Mobile Magazine Publishing

-hands on-Mobile Digital Publishing

Haig Armen

haig@liftstudios.ca @haigarmen

Most magazines have terrible ratings in the App Store(few rank higher than 2 stars)

a little bit about me

What happens when you mixan architect with a jazz musician?

1. The Reading ExperienceContext & Behaviours

2. The Numbers Are OutMobile Usage Statistics

3. The Hardware The devices we love to hate

4. The SoftwareThe good, the bad & the unusable

5. The businessDigital options & business models?

Understanding

Context(Why Mobile?)

We readas a ritual

We wantour magazineson the go

Reading when we can...

We readwhere we can

Sometimeswe like to read alone

or we read socially

To create the best reading experiencewe must understand

how peopleare reading Here are some behaviourswe should think about

We scan& browse

we are drawnto imagery

jump from publication to publication

& cross-referencing

we take notes

we highlight

and we bookmark

Defining Digital?

Are readers ready for digital content?

The Numbers Are Out Mobile Usage Statsistics

The Hardwarea look at mobile devices

iPhone

Android phone

iPad

kobo

Kobo

kindle

Kindle

Where and when are these devices being used?

Kindle

Is Apple the silver bulletthat publishers have been

waiting for?

The iPad is a game-changerbut not for the reasons you’ve been told

NativeApplications

ProprietaryPlatform dependentProgrammed in:Apple: Objective -CAndroid: JavaWindows: Visual BasicRegulated Marketplace?

Mobile Web Applications

Standard Web technologyPlatform agnosticProgrammed in: HTMLCSS & Javascript Free press

Native App Benefits:pay per downloadbetter access to hardware(camera, sensors, microphone)access of user datatraditional control over designprocessor performancemulti-touch functionality

Native App Disadvantages:Expensive Development costsApple's inconsistent App Store ApprovalApple's 30% cut of salesCost of Upgrade maintenancePlatform dependent

Magazines as paid apps don’t seem to be panning out

Numbers are down.

http://gizmodo.com/5720597/magazines-doomed-once-again-as-ipad-sales-slump

Magazine September 2010

November 2010

Wired

Vanity Fair

Glamour

GQ

31,000

10,500

4,301

unavailable

23,000

8,700

2,775

11,000

AppStore Observations

Major complaints mentioned in the reviews section are: • slow downloading • unintuitive or annoying navigation • you’re just getting scans of the printed book.

Unreasonable Downloads

Downloading issues over 200mgs are a major obstacle. "I waited an absolutely deadeningly long time for the Kayaking magazine to download all its page spreads, AND it forced me to download a product guide edition before I got to see the real content."

Lost in Translation

Many high-profile magazines are built using Adobe’s Digitial Publishing Suite, which takes InDesign layouts as PDFs and wraps them up as an App, providing a standardized swiping navigation.

Let’s look at some examples of the App approach:

Case Study:

Time Magazine

Page-turning digital editions systems leave something to be

desired in terms of UX

User Experiencea user-centered design approach

is crucial part of this equation

Periodicals approach publishing like Website producers -

responsive and agile

Publications are SocialHow are you encouraging that?

What about the Web? Let’s look at some examples...

Geist Magazinefollowing web standards &

appropriate design decisions

Case Study:

Flipboard: a hybrid approach

think strategicallyin these directions:

What would mobile reading look like for my magazine? How can I use web as platform to achieve that? How do I manage digital and print at same time? Does going digital mean selling/delivering your content on a digital platform? Why does a digital workflow make sense?even if you’re not publishing to the web

Where's the Business Model?

Thank you

haig@liftstudios.ca @haigarmen