The Future of Digital Magazines
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The future of digital magazines Thesis by Sandor Ruben Kerst University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam, The Netherlands July 2012 The Future of Digital Magazines Colophon Name: Sandor Ruben Kerst Email: [email protected] Studentnumber: 0805391 Website: www.sandorkerst.com Year of Graduation: 2012 Major: Mediatechnologie Minor: Managemant & Consultancy Title: The future of digital magazines Subject: Future digital publishing Short description: Using future technologies, this research is focused on creating the next generation digital magazine. With an eye on digital publishing and the developments in the digital media landscape a proposal is made. Graduation supervisor university: Bakker E.P ([email protected]) Graduation supervisors in company: Martin S., Jambert A. Copyrights: Eat Creative k.k 2 Acknowledgements With the help from friends, supervisors and specialists active in the industry I want to thank the following people for realizing this thesis: My Eat Creative supervisors Alison Jambert, Steve Martin and Ayako Chujo for their insight and guidance in helping me discovering the magazine industry and giving me the wonderful opportunity to let me work at the Eat office in Tokyo, Japan. I would like to thank my university supervisor Emiel Bakker, for guiding me through the process and especially the early stages of the research. His feedback and advice gave me more grip and control over the wide research topic I had chosen. Without the inspirational discussions during lunch with my colleagues Simon Browning, Johan Lorentzon and Daisuke Tsubote, my vision for the future of digital publishing might never be so clear and rich as it is now. I want to thank all of them for that and for making my time at Eat so enjoyable. 3 The Future of Digital Magazines Summary Since their first appearances, magazines have always attracted people to read more about topics that are connected to their interests. Whether it is sports, cars, finance or carpentry, everyone could think of a magazine that they feel associated with. And it is not only about that particular interest that makes them popular and beloved, but also the emotional package that is included. Everything, from design till paper textures matters, and is unconsciously part of us approving a particular magazine. The look-and-feel aspects, flipping pages while lying on the couch, not minding the time, are all part of the ‘magazine experience’ that we have since we begun reading them. It is hard to imagine that we can accomplish something similar on an electronic device. Digital publishing had a remarkable series of new developments over the last few years. People are flooded with the tons of content sources to choose from, while other people curate that content in order to make things more organized and interest-specific. In ‘app- land’ start-ups are experimenting with personal- and social magazines in order to re-define the definition of a magazine. Meanwhile, Amazon is trying to take over the publishing platform business by offering worldwide services in digital content, all supported by their massive cloud network. In the music industry, Spotify has re-invented the music-ecosystem that benefits all parties involved, creating a technological milestone in music- and social sharing. Streaming videos powered by the cloud and running on subscription models tend to take over DVD rentals and television movie channels, offering high-quality videos on desktop, mobile and tablet devices. Digital reading has become a more common habit with the massive adaption of the iPad, Kindle, iPhone and the many other eReader and tablet computers. Content can be loaded from anywhere in the world because cloud computing is becoming the overall fuel for keeping the publishing industry running. While the video and music industry are profiting from their strategic subscription models and the eBook industry from platforms as Amazon and Zinio, the magazine industry is still waiting for a similar electronic breakthrough to be adapted by the general mass. The technology and matching devices are there, but the perfect service is still waiting to be revealed. For over ten years now, print magazines have been trying to make their digital edition successful. This success is still not achieved even though the iPad brought new life into these digital versions by bringing perfect mobility and enhanced interaction. With the high amount of free online content, it is hard for publishing companies to differentiate themselves from the rest. Everyone is able to publish, which blurs the ranks in professional journalism, letting people choose themselves what they perceive as professional content. Only the strongest names in the industry (Time, National Geographic Magazine, People etc.) are able to profit from their digital editions. A massive decline of print has not started yet but is expected to grow within the next ten to fifteen years. Magazine publishers need to use the popularity of mobile devices in combination with subscription models like Spotify in able to join the digital media world. Like Spotify and iTunes did to music, magazines should become more open and individualized focusing on professional stories and long-form content. 4 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 7 1.1 Motivations and Relevance ............................................................................................ 7 1.2 Thesis Questionnaire ...................................................................................................... 9 1.3 Research Method ........................................................................................................... 9 1.3.1 Pre-early stage research.......................................................................................... 9 1.3.2 Primary research: Interviews .................................................................................. 9 1.3.3 Secondary research............................................................................................... 10 1.4 About this thesis........................................................................................................... 10 1.5 Research structure........................................................................................................ 10 2. Theory and context.................................................................................. 11 2.1 How to define a magazine? .......................................................................................... 11 2.2 The complete package.................................................................................................. 12 2.3 Why do we read magazines?........................................................................................ 12 2.4 Electronic Publishing..................................................................................................... 13 2.5 2010 – 2011 .................................................................................................................. 13 2.6 The digital edition......................................................................................................... 13 2.7 Today’s eMagazine technology .................................................................................... 14 2.8 New era magazines....................................................................................................... 16 2.8.1 Flipboard ............................................................................................................... 17 2.8.2 The Financial Times (FT) App................................................................................. 17 2.8.3 Salon.com.............................................................................................................. 18 2.8.4 Flud........................................................................................................................ 18 2.8.5 Asidmag.com......................................................................................................... 18 2.9 What is next?................................................................................................................ 19 3. How to create a digital magazine ........................................................... 20 3.1 Standard tools for digital editions ................................................................................ 20 3.1.1 Adobe Digital Publishing Suite .............................................................................. 20 3.1.2 iBooks Author........................................................................................................ 20 3.1.3 PhoneGap.............................................................................................................. 21 3.2 EPUB 3.0 ....................................................................................................................... 21 3.3 Google Currents............................................................................................................ 23 3.4 We are all publishers .................................................................................................... 23 3.5 Digital demands............................................................................................................ 23 3.6 Content aggregation..................................................................................................... 24 3.7 Long-form vs. short-form journalism...........................................................................