their worlds, one app at a time. Each app could conclude with teasers to six others, and perhaps a discount on buying more. Maybe it makes sense to bundle these apps so that users can build their magazines a la carte. Branding opportunities abound — Joel Stein brought to you by Axe body spray — along with the potential for immediate revenue.
Just as the music industry sells individual songs instead of albums, expect newspapers and magazines to embrace a similar model. For some subjects it may be enough to pour the existing content into smaller bottles. For others, it may entail creating unique environments that are tailored to deliver and enhance the specific content. The goal: create an experience, one that underscores the value proposition of your publication as a whole.
One way or another, those who make the most of the opportunity to sell their contents incrementally will be best-positioned to make money from the iPad.
Ok, they're not really iPads, but they aren't CGI either. They are styrofoam crash-test dummies that we had made to familiarize ourselves and others with the look and feel of the iPad. They answer a lot of questions, and raise plenty of others, such as where to put this thing on an already crowded desk?
Our exhaustive research continues to turn up fascinating revelations. We're not able to share our findings, but draw your own conclusions:
First came Sports Illustrated. Then Wired. Then Bonnier. Then Wired again. And last week, Viv. One after another, magazine publishers post their home movies on YouTube, sharing with the world their iPad aspirations. They are dreams for the most part, unbound by the gravitational pull of the iPad SDK and other realities. Like Alice in Wonderland — or Wonderfactory — their rabbit holes allow them to change size at will and slay jabberwocks. Wherever it's needed, bandwidth and interactivity magically appear like vorpal swords, along with Tweedledums and Tweedledees to write all of the code and design all of the pages, both vertical and horizontal.
The alarm clock is set for April 3. Expect many of those publications to hit the snooze button and take more time. Eventually, they'll get there. Hands-on experience with an actual iPad — and inflowing dollars from advertisers eager to share the spotlight — will inspire publishers to make those dreams come true.
It is no surprise that there aren't many newspapers publishing YouTube videos. Magazines lend themselves to the iPad experience, much moreso than the daily newspaper. Multimedia brings their imagery and ideas to life in a way not possible in print. What's more, their content has shelf life, maintaining its value over time, like a book or movie. But a newspaper is different. Mobile devices have conditioned readers to expect an up-to-the-minute digital newspaper. That works well at the breakfast table, but not during the morning commute unless you're among the few that paid extra for 3G capability.
Newspapers are challenged to deliver a product that surpasses their print, mobile and online editions. Otherwise, what's the point of reading an iPad edition, let alone paying for one? It needs to offer something not found in the traditional version already in your briefcase and the up-to-the-second version already in your pocket. It's worth considering the plusses and minuses of the existing forms before inventing yet another:
Connectivity • Print is not connected to anything. By the time it is received, the content is outdated. • Mobile is usually connected. As a result, we assume that the content is updated, making it more desirable than print. • Online is always connected, and the content is always up to date. Immediacy is the selling point, both for mobile and online newspapers. • Tablet is sometimes connected, sometimes not. As long as Apple sells WiFi-only iPads requiring signals that are largely confined to indoor spaces, one cannot safely bet that the reader is online. After all, it is a portable device that is meant to move, which translates to on-again, off-again access to WiFi over the course of a day. Even the 3G access is intermittent, offered in monthly doses through AT&T and positioned by Apple as a non-essential feature. "So if you have a business trip or vacation approaching, just sign up for the month you’ll be traveling and cancel when you get back," we're told. Bottom line: Until 3G — or 4G — connectivity is standard, tablet newspapers cannot offer immediacy as a selling point. Instead, they must tap into other strengths of the tablet experience.
Bandwidth • Print is limited by the number of pages. Duh. • Mobile offers unlimited pages, but file size is a concern. The tipping point is how long it takes to download content through the 3G network, and what is deemed to be tolerable by the consumer. • Online offers unlimited bandwidth, with blazing download speeds. Hence, rich media experiences thrive here. • Tablet straddles the line between mobile and online, depending on the consumer's habits. Many publications may choose to circumvent the connected/unconnected conundrum by making their content downloadable, as opposed to streaming their words and images. Like mobile, this will impose limits based on download times, as well as the finite capacity of the tablet's flash drive. Bottom line: Tablet newspapers need to break up multimedia content into manageable payloads.
Format • Print uses graphic design as a way to flavor content. Photography and illustration is large and impactful. • Mobile is bound by formats that favor usability over graphic design, resulting in little differentiation between publications. There is multimedia capability beyond photography, but it is limited by small screens and large downloads. • Online offers endless multimedia, presented as a lean-back experience suited not only for reading but for watching and listening. Graphic design helps to differentiate, only to a point. Interfaces cluttered with advertising tend to make one online newspaper look like every other. • Tablet presents an opportunity to use graphic design as a primary differentiator, supported by rich media. As a result, publishers can once again create distinctive environments for content and advertising. In doing so, they get their mojo back. Bottom line: Graphic design is once again a selling point.
Input • Print is physical — a full-body experience. Your head moves as you scan a broadsheet page, and your hands, arms and shoulders are required for turning pages. Compared to other formats, reading a newspaper is a workout. • Mobile is virtual, mostly dependent on finger-typing on tiny keyboards and finger-wiping on tiny screens. Your eyes stay focused on one place — all the news that's fit to squint! • Online is virtual, requiring a keyboard and mouse to effect changes on a screen. You're nearly always stationary, and generally seated. It is the most passive experience of the three, nearly television-like. • Tablet is both physical and virtual, with multiple inputs: hand gestures via the screen and physical movements via the accelerometer. A digital magnetic compass identifies which direction you're facing and the assisted GPS (on 3G models only) provides location-awareness through a combination of known WiFi hotspots, satellites and cellular towers. Eventually, a camera will translate imagery into information using augmented reality. Bottom line: Someday the tablet will provide not only news and entertainment, but intuitive ways to integrate that content with your everyday life.
With all of those factors considered, newspapers must start somewhere, in order to transition readers to this new medium and establish behavior patterns. Scott Walker of The Birmingham News has the right idea. On his personal website, Scott provides step-by-step instructions for refitting an old-school newspaper vending machine with an inexpensive computer and screen. The post is nearly three years old, but deserves a fresh look with the WiFi-dependent iPad on its way.
Let's take Scott's idea one step further: Turn some of those honor boxes into WiFi hotspots, so that consumers can access the latest news when on the go. The boxes are already deployed; it just a matter of wiring them up and turning them on. (Sprint and Verizon are pushing mobile hotspots that could be useful here.) Another possibility: Partner with local coffeehouses to create fill-up stations where consumers can get a fresh cup of coffee and a fresh download of news, all in one stop. (Javascripting + java sipping!) Both ideas have similar objectives: they strive to reinsert the newspaper into the daily routines of millions of consumers, by establishing and reinforcing behaviors that fit neatly into their busy lives.
Until persistent internet connections become standard, another possibility is to leave breaking news on the website where it can be easily updated, as not to disappoint early adopters who summon a tablet newspaper only to find outdated content. Meanwhile, content with less time-sensitivity and greater multimedia potential shift to the world of apps. The weekly Arts section is a prime candidate, perhaps becoming a daily section with rich media that surpasses what is available in print. Op-Ed is another opportunity, as it invites interaction through community-building tools. Sports, too — maybe it's best to leave the scores on the web but tell the stories beyond those scores on the iPad and other tablets.
Another opportunity: news you can use. Like a newspaper, the iPad becomes a tool. Help me find a new house by showing me property values, school information and other content that makes my iPad essential for real estate tours. Provide a restaurant guide with suggestions on where to go and what to eat, focusing on a different neighborhood every week and marrying menus, maps and multimedia. How about a digital scorecard that I can take to the ballgame, with video commentary from the newspaper's columnists and statistics for every player? While we're at it, let's sell highly targeted advertising and generate immediate revenue from the iPad. Once those inflows begin, it will be easier to justify the investment required to transform the daily newspaper into a tablet experience.
In the beginning, consider the iPad to be an opportunity for brand extension — a way to leverage the credibility, locality and reader loyalty of a newspaper to introduce new types of content. Newspapers shouldn't become magazines, as seductive as that may be. They should play up their differences. I don't expect Newsweek to tell me that my local school taxes are rising, and I don't expect the local newspaper to enlighten me on international affairs. Even the 17,871-circulation New Castle News, outside of Pittsburgh, is starting to think iPad. "We're excited about the possibilities," said editor Tim Kolodziej, confident that his 17-person staff can serve the unique needs of his community better than the Pittsburgh-area metros. "Small is the new big."
There is an indispensibilty to newspapers that was lost when a generation turned its attention from paper to pixels. Now comes the opportunity to win it back, and make newspapers more valuable — and profitable — than ever.
Apple made iPads available at the product launch for journalists, but they haven't provided any for studio photography, forcing every newspaper and magazine to use the same product imagery. We were able to help Macworld differentiate itself from the competition by creating a computer-generated set of iPads for its April cover.
The editors freely admit that they had limited access to a preproduction iPad, but their 10-page cover story is very comprehensive, as you'd expect from Macworld. Highly recommended!
De ja vu: our March 2007 cover illustration on the iPhone launch:
I received an e-mail yesterday from the art director of a large publishing company in Poland. Like so many others, he is interested in publishing on the iPad and other tablet devices. And like so many others, he doesn't know where to begin. Nobody at this point has all of the answers. But for whatever they're worth, here are mine:
Are you using a certain standard format for electronic publications (for instance ePub, PDF, other). Why this particular one and not another?
It varies by project, depending on what goals the publisher has set. That's the starting point for any venture into this new medium — identifying why you're doing it. Only then can you determine how you're doing it. The mission statement drives everything, and takes into account many considerations, including these:
• Why are we doing this? (Among the possibilities: to create a better business model; to extend our brand; to sell immersive advertising experiences; to sell subscriptions, not only locally but globally; to create new revenue through e-commerce and click-to-buy functionality; to replace our existing publications; to save our asses.) • Who is our the target audience? Are we going after the unique demographics that the iPad offers, or a much larger audience that will access content through computers, phones and other tablets? • What is our business model? Is it subscription-based or advertising-supported, or both, and to what extent? Is there an argument for giving something away in order to generate interest in other products that can be monetized? How sizeable is the potential reward, so we can determine how much we're willing to invest? • What functionality do we require? Is there a need to power transactions? Is our content best presented as static images or moving pictures? Do we require sound? What is the lifespan of our content — can it be downloaded once or must it be constantly updated? • How can we enable users to interact with our publications, through Facebook, Twitter, message boards and other means of turning the publishing experience into more of a conversation?
Once these questions are answered, the technology questions become much more directed. Of the many delivery platforms available, the right choice is the one that best serves the editorial and business needs.
• ePub: The benefit of ePub is that it can be accessed on multiple devices, including the Amazon Kindle and most eReaders. The drawback of ePub is that there is limited control over design — it is better suited to books than formatted publications. Think of it like Microsoft Word, with inline graphics that flow along with streams of text. • PDF: The venerable PDF format allows us to create publications that are bold and graphic, making best use of the vivid display and screen resolution, but there's little if any interactivity. It cannot be dynamically updated, so the user must download new versions to receive new content. On the plus side, PDFs are closest thing we have to a lingua franca for the iPad and other platforms. They deliver a consistent experience on every platform. •Flash once served as that lingua franca, until Apple banished it from the iPhone and iPad. Meanwhile, Adobe has promised that its upcoming CS5 release will include an export feature that makes its content compatible with Apple's devices, even without Flash. Until then, Flash enables us to create and deliver dynamic content on every platform other than the iPad and iPhone, thanks to the versatility of Adobe AIR. •HTML5 is an emerging web standard that has not yet fully emerged. Someday it may be an alternative to Flash for distributing rich media through a browser. But not yet. •Apple has provided an iPad SDK that allows developers to program specifically for the iPad, using a common toolset that promises an Apple-like user experience. Problem is, programming for the iPad is not an Apple-like user experience, and it requires developers who can be hard to find and therefore expensive. What's more, the apps work only on the iPad and need to be distributed through the App Store.
Are you using an editorial system to manage publications besides e-editions?
I'm intrigued by what I've seen from WoodWing, a software company based in Amsterdam. They have worked with Time Inc. to develop the platform for their upcoming iPad publications, and shared examples during a workshop at the Time-Life Building a few weeks back. Their approach leverages an Adobe InDesign workflow to export XML coding that can be ported into many formats, including an app.
It is critical to synchronize editorial, advertising and technology efforts, and for that to happen, the technology needs to be more accessible. That will happen, in time. Companies like WoodWing — and potentially Adobe and Apple — will make electronic publishing more intuitive. Until then, publishing giants are engaged in a street fight to develop proprietary solutions that get them to the iPad before anyone else, knowing full well that their workflows may not serve them long-term.
In what way is it being distributed to devices/subscribers? Are we talking about a GPRS modem, 3G modem, wifi, USB cable connection with another PC or terminal? This question is important as far as the speed and ease of synchronization with the content server is concerned.
In order for these devices to realize their potential, they must become truly mobile, which requires a persistent 3G connection. Otherwise, the user is confined to whatever content they last downloaded. That means that newspapers cannot update, and just as important, readers cannot access offline content such as animation, e-commerce opportunities and advertising. The WiFi-only model is a short-lived one, as the device must be tethered in order to be truly useful.
In the meantime, publishers are forced to develop content that works both online and offline. On top of that, their publications must work vertically and horizontally. So many workflows, so little resources. Something has to give.
Who is in charge of preparing such a publication? Is there a separate team, or are these the same people who do the layout for the printed edition?
How many people are involved in the creative process? This question concerns also their qualifications: are they both graphic designers and programmers, or just graphic designers? In other words, does the creation of the publication require coding, or simply selecting certain options in an application?
In order to seize the moment that tablet publications offer, publications need to dedicate editorial, advertising and technology resources, putting all on the same team toward the same goals. The electronic edition is much more visual, with information presented in layers. It lends itself to different types of content and different types of advertising. Its form is smaller than a newspaper or magazine, and its contents need to be created specifically for the device for which it is intended.
Ideally these people have overlapping interests, as it is their cooperation that will best exploit the potential of this new medium.
Uff!!! I see It is too much questions!!! But may be only a few answers.
Uff, indeed. Know that the answers will continue to change as we learn more about the technology, the audience and the revenue streams. And every publication will have its own solutions, based on its own needs, and ideally based on common tools that emerge over time.
I appreciate your questions. They are an important part of a global conversation that will ultimately change the way we interact with newspapers and magazines.
We put our heads together with our client, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, serving as development partner for a leading retailer’s website, now online. Joe Zeff Design produced hundreds of wireframe models — heads, hair and faces — that allow visitors to recreate themselves as mannequins as they compete for a $100,000 prize. A brilliant campaign, and we’re thrilled to have been a part of it. See for yourself at www.iwannabesuper.com
The iPad opens new frontiers for presenting information, with new tools for visual storytelling. Here is an illustration that Joe Zeff Design created for Unisys Corporation, before there was an iPad.
On the iPad, an image has no boundaries. it is cropped as the viewer intends.
It is now possible to present an underlying layer packed with information.
Back to the original viewer. Note that the image is orientation-independent. Think of the screen as a window, not a window frame.
The viewer can move freely through the picture, and zoom to observe specific detail.
Layer upon layer of information. A tap summons additional detail.
And so forth. The possibilities are endless, for photography, diagrams, maps, advertising and much, much more.
Nothing says March Madness like the bracket, the iconic diagram used to show which teams play which for the NCAA basketball championship. For its current issue, ESPN The Magazine asked us to reimagine the bracket as a three-dimensional object. The result — these colorful visualizations, inspired by Creative Director Siung Tjia and Jason Lancaster:
Apple tells us that almost 150,000 apps from the App Store will run on the iPad. Does that mean that the iPad apps that publishers are developing will run on the iPhone? If so, the audience is much broader for these publications than many are counting upon.
In all of the conversations that I’ve had with editors, strategists and developers this week, in the U.S. and Europe, nobody has touched on this possibility. Should publishers be developing apps with this dual audience in mind, or will iPad-specific apps demand functionality that is non-existing on the iPhone? Maybe it makes sense to curtail first-round development to iPhone apps that can be accessed by iPad owners as well, targeting this larger audience that already exists, until the tools become available to more easily create iPad-specific publications?
It may also be a way for publishers worldwide to start publishing today rather than waiting for iPad launches in their respective countries. It's reasonable to expect that most iPad owners will also be iPhone owners who would appreciate the flexibility to access the same content on both devices.
Another possibility, of course: Adobe Air. Once Adobe delivers its promised iPad Packager with Flash CS5 later this year, developers can create one single publication that can be read on any computer, phone or tablet, including the iPad and iPhone. Or at least that's what they are promising. And then there's the possibility that the iPad isn't the end-all solution. Gary Cosimini at Adobe sends along this video, showing HP's upcoming slate and its possibilities.
Bottom line: It's important to think big picture about tablet development before targeting any single delivery platform.
Thoughts? Please comment below or offline, and I'll post any information I can find on the subject.
