Several publishers rushed to bring out apps for the iPad, using clever tools to easily present a digital version of their newspaper or magazine. Some have put in extra effort, like Wired, but most just seem to offer touchable pdf’s. There is another category for news consumption though finding its roots on the web: news readers. In just a few months we’ve seen an interesting development. From well-designed minimalistic apps like Reeder and Headline to a visual news reader like Pulse, “personalized mobile newspaper” Apollo News, and our lastest favorite appetizer, Flipboard. In flipbook-style the latter offers aggregated feeds around popular themes like tech, design, and photography, and combines them with the links and pictures your contacts share with you through Facebook and Twitter. They call it “the first social magazine”. These are exciting times.
Categories: News.
Tags: apollo news, flipboard, headline, pulse, reeder
By Erwin
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July 24, 2010 at 10:17
What a ride. We have an iPad for almost a week now and it is such a joy to use. Apple did a great job. Our interest obviously focused on the first digital publications. We checked out newspapers like The New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal, comics by Marvel, and of course magazines. Men’s Health’s iPad app is a bit weak, showing just pdf-like pages which zoomed in look awful. Paris Match does a better job, leaning heavily on photography. GQ sticks to its great artdirection in landscape mode and tries something new in portrait. Time magazine used Woodwing software for its iPad app which seems to work well. The best example of the ideas that also keep our minds at Screenzine busy is Popular Science magazine. As the editor states: “What defines a magazine? Curated expertise – not paper.” Excellent execution and a fresh approach towards this new platform.
You can see some these titles in action in this video.
Categories: News.
Tags: gq, ipad, marvel, men's health, new york times, paris match, popular science, time, usa today, wall street journal, woodwing
By Erwin
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April 9, 2010 at 11:26
Several inspiring demo’s have popped up of magazine, newspaper and book publishers experimenting with their content for the iPad platform. Wired is as good as ready, staying quite close to the magazine format we all know and love. VIV Mag is trying an approach that can be best described as ‘dvd menu movies’. Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf adds lots of video. And Penguin Books shows what a touchscreen and sensors might do for their content.
We see strange choices and nice touches. Most of all we see eagerness to try out and explore this new platform. We’re on the same page. We’ve ordered an iPad and can’t wait to start playing.
Categories: News.
Tags: penguin, telegraaf, viv, wired
By Erwin
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March 24, 2010 at 20:34
The iPad has finally arrived and we couldn’t be happier. The tablet is exactly what we expected it to be and confirms the promise it holds for the future of magazines. The App Store and iBook Store offer publishers a potent platform for subscriptions. We can proudly say the Screenzine format will fit perfectly, especially in the case of apps designed specifically for the larger screen of the iPad. We do not rely on Flash and all our tech specs are fully compliant with the iPad’s: creating standalone apps was and is in our plans from the start.
You will be reading Screenzines on your iPad soon.
Categories: News.
By Luis
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January 28, 2010 at 12:49
Next to the tablet apps mentioned in our previous post there is another fascinating concept developed by Bonnier R&D and designed by BERG. They call it Mag+. Their thoughts closely resemble our own towards the future of digital magazines: “The concept uses the power of digital media to create a rich and meaningful experience, while maintaining the relaxed and curated features of printed magazines. It has been designed for a world in which interactivity, abundant information and unlimited options could be perceived as intrusive and overwhelming.” Check out their excellent video.
Categories: News.
Tags: berg, bonnier, mag+
By Erwin
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January 15, 2010 at 11:55
It has been a while since our last post. Sorry about that, we’ve been busy with both our day jobs and with Screenzine. We’re closing in on a format that can be best described as the ‘Monocle among digital magazines’. Suitable for high-end quality publications tailored for screen use. This week we showed our first mockup to potential clients.
We are not the only ones exploring this evolution in publishing. In the States an unique joint venture is set up between major magazine publishers Time Inc., Condé Nast and Hearst: “The company will prepare magazines that can work across multiple digital platforms, whether the iPhone, the BlackBerry or countless other digital devices. The company will not develop an e-book, but create something that people familiar with the plans compare to iTunes – a store where you can buy new and distinct iterations of The New Yorker or Time. Print magazines will also be for sale.”
This new company bets on the anticipated arrival of a complete digital publishing environment initiated by, amongst others, Apple, offering a viable business model, safe distribution, as well as an attractive device. As Freek Bijl pointed out, Apple came up with similar solutions for the music industry (iTunes + iTunes Store + iPod) and mobile industry (iTunes + App Store + iPhone). Expectation is Apple will repeat its magic in 2010 for the publishing industry: iTunes + ‘News Store’ + ‘iPad’. Demos of the first iterations of the tablet apps for Time and Wired magazine can be seen at TechCrunch.
This is future publishing in the making. Where are you at?
Categories: News.
Tags: apple, conde nast, hearst, tablet, time
By Erwin
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December 5, 2009 at 12:49
Last Thursday Apple changed its App Store policy extending in-app sales to free apps. As Wired observes this is particularly interesting for publishers who tend to offer iPhone apps for free but are now able to charge for its contents through subscriptions. Add to that Apple’s anticipated iPad, or MacBook Touch, or iTablet, or how you’d like to call it, expected to be announced early 2010, and there is an entire platform ready to be used internationally. Scarab Magazine for one has already started using it.
Note: The shown MacPad is a fake.
Categories: News.
Tags: app store, apple, iphone, tablet
By Erwin
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October 20, 2009 at 08:47
We have seen some examples already of interactive magazine covers, like this one by Popular Science, using the webcam in your computer. Anticipating on the arrival on really thin and flexible displays, photographer Alexx Henry gives a glimpse of a more appealing future of print magazines. He calls it living art and refers to sciencefiction and Harry Potter movies, in which pictures in newspapers and magazines often are actually videos that start playing on opening the page. This kind of technology would definitely go beyond Esquire’s e-ink cover. And it would add more value to a print magazine. For now we’ll stick to existing screens though.
Categories: News.
Tags: cover, living art
By Erwin
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October 10, 2009 at 19:35
Two articles we recently read touch the notion of value. Japanese studio Information Architects deconstructs the value of information, in an attempt to find a way to monetize content as paper is fading and people are not used to pay for websites. According to essayist Paul Graham in his article Post-Medium Publishing publishers need to rethink their strategy. He says readers never paid for content, but for the medium the content was published on. “They have two choices: give content away and make money from it indirectly, or find ways to embody it in things people will pay for.” His advice: “When you see something that’s taking advantage of new technology to give people something they want that they couldn’t have before, you’re probably looking at a winner.”
That is why we at Screenzine are exploring the future of digital magazines. That journey starts and ends with great editorial content, which we consider to be the most important value in magazine publishing, no matter what medium you’re using. With editorial we mean the skill, the craftmanship, to gather and select significant content and present it in an appealing fashion to the audience, in order to inform, entertain and inspire them.
In the end editorial boils down to one quintessential skill: taste. Or ‘style’ if you like, like in this quote from JC Herz’ Joystick Nation: “Information isn’t the valuable commodity. The valuable commodity is information sorting. And actually, style is the most sophisticated form of information sorting.” Sophistication, that is what we strive for.
Categories: Screenzine.
Tags: content, editorial, style, value
By Erwin
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September 26, 2009 at 21:38
San Francisco based McSweeney’s, publisher of magazines, fiction and essays, has released an interesting iPhone app. It’s interesting not for its interface or contents, which are both of fine quality by the way, but for introducing what might be the first subscription model for digital magazines. You buy the app for 4,99 euro. The purchase includes the first six months subscription fee. For that you receive new stories on a weekly basis. An understandable, doable and simple solution. One that Rupert Murdoch plans to use as well for the Wall Street Journal apps for iPhone and Blackberry. In his case you would pay 1 or 2 dollar per week, depending on whether you’re already a subscriber to the printed paper.
I prefer subscriptions over micropayments per article. With the latter you become too conscious of the fact you are paying for the content. A subscription fee is less of a hassle. Subsequently I would like monthly, quarterly or annual billing for a digital magazine instead of weekly as the WSJ is planning. Just like we’re used to in the printed world.
Categories: News.
Tags: mcsweeney's, rupert murdoch, subscription, wall street journal
By Erwin
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September 26, 2009 at 16:47
