Magazine Publishers Teaming Up for Digital Publishing

[ChrisA]

The work and become popular I think two things are needed:

1. The content must be readable on any device, a computer or a portable.
2. The price has to be no more than the paper version.
3. I'm able to keep the digital version for as long as I get to keep the paper version

The Kindle was an example of how to fail, requiring people to pay you close to $300 before they can even enter the store and buy their first e-book and then after they buy the book find it is in a special format that only works on one device and when that device is gone there goes their library.

Hopefully they will be smarter this time. I want to buy a digital copy of the local news paper for the newsstand price (50 cents) and read it on a device I already own. It theory this means the paper still gets the same money but saves the cost of printing an delivery.

 

[zombitronic]

Um...shockingly, this store may not be designed for an Apple device. I know that's a hard pill to swallow here.

Yes, that is the point of this article. With all the hype about the Apple Tablet, though, it would seem odd to count this mythical device out of their plans.

Also, this article was posted on an Apple related forum, presumably because of a rumored future Apple device that may or may not take advantage of this content. Excuse me for considering the possibilities.

 

[powers74]

reading

Guess apple got beat to it this time. There loss. They need to get on the ball with their tablet and whatnot.

I don't know about that. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to be more than just an e-reader. El Jobs, maybe still not convinced people read, didn't want to risk a whole new store on newspapers, went to the papers like, "look we're going to make this neat-o device that is going to be fantastic for digital news, so here is your last chance for survival. Just a little gift from me to you, so, get your schitte together". Knowing full well he could still make a killing on iTunes/App stores & hardware sales.

Besides, he can make a big deal about it when it debuts, get a couple newspaper & magazine hotshots on stage to present the new service. And if it fails - not such a biggie for Apple. Or, it could be Apple would still get a cut, but rather than it being an Apple store giving a cut to the papers/mags, it would be the other way around - apple would get a cut for every issue downloaded to one of their Applets. There are a couple advantages to this setup. A) Better for consumer; if other companies design similar products, they would still be able to get their favorite paper or magazine. It's not very Apple, but it is the news after all, everyone should be able to get it. B) Even more importantly, Apple would not be responsible for content. There are a lot of newspapers and magazines out there, and Apple is a control freak of a company. Set up this way, they don't have to worry about the content so much.

Just my 2 cents. Steve aint' no moron, I'm sure he's got it figured out.

 

[blackpond]

Yet another .com

We already have a storefront to interactive print media. It's called Google.

If this "alliance" brings nothing more than a web site to purchase and download rights managed PDF's, I'm left wondering why they didn't think of this in 1996.

 

[rhett7660]

We already have a storefront to interactive print media. It's called Google.

If this "alliance" brings nothing more than a web site to purchase and download rights managed PDF's, I'm left wondering why they didn't think of this in 1996.

They didn't want to share at that time..... That is the only think I can think of. Now that we are in a different age and more and more things are going digital..... Maybe they are seeing the light!

 

[iansilv]

I think this company is more about organization and getting everyone in line for the digital distribution age. I think the Slate won't give a crap about large magazine publishers- look at the app store- think about new publishers getting a steady stream of revenue or publishing on it.

conde Nast and those other established publications who are bleeding losses will have to adapt. I think this thing is going to be killer, as the multitouch on the iphone is so popular.

so basically, I find it hard to imagine ha these large publishers don't have intimate knowledge of the upcoming Slate, and I find it hard to believe that they would be stupid enough to try and fight with it.

 

[iansilv]

I don't know about that. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to be more than just an e-reader. El Jobs, maybe still not convinced people read, didn't want to risk a whole new store on newspapers, went to the papers like, "look we're going to make this neat-o device that is going to be fantastic for digital news, so here is your last chance for survival. Just a little gift from me to you, so, get your schitte together". Knowing full well he could still make a killing on iTunes/App stores & hardware sales.

Besides, he can make a big deal about it when it debuts, get a couple newspaper & magazine hotshots on stage to present the new service. And if it fails - not such a biggie for Apple. Or, it could be Apple would still get a cut, but rather than it being an Apple store giving a cut to the papers/mags, it would be the other way around - apple would get a cut for every issue downloaded to one of their Applets. There are a couple advantages to this setup. A) Better for consumer; if other companies design similar products, they would still be able to get their favorite paper or magazine. It's not very Apple, but it is the news after all, everyone should be able to get it. B) Even more importantly, Apple would not be responsible for content. There are a lot of newspapers and magazines out there, and Apple is a control freak of a company. Set up this way, they don't have to worry about the content so much.

Just my 2 cents. Steve aint' no moron, I'm sure he's got it figured out.

Yeah- I'm with you- I think you nailed it.

 

[JGowan]

Guess apple got beat to it this time. There loss. They need to get on the ball with their tablet and whatnot.

Whatever... this will NOT catch on until there is THE DEVICE that will make it all work. AND THEN... when Apple brings this to market, the WAY the magazines will be written/programmed will need to change so that it will run worth a crap ("it's the software, stupid", as popularly said).

They are banding together because they don't want Apple to be running things, but let me tell you, Steve will give them just enough rope to hang themselves with, biding his time. Whether then want to admit it, they need Apple. And they need to be on the Publications App that Apple will have on their devices. The reason why these pub companies are trusting this ex-vp of Time is because they don't know what they're doing and this guy seems to so, it seems like Digital content is what we need to do so we'll trust this guy. Crazy. It's easier to say "it's handled" and go on with the day-to-day, hoping for the best. Giving this guy the OK is simply putting off what they don't want nor know how to do. The music industry was just as clueless.

This won't work for a myriad of reasons, but mainly because the goal is simply to make money. I don't think for a minute that these people care about HOW the content will be view or if it'll be an elegant experience with excellent navigation. They're simply looking at the bottom line and care about making money. Apple, of course, is making money but the focus has always seemed to be (at Steve's helm) to make incredible devices that make people think different about how then do things. Corny but true.

For this to work, a vast amount of people will have to stop reading physical newspapers and magazines and reading info online and start reading it on a dedicated device. That's a huge jump. The right device is everything to get people to notice.

I believe Apple will bring just such a device to market. And the reason it will succeed where others are only making the smallest scratch is because it won't be dedicated to magazines/books. Because it'll surf the web, play games, do music and movies -- it's not just a "one trick pony" as all of these e-readers are being rightfully called. Hell, with the App store, this device will be a "100,000 Trick Pony".

-------

It's ironic that we had the Palm CEO Ed Colligan saying "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in." He at least had SOME valid reasons for thinking this. I think it's entirely different matter when media conglomerates feel like they are going "to just figure this out" and "just walk in" -- obviously, this is when you employ or buy other companies that are already in said tech business. My problem with that is this: companies big and small have been trying to out-Apple Apple for decades now and just hasn't happened. I will give them this,... because they've had Apple to borrow and steal from for so long, the products that are a lot better than they would've been.

I shudder to think what technology we'd have if Apple had never been formed.

 

[jhead]

Standards

Given the varied screen real estate and resolutions for mobile devices, tablets, and desktop displays... my curiosity has sparked with the idea of creating a online publishing "standard". The handshake between UI, advertising, and readability will require some user adoption. My guess: advertising holds the heaviest weight within this new standard and content will be addressed second (though we'll told otherwise). In the end, we the consumers will ultimately make the decision about this new online publishing standard.

 

[heisetax]

Good Idea

Its good to see that there will be digital information that is not tied into 1 hardware brand. I don't care how good one manufacture may be, there needs to be more choices other than Apple, Amazon & a few others. There was a lot of business before Apple & there sure be a lot of business by others now besides Apple. Plus there will be a lot of business after Apple.

 

[sambaman]

I believe the magazine industry should:

• create new open format in collaboration with computer industry, and
• allow distribution by 3rd party stores.

Otherwise, I worry the result would be high prices and lame user-experience.
Even the magazine industry would loose in the long run.


----------- DETAILS ----------
Apple successfully competed with *free* content
(e.g., songs freely available in the web).
by creating a great user experience for music (iPod/iTunes)
with *fair* prices for content ($0.99 per song, against Music Industry wishes, but still profitable).
The system was successful because it benefited all involved (consumers, Apple, music industry).
Success for digital magazines (which also competes with free content) will also require great user experience at low (or no) price.

If magazine industry gets greedy for near-complete control
(content, distribution, and price for all magazines),
everyone would loose:

• Consumers would get:
  a) sub-optimal user experience:
  Magazine industry lacks skills on software/hardware/innovation/integration
  for creating a good shopping experience and a new innovative open format
  (with video, live graphs, etc. while still backward compatible with existing formats and devices);
  b) lower content quality:
  Single distribution might hinder competition for prime "shelf space"/"eye balls",
  Single organization would have too much say on what deserves more journalistic exposure; and
  c) high prices for content:
  Software industry would have no leverage to force magazine industry to lower prices, minimize intrusive adds, etc.
  
  
• Computer industry would loose because user experience would be sub-optimal on their devices.
  Computer industry would have no input to innovate on standard format to be adopted.
  
  
• Magazine industry would loose because users would turn to free content.
  

From consumer's perspective, the best would be for *everyone* to win.
So, I hope (perhaps enforced by some external regulatory agency)
magazines industry:

• uses open format and standards (as the article states) but in cooperation with computer industry
  (so format is innovative, improved, interoperability is ensured).
  That way, players in computer industry (e.g.: Apple VS Amazon) would be able to compete
  on providing good user experience.
  
  
• allows magazine open distribution by computer industry.
  So, software industry can have sufficient leverage to negotiate lower price for content,
  and further compete and innovate on user experience, including on making better stores (as Apple did with music).

 

[JGowan]

If the content is DRM encumbered, you can count me out. It better use a platform agnostic format. PDF or HTML based.

How could be this be anything other than DRM'd? At least with a song, you will continue to care about the song weeks, months or years from now. Daily or monthly content that will mean nothing to a reader in a day or a week's time MUST be protected while money can be made from it while the content is fresh. There's a reason why newspapers become bird cage liners a day later. Also with what will be hundreds if not thousands of "digital daily news files", how will any of these big companies be able to monitor who's releasing the files to the world for free? By the time the publisher finds the culprit, it's two days later and the content is worthless anyway. You can have the website shut down, but that takes lawyers and another person resumes the same deal the next day on another website. The content is too fragile and disposable not to DRM it. Think of the millions that were made off the news and specifics of Michael Jackson's death a few months ago. Today -- old news -- on to other sensationalism.

Perhaps what they need to do is do exactly what was done initially for iTunes for years... the files is tied to YOUR account so you're responsible if this thing ends up circulating the globe, but -- you also have the right to place it on a number of computers, or readers or devices (whatever) -- 5 sounds about right.

The one thing that will have to be addressed in my opinion is Lending and Selling. For books AND for magazines. Let's say that in the future, the most popular magazines have all been made digitally available (present and past issues) -- If I buy the whole MAD MAGAZINE collection for X Dollars, I should be allow somehow to sell and transfer my right to view to another person. Also, I should have the right loan a digital book out for a limited time, just the same way I would loan a physical book out, ala The Nook. Of course, one way that publishers could get around this would be if they simply charged a lot less for the digital version. A physical hardback is $30 but the digital version is $15 -- but there's next to no distribution costs so tell you friend it's a great book and suggest he download a copy.

 

[baleensavage]

I would love to see the industry move beyond the aging, restrictive eBook format. PDFs are so cumbersome, slow and are based on the idea of shoehorning print into a digital format. It's the same reason why PDF booklets for digital CDs went nowhere. Apple has it right with the iTunes LP and it would be great to see the print media work towards something like that, but in an open standards-based format.

 

[scottness]

I'd like to see something like this within iTunes.

 

[numediaman]

I work in the newspaper industry. . .
Christopher

Some Examples of our digital edition. These are flash based so they are not iPhone friendly.

Christopher, these are flipbooks, and I have said on another post on another thread, I believe they are a dead-end.

(For those not familiar with flipbooks, they are Flash based versions of magazines. PDFs were the first way to do these, but Flash replaced the PDF a few years ago.)

What flipbooks try and do is duplicate the print experience online. Some companies work hard at them by including lots of links, others have tried to incorporate video and Flash elements including advertising, but most have put these flipbooks up on their web sites where they go to die.

As I told one of my editors a few months back, "I will know that you get how to make the flipbooks work when the magazine is 56 pages, and the flipbook is 100 (because of all the added features, sidebars and reader contributions that can be added to a flipbook of the same month's magazine)". He's never added to the flipbook -- and I'm sure never will.

 

[SiPat]

I am a voracious reader: books, magazines, newspapers…

Books: I only buy print versions of those I intend to keep, others I will borrow from the local library, read and return.

Magazines: Subscribe only to one print, others are digital where available.

News: Stopped buying newspapers, even at weekends with additional content. Loads of broadsheets provide free content on their websites.

For those who don’t know, there are loads of (unauthorised) magazines — particularly past issues — available as PDF downloads, usually scanned and collated into PDFs. These are OK for reading on large screens, but almost useless on the iPhone/iPod Touch and the eBook readers.

One app I use on the iPhone is GoodReader, which I believe is able to re-flow PDF files, and this is where things should be going. I wish I could do this on my Sony PRS-505, for which I have loads of editable PDFs — I usually convert to RTF for reading on the eBook reader. This makes it easier to increase font size and retain some semblance of formatting.

I wish Apple would actually produce a decent Tablet -- I would replace 3 devices in one go, especially if it had provision for mobile data.

 

[BVeritas]

It'll be fun to watch this magazine consortium fail just like music and movies.

Actually they're quite stupid. If they present themselves as an app with some content and use in app purchase for full content or a paper version, they would have something that would work.

Simply have to wait for the egos to succumb to money.

 

[tecton]

I think Steve jobs patents for advertising tied deeply into the o.s. are intended for the tablet not pc. They'll make revenue not from content but from ads. They won't have to police content or provide it.

 

[jubach]

i hope hey could come with something that is UNEXPECTED and been done by any other who have done this kind of change or innovation

 

[jilldemi]

That is pretty bad.. this is another way to get off employees.. crisis..

 

[rhett7660]

That is pretty bad.. this is another way to get off employees.. crisis..

Huh?

 

[twoodcc]

this tablet must be big. can't wait for it