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
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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.
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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...... 24
4. Rising technology...... 26 4.1 Web vs. Apps ...... 26 4.2 Mobile’s Potential...... 27 4.3 Mobile apps: The differences ...... 27 4.3.1 Native ...... 28 4.3.2 Web...... 28 4.3.3 Hybrid...... 29
5 The Future of Digital Magazines
4.4 The right choice ...... 29 4.5 Making web-based mobile apps...... 30 4.5.1 PhoneGap Build...... 30 4.5.2 Using the PhoneGap SDK ...... 31 4.5.3 PhoneGap vs. Web apps...... 31 4.5.4 Building a web app ...... 31 4.5.5 PhoneGap apps vs. web apps...... 32
4.5 Media in the Cloud...... 33 4.5.1 Amazon ...... 34 4.5.2 Spotify ...... 34 4.5.3 Video on demand (VOD) ...... 35 4.5.4 24symbols ...... 35
5. Conclusions ...... 36
6. A proposal for the future of electronic magazines...... 38 6.1 MagMix...... 38 6.1.1 Reading boards...... 39 6.1.2 Profile pages...... 39 6.1.3 Revenue model ...... 40 6.1.4 Issue maker ...... 39
7. Case study: Eat Magazine...... 41 7.1 Eat Magazine ...... 41 7.2 Eat Magazine 2012 ...... 42 7.2.1 Professional Food Journalism...... 42 7.2.2 Reading stories...... 42 7.2.3 Recipes ...... 42 7.2.4 Subscription...... 43 7.2.5 Social media ...... 43 7.3 Technology ...... 43 7.3.1 Mobile choice...... 43 7.3.2 Development process...... 44 7.3.3 Eat Reader and Eat Cooking Board...... 45 7.4 Scenario ...... 45 7.5 Business objective ...... 47
8. Bibliography ...... 48 Papers...... 48 Literature...... 48 Essays...... 49 Websites...... 49
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1. Introduction
Over the past couple of years, electronic publishing became a rapid growing industry where developments where running so fast that they overlapped each other every month. Interesting too see is that speculators and experts do not have a concrete vision of what is going to happen to the industry in the next few years. One thing is for sure; print is losing its supreme position, more people are now switching over to mobile devices. Speaking of, the relatively young tablet-market is growing fast, and on its way to surpass desktop computing. Tech companies, publishers and start-ups are all involved in a next-generation process, which is going to shape the magazine of the future.
At the moment, different types of developments are taking place in web- and software markets. The difference between web- and native-apps is fading, and the usage of ‘hybrid’ apps is growing. HTML 5 is becoming the new web standard which is going to change the way we interact with the web, providing businesses with a new set op tools and opportunities to shape the industry of tomorrow. New business models are created and consumers are now more comfortable with purchasing on the web in the form of ‘micro- payments’. Not to forget that content is becoming an important understanding, as we all want to stand out of the rest.
Culture differences define how services and concepts create impact in different countries. Futurists find it hard to predict what is going to be the effect of new technologies on people all over the world. How can we use these new technologies to shape markets?
1.1 Motivations and Relevance
“Just because we grew up with the Internet, doesn’t mean the Internet is grown up.” - Sherry Turkle
Fascinating to see is how rapid the publishing industry changed over the last 5 years. But what is more interesting to see is the amount of new technologies and options publishers and companies have these days to step-up their services. Currently, technologies and industries are changing so fast that as a company, you have to observe and then take your chances or someone else will.
More than 17 million tablets where sold at the end of 20101 on a worldwide scale. This means that tablets should be taken very seriously and not just as a side-gadget anymore. The competition for the biggest market-share is still going on between electronic-giants as Apple and Google. Everyone has his own vision on the future of electronic publishing. But what will be the real outcome? And how is it going to affect the industry. Some voices from the industry:
1 Tablet Market forcast, Market Watch (January 2012), http://www.marketwatch.com/story/worldwide-enterprise-tablet-market-forecast-2012-01-30
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“Traditional media continues to disregard the web as a valid source of quality content”2
“I think iPads provide the most promising future for what we think of as the traditional “magazine”. In a world where printing on paper becomes increasingly expensive and environmentally questionable, the iPad lets us hold on to the idea of having something physically in our hands that we can flip through with a finger.”3
“The laptop replicates the old newspaper experience; the tablet replicates the book. Everything new is old again.” 4
“Print readers spend about 45 minutes with an issue each month. Readers using their iPhone and iPad spend an average of 160 minutes.” 5
“65% of people have increased the amount they read due to eBooks, with 80% attributing this to the ‘convenience factor’ of reading a book digitally.” 6
“By 2015, the Smartphone market will have grown from around 450m devices today to 1.1bn. By next year, 12% of the U.S. adults (28.9m people) will own an e-reader. “7
“Because of the growth of tablets and e-readers, paper used for print media including magazines, newspapers, and books will have declined by as much as 21%, compared to their 2010 production rates.” 8
The quotes and researches have indicated that electronic publishing is in the center of attention at the moment. And it will only continue to grow since new technologies and solutions evolve. People involved in the industry are all looking for the perfect user experience and finding the secret formula for making their business models work. Besides that, HTML 5 and CCS 3 are starting to play a more vital role in daily web development. Where it began as just a fancy glimpse of the future is now developed to the next default web standard. This thesis will explore an industry that is changing by the day, looking at different publishing services, technologies and future trends.
2 Jonathan Maine, Designsponge (September 2011), http://www.designsponge.com/2011/06/how- digital-publishing-became-relevant-in-2010-2011.html 3 Grey Bonney, Designsponge (June 2011), http://www.designsponge.com/2011/06/design-online-a- response-to-the-ny-times-story-on-online-pubs.html 4 The Economist (November 2011), http://www.slideshare.net/emmaturner/lean-back-media-the- shock-of-the-old 5 GQ, Vanity Fair, wired an glamour app reader survey, conde nast (November 2010) 6 Moderate research technologies, Digital World Book conference (2011) 7 Tablet Forcast, Gartner, eMarketer (2011) 8 Risi Global study (2011), http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sales-of-media-tablets-to- reach-195-million-units-by-2015-causing-paper-use-in-magazines-to-fall-by-20-and-to-half-in-fifteen- years-time-in-north-america-128163533.html
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1.2 Thesis Questionnaire
The research is build upon a main questionnaire: How can we use the future of electronic publishing to bring electronic magazines to a new level?
In order to answer this main question multiple other vital questions will be part of the research in order to state a clear final conclusion.
- How do we define a magazine? - What is electronic publishing? - What do modern electronic magazines look like? - How are electronic magazines created? - What do users demand and how do they behave? - What is the winning technology, web or apps? - What is the best choice for going mobile? - How does media in the cloud work?
1.3 Research Method
Electronic publishing and magazines are in the center of attention these days by the many online sources brining news updates. Using predictions, surveys, statistics and news articles, future trends within electronic publishing will become clearer. In order to build up a future proposal, several growing technologies are discussed that give a better understanding of the capabilities of the web. Besides that, interviews where conducted to get multiple views from experts in the field of design, publishing and technology. Research papers in electronic publishing and web technologies globally support the research as well.
1.3.1 Pre-early stage research Several weeks ahead of the actual ignition of the research, pre-early stages of preparation where set-up. Within the plan of action, it is stated that the research will be divided into multiple stages: the definition, contextual stage, technological research and the case study. Planned primary research methods where conducting interviews, attending network events in the field of publishing and gather information from experts in digital media.
1.3.2 Primary research: Interviews During the research period, various interviews where conducted with specialists regarding the future of publishing and the magazine industry. One of them was Craig Mod, freelance writer and ex-developer for the iPhone version of Flipboard. The interview contained a series of 15 questions that where focused on the future of digital magazines and publishing. Craig is familiar with the ongoing app and magazine developments since he is highly active in the San Francisco start-up scene as well as he is in Tokyo. His interview gave a good insight on what he thinks is going to happen and how others are trying to achieve that. Other collections of gathered raw information come from interviews and discussions with my supervisors at Eat Creative.
9 The Future of Digital Magazines
In order to get a better understanding of Eat Magazine (see case study), all of the monthly issues where researched in terms of design, structure, message and emotional responses. It contributed greatly in understanding the importance of the emotional impact within print magazines. Also, the case study was shaped according to the content and message of Eat magazine.
1.3.3 Secondary research The primary sources of information are from articles and papers. Because the digital magazine industry is currently going through allot of rapid changes, articles form the best overview and information source. The papers that are used during this research provide more background information regarding technology, magazine evolution and electronic publishing. Besides articles and papers, surveys also are an important part of secondary researches that where conducted throughout the research. They contribute to future and current behavior of consumers and technology.
In terms of background information regarding the media landscape various pieces of literature where used. It provided information about media publishing in the form of history, change and future visions. The guidelines, essays, long posts and blog posts where also part of this background exploration. Not only did it gave a good impression of the industry, but it also formed more insight from a writers perspective and other people affiliated with media publishing in general.
1.4 About this thesis
This thesis: including the research as the case study is conducted as an assignment for the University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam and Creative branding agency, Eat Creative Tokyo. The entire research took place in a time period of 4 full months (February - May ‘12).
1.5 Research structure
This research is build up in several main elements: 1. Basic theory: This part basically explains the electronic magazine and the digital publishing industry in general. 2. Technology research: In this part, different rising technologies are discussed including their potentials and effects on the publishing industry. 3. Proposal + Case study: Finally, a proposal for the future of electronic magazines is made. This proposal will be in the form of a concept that can be used on a global scale. In the case study, this concept will take a more scalable form by being used to create a concept for Eat Magazine.
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2. Theory and context
2.1 How to define a magazine?
From childhood till present day, people pick up and read magazines on a regular basis. In the supermarkets bookstands, at the dentist or just at home on the couch, magazines are a part of everyday life, just like television is. Yet, it has its own unique experience and look-and- feel. Flipping pages, touching the paper’s texture and taking the time to get surprised by its content. But what is a magazine exactly? The open dictionary describes it as following: mag·a·zine / Noun: A periodical publication containing articles and illustrations, typically covering a particular subject.
Magazines provide people with current information on a broad range of topics on a regular basis - usually monthly or quarterly, but sometimes weekly as well. The word magazine (derived from the Arabic word makhzan) was originally used for indicating storehouses for military supplies such as guns and explosives.9 In 1731, when the first real magazine was published in London by Edward Cave, the word was used for indicating that his ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ was a storehouse of information. It was a bundle of information to keep a civilized person up-to-date with the latest world news. Right after its release, Cave’s magazine was a tremendous success, making other publishers from all over the world creating spin-offs. Nowadays, magazines have become a bit more complex than they used to be in 1731. Basically, we can divide magazines in three different categories: news, trade and consumer.
Trade magazines are mainly meant for people that are part of a professional and specific group who have the same interests. The content is often targeted on people in the trade business – for example, managers or accountants. It is distributed among these groups of people and is usually not available to the general public. All the advertising that is done within these magazines comes mostly from advertisers that are connected to the targeted trade group. In contrary, news magazines are set up for a broad range of readers to stay updated with the latest news, events or trending topics, usually by weekly publications. News magazines are available in almost any supermarket or bookstore but also by subscription. Advertisements consist of products and services related to the content displayed in the magazine. Examples are ‘Time’ and ‘The New Yorker’ magazine. The largest percentage of magazines belongs in the consumer category. These magazines focus on people’s interest, whether it is golf, cooking or weddings, every interest group has its own cult.
9 Magazine From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magazine
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2.2 The complete package
It is clear that magazines store information that is valuable for a specific group of people. But how we respond to these information sources is the most interesting part. When a magazine catches our eye in a busy bookstand with over a hundred different magazines, it does his job properly, but when one picks it up and starts flipping through the pages is when it really starts revealing its magic. Good content comes with the complete package of design, structure, text and images. That is one part, which let us decide whether a magazine is qualified as good or bad in our opinion. The other part comes from our emotional reactions that we receive from going through the pages. The feeling of the page texture, the overall smell of the paper, the colors that interact with our eyes, all determine if we like it or not. In other words, ‘tasting’ the magazine is what gives us the full experience.
An example of a magazine that managed to sustain a worldwide experience for more than a century is National Geographic Magazine (NGM). Recognizable for its yellow frame on the cover, this magazine stayed merely the same, losing none of its familiar elements since it was first released in 1888. NGM focuses on world geography, nations and nature, providing outstanding photographs and unique cover stories in each monthly issue. The power of this magazine lies of course in its content, but also in elements of design that keeps returning in all of the issues. It creates a ‘bond’ between the reader and NGM, which could also be translated to ‘addiction’. Why else is there a massive cult of collectors around the magazine?10 And NGM is not the only one, many famous magazines available today created a similar brand connection with their readers.
2.3 Why do we read magazines?
Magazines are available for the public since 1800. Today, all of the most popular magazines have millions of subscribers, making magazines as popular as books. But why do we read magazines? Clearly there must be some sort of inside drive that makes us want to read and experience these glossy papers over and over again. The answer is simple, to learn and enjoy. People like to learn, as we as human being are made to learn and understand as long as we live. We can learn many new things from magazines, from small medical facts to eye- opening cover stories about different cultures; every magazine has its own target audience with specific interests about which they want to learn more.
The difference with a book (other than they are cheaper) is that magazines, as stated earlier, give us that emotional experience in terms of a ‘visual treat’. Also, most of the stories are time-bounded, which makes people want to read it as soon as possible to keep up to date with for example, the latest fashion, news or gossips.
The question that circulates around this research is how can we keep the authentic magazine experience, and translate it to the web? With the rise of the Internet the last
10 NGM Collectors corner, http://ngscollectors.ning.com/
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decade, many magazine companies considered to go digital with their publications. But what does that mean exactly? - ‘Go digital’.
2.4 Electronic Publishing
Electronic publishing (also referred as digital publishing or e-publishing) is a way to publish information in the form of: electronic- books, magazines, catalogues, libraries, journals and articles. It is an electronic form of information that may originate as traditional print paper publishing, or may be created specifically for electronic publishing. Electronic publishing is more defined by the way materials are being disseminated rather than how they are created. If the key aspect would be creation, then everyone that creates electronic content trough any electric typewriter (computer, mobile-device or printer) would be a digital publisher. Most publishing materials other than print can be called electronic publishing, which is usually Web and e-mail. PDF files are also formats of electronic publishing, which are usually meant for reading information on-screen. The most well known form of distribution of electronic publishing is through the Internet, which is also referred as web- or online-publishing (website content). Besides the online publishing, there are also allot of non-network required forms of publications, for example Encyclopedias or digital magazine editions, which are available on DVD or CD. Electronic publishing is also being used for educational purposes, like in universities and high schools. The eBook versions of mandatory literature are cheaper options for students, and can also improve the student’s mobility.
2.5 2010 – 2011
Both years where extremely important for the electronic publishing industry as new technologies where introduced and picked-up by us, the consumer. The introduction of Apple’s iPad is with no doubt one of the most memorable technological milestones of 2010, allowing consumers to enter a new market in technology, that of the tablets. Amazon’s Kindle became quite popular in 2010 as well, as a large amount of people switched from physical books to electronic books. Electronic reading became ‘mainstream’, and smart became the new cool. More people began publishing by themselves, generating high quality content available for small prices in several online stores. That made micro-payments accepted by the general majority of Smartphone and tablet users, which allowed them to access books, music and apps everywhere at anytime. 2010 and 2011 were definitely the years of electronic publishing. However, it seems that this growth is only to be continued in 2012 and onwards.
2.6 The digital edition
While print was irreplaceable just five years ago, things have changed within the magazine industry. Because of the emerging technologies, publishers started to explore what the Internet could do for reaching out more potential subscribers while keeping the same quality and reader experience. Print magazines never left, but what happened was that publishers made digital editions (also referred as ‘living magazines’) of their issues.
13 The Future of Digital Magazines
A digital edition covers all the content of an original issue in an electronic form. The benefit of these digital editions is the reduced costs for both the publisher as the reader. This is because the production costs are fairly low compared to publishing a printed version. Electronic magazines can contain interactivity like hyperlinks, searching options, video, animation, sound, page-turning effects, and social bookmarking features. Many of these digital editions can be downloaded (Application-based) or viewed online (Web-based) for free on the website of the magazine or publisher. Application-based magazines require software or plug-in downloads in order to display content11. Web-based reading offers content displayed in the form of Flash, Adobe Acrobat or even HTML5 (see asidemag.com) Examples are: mygazines.com and nxtbookmedia.com who offer web-based technology services for publishers. The advantage of Application-based reading however is that there is not always need of an Internet connection. But as we move forward in the digital age, Internet has become just as obvious as tap water.
Creating digital editions next to normal printed issues is a way for publishers to profit from digital media downloads on their websites. It helps them to stay in the race, and to provide some sort of electronic content that was similar to their printed versions. Usually, these editions are just converted print magazines displayed in PDF. Some magazines even stopped producing print issues and only concentrated on digital versions like ‘PC Magazine’ did. However, PC Magazine has a target audience of people that are usually up-to-date with the latest computer technologies, making it easier for them to read digital editions of the magazine on their iPads or other devices. Magazines outside the technology branch are less likely to follow this switch since it might result in losing many subscribers that prefer print.
One might think, “Why would I ever buy a printed magazine again if every piece of information is already on my screen?” In theory, it is the truth, we can find any sort of information that meet our interests on the web, yet it seems the digital age has not affected the amount of magazine circulations and subscriptions as expected over the past 5 years. Although, the circulation of digital editions has risen tremendously, from 1.4 million in 2010 to 3.3 million in 2011 (a rise of 125%!), it still covers up only 1% of the total paid and verified circulation12. The iPad along with other tablet devices like Amazon’s Kindle reflect on this growing interest in digital editions, but in general lines, print magazines are far from dying.
2.7 Todayʼs eMagazine technology
The numerous amounts of digital editions of print magazines have clearly not yet convinced people of abandoning print 13. People still prefer print above digital, touching and feeling the paper while going through a magazine is hard to accomplish on an electronic device, even
11 Tony Quinn, Digital magazines: a history timeline (Monthly updated) http://www.magforum.com/digital_history.htm 12 Eric Sass, Mag Bag: Digital Magazine Circ Rises (March 2012), http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/171365/mag-bag-digital-magazine-circ-rises.html 13 Jason Pontin, Why Publishers Don't Like Apps, Technology Review (May 2012) http://www.technologyreview.com/business/40319/?nlid=nlbus&nld=2012-05-11
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with advanced page-turning animations available. Also, it seems that publishers still stick to out-dated technology like for example Wired magazine does.14 Back in the 1990’s, the first CD-ROMS with digital versions of magazines and newspapers appeared. These editions where PDF-based, and where not that different from the one’s released today. In fact, the electronic editions of Wired magazine are generally similar to the CD-ROM based eMagazines published in the 90’s. The file size is still the same (Around 500mb for one issue) and the interactive content inside is currently just enhanced with embedded videos and animation. And Wired is not the only one, numerous other print publishers work along the same lines. It is hard to believe that allot of publishers still stick to out-dated technologies for their digital editions. But viewing it from a print perspective, it is clear that the digitalization is not every publisher’s main concern. Still, the digital media industry is growing every day, and digitalization is becoming more important as new generations do not know anything better. How does the electronic magazine of today look like? As stated earlier, it is not as advanced as one might think. First of all, most publishers still use PDF clones of their printed issues with little to none multimedia inside. These magazines have been doing this trick for over seven years now without any remarkable successes.
While digital editions where only available for download on the website of the magazine, Apple’s Newsstand 15 has taken over all of the hard distribution work. Magazine companies can now distribute their latest digital editions to Newsstand from where users can purchase and download it in order to read it directly on their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. All of these issues are stored and synchronized using Apple’s iCloud service16, which keeps everything up-to-date. Basically, every magazine within the Newsstand has its own App from which one can download the issues and get updates through push-notifications. However, if a user wants to read a magazine that is featured in newsstand, he must download a separated app just for that magazine’s brand. Suppose he might want to read the latest: The NY times, People, National Geographic Magazine, Forbes and Wired, for that to happen he needs to download the apps that give the actual access to each of these magazines. All of these magazine issues are basically PDF files, which are around 300 to 500MB in size, not mentioning the subscription and stand-alone purchase fees. It is a rather cumbersome and size-captive process.
A similar service is Zinio17, which is available for all Apple devices, Android, Blackberry, PC and Mac. Zinio is one of the world’s largest online stores for digital- magazines, catalogues, newspapers and books. It provides publishers with a way to distribute their digital editions and gives readers a central spot to find whatever meets their interests for a reasonable purchase fee. Zinio claims to have over 850 brands18 located in their shop. Another rising platform is Barnes and Nobles’s Nook Newsstand, which became exceptionally popular over
14 Chris Anderson, Wired Magazine, (May 2010) http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/mag_editors_letter/ 15 More information about Apple’s Newsstand, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsstand_%28application%29 16 More information about Apple’s iCloud, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICloud 17 More Information about Zinio on http://www.zinio.com/ 18 Noah Davis, Zinio Raises $20 Million To Fight Off Apple's Newsstand (November 2011), http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-11-23/tech/30432297_1_flipboard-livestand-zinio
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the last year. It does exactly the same as the two previous mentioned services, but shows that the industry is not all about iPhone or iPad apps by boosting it’s own eReader, the Nook. This eReader has caught the eye of numerous magazine publishers and has vigorously increased in popularity.19 Despite their popularity and successes, what these services offer is not special at all. They just made a digital version of the real-life bookstore, which is of course a great service for both readers as publishers, but does not hold any futuristic elements of electronic magazines.
Many magazine publishers like for example: TIME, BBC, Reuters, NY Times, Forbes and Wall Street Journal nowadays claim to have ‘innovative’ and ‘futuristic’ digital editions available to their subscribers. Let us take look at one of these so proclaimed ‘innovative’ editions, PC Magazine, one of the few magazines that is based on a ‘digital-only’ model. The download for the computer version (PC or Mac) contains a single PDF. The PDF version includes no multimedia whatsoever, and feels like scrolling through as scanned print magazine. PC Mag also has a version especially made for the iPad. This version looks allot better than the PDF version and feels more like a real digital magazine. It includes embedded audio fragments, streaming video clips and animated typo graphics. Although it looks good and all the multimedia works perfectly, it still does not feel innovative or futuristic. It is simply a clone from what could be a printed magazine with some special effects. Now PC Mag is targeted on a more technical audience, to whom this iPad version must feel like a revelation. For a more general target audience from for example Time magazine, it is allot harder to get readers convinced to go digital. PC Magazine is just an example of how the general majority of magazines operate in the digital world.
It is clear that after five years of practice, interactive editions full of videos, hyperlinks and animations are not the future. The physical experience of a print magazine on an electronic device is therefore impossible to accomplish. Electronic editions of magazines exist for roughly fifteen years now, and nothing has really changed with PDF’s from 1995 and those from 2012. That does not say that people are not interested in digital magazines, but the way it is presented is questionable. Are people really waiting for videos and animations when ‘reading’ a magazine?
2.8 New era magazines
Having dealt with the downsides of the current digital magazine industry, it is time to look at some examples of remarkably evolutionary magazines that are currently shaping the market. In fact, these are magazines that do not just convert their printed versions to electronic editions, but re-invented the magazine as a whole.
19 Robert Andrews, Corrected: Nook, Zinio Tie iPad For Magazine Publisher Take-Up (November 2011), http://paidcontent.org/article/419-nook-zinio-tie-ipad-for-magazine-publisher-take-up/
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2.8.1 Flipboard Probably the most popular ‘game changer’ of the moment is Flipboard 20, founded in 2010 by a U.S. based software company. It can be described as a social-network aggregated, magazine application for the iPad, iPod Touch and the iPhone. It gathers its content from social media- and other co-operating company’s websites, allowing users to “flip” through these social- and news feeds in a stylish way. The App was originally developed for iPad only, but is now also available for iPhone and iPod Touch. Today the app has been downloaded more than 8.4 million times21 making it the number 2 of top downloaded apps of all time. This is what people have been waiting for, a re-invention of the magazine making it social, fun, personal and best of all, free. Flipboard uses all the visual elements of a magazine to make it attractive, yet it uses compelling content from all sorts of social and news sources to make it interesting. Although Flipboard is a native (device specific) application, allot of their information is pulled from the web, providing news updates making it a partial hybrid (device and web mixed) app as well. The simplicity of Flipboard’s user interface (UI) makes it extra appealing and inviting to use the app on an everyday basis. ‘Flipping’ through all of the news feeds is one of the most strongest and fun elements of the app. The ease and slickness of the flipping effect throughout the whole app makes it addictive to read all your feed updates. Similar apps like Pulse, Zite and Google Currents are trying to compete in the race of being the number one social magazine. And they too, are doing an impressive job by combining good user experience with social functionalities and content aggregation for reading articles.
2.8.2 The Financial Times (FT) App This web based mobile app is purely based on HTML 5 web techniques and is executed within the browser. When entering the URL app.ft.com, the app installs itself using the browser, removing the address bar so it looks like a real native app. The articles that are featured in the FT app are all focused on simplicity and readability and do not contain any heavy multimedia elements. Users can bookmark the app so it appears on their Home screen as well. The app shows that the crossover between web- and native applications is slowly fading22. Financial Times managed to get 1.7 million23 unique visitors since June 2011, with over half having bookmarked it to their home screen. The popularity of this app brings up a big discussion about mobile applications. At the moment, the big majority of the apps available in the app stores are native. But as the web is growing (HTML 5 and CSS 3), we can see this slowly changing. The FT app is a great example of using the power of web-based apps in the form of a magazine. The big advantage of the FT app is that you never have to update any software in order to run it. Every piece of information is based and stored on a website, and whatever changes on the website automatically applies for the app as well.
20 More information about Flipboard, http://flipboard.com/ 21 John Russel, The Next Web about Flipboards expansion to Asia (March 2012), http://thenextweb.com/asia/2012/03/27/flipboard-continues-focus-on-china-targets-5-million-users- this-year/ 22 The Financial Times vision on their app, http://aboutus.ft.com/2011/06/07/ft-web-app-technical- qa/ 23 4 Traders, Pearson plc : FT Web App wins Global Mobile Award for Innovation, http://www.4- traders.com/PEARSON-PLC-4000637/news/PEARSON-PLC-FT-Web-App-wins-Global-Mobile-Award- for-Innovation-14154702/
17 The Future of Digital Magazines
Another great thing is that it can be accessed on any kind of device, the website just adjusts to the screen size only instead of developing separate apps for each platform.
2.8.3 Salon.com As the true pioneer on web publishing, Salon.com started out in 1995 as the first online magazine with weekly updates that covered stories from professional journalists and writers. It focuses on U.S. politics and current affairs but also on reviews and articles about music, books and films. Seven years later, Salon still gets roughly 1.2 million unique visitors a day (source: wolframalpha.com). The website itself is nothing special, it is the content and the brand what make Salon interesting. Over the years, it made itself popular by hiring the most well known U.S. journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Alex Pareene. But maybe more important, it is free content. All of the content can also be accessed on every platform or device that has a web browser. Web publishing has become more popular since the production costs are quite low compared to apps or print magazines. Salon is definitely not the only one interested in web publishing. Other popular websites like Dwell Magazine (Dwell.com), ForeignPolicy.com and Forbes (forbes.com) accomplished a similar success. It is questionable however, if these website remain stable for the next 10 years. Salon for example is going through a difficult time at the moment 24 because their vision of a publication per day comes with a heavy price tag. After all, all those journalists have to get paid. The good thing of all these online web magazines is that they are compatible on any sort of device and support HTML 5. And that is, when we look at it from a futuristic point of view, very important. Like the FT app did, every piece of information is stored on the website which can be loaded anywhere. Yet, it is not the next generation of magazines we are looking for.
2.8.4 Flud Released originally in 2010, Flud is Flipboards’s high-anticipated rival trying to bring social magazines to a next level. In the end of 2011, Flud 2.0 was added to the App stores for Android and Apple touch-screen devices, bringing new innovative changes to the application. Flud is a social newsreader application for the iPad and iPhone where users have their own profile and activity stream. It is designed to display social and news feeds from various kinds of websites into individual streams for a compact and clear reading experience. Articles and stories can be stored for later reading with the Reading List, shared as a favorite with the Flud button, and shared through Facebook, Twitter, email, Tumblr, InstaPaper, and ReadItLater. Users can follow other users based on their interests and ‘re-flud’ it to share it with their own friends. The app makes great use of all the social elements and is the only app that combines this with user activity streams. Basically Flud is a social network for news items.
2.8.5 Asidmag.com The web-standard switch to HTML5 is allowing web developers to create next level dynamic web content, making it possible to realize browser-accessible web applications that look and feel the same as the native apps so popular now on Smartphone and tablet devices. While
24 Hamilton Nolan, A Modest Proposal of The Future of Online Magazines (November 2010), http://gawker.com/5701373/a-modest-proposal-for-the-future-of-online-magazines
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HTML 5 is still under heavy developments, many developers and publishers have used its technique in order to deploy their vision of future multimedia. A good example is Aside Magazine, a digital magazine that is created purely in HTML 5. The magazine can be accessed through the web only by entering http://asidemag.com on the iPad (only). The browser will then do the rest, and transform your iPad into a true digital magazine in its full glory. Although, it is another attempt to clone the idea of a print magazine to the web, the technique behind Asidemag is astonishing. After fifteen years of PDF editions, the web can now fully embrace multimedia rich magazines without the need of extra plug-ins like flash. Asidemag is however not focused on delivering content for a specific target group, but more as a demonstration of what HTML 5 can do for online magazine publishing. Therefore they offer their techniques to any publisher that might be interested in using it.
2.9 What is next?
“Content is king”, is an often spoken phrase, but these new innovative approaches to digital magazines have also proven functionality matters. There is something very interesting happening to reading online content. The iPad made allot of developers and publishers re- think the meaning of a magazine by personalizing it in a social aspect. Meanwhile, online web magazines try to deliver compelling content by the day or week hoping for a high recognition rate within their target audience. On top of that, HTML 5 is becoming the next web standard introducing many new possibilities for developers and publishers. The amount of apps providing currated content is growing by the day. While doing this research, tens of new magazine apps have been released; just to give an example of how fast this industry is moving. In order to get a clearer view of the future, the next chapter will focus on creating digital magazines.
19 The Future of Digital Magazines
3. How to create a digital magazine
Whether you are an independent editor or an experienced publishing company, publishing never was that cheap and easy to do as it is right now. There are thousands of ways to digitally publish your content in the form of an app, blog, newspaper, book or magazine. Just ten years ago, publishers needed to have quite an investment in able to start publishing on a regular basis. It required all sorts of distribution channels, printing equipment and a well-trained staff to accomplish such a business. Nowadays the sky is the limit and the number of tools are staggering. In the context of electronic magazine publishing, what options do publishers have in this digital age?
3.1 Standard tools for digital editions
Note that there is a difference in creating and publishing a digital magazine. Both are done through online tools and platforms, but they are separated elements. The below discussed tools are a selection based on overall popularity and technological functionalities.
3.1.1 Adobe Digital Publishing Suite A preferred branch of the Adobe family to many professional publishing companies for creating digital editions especially for tablet devices is the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. It is a complete solution for individual designers, traditional media publishers, ad agencies and companies of all sizes that want to create, expand, distribute, monetize or optimize engaging content and publications25. The software package makes it relatively easy to create something good looking in a short period of time without the need of any advanced expertise like editing and design skills are needed for using Adobe InDesign. The suite comes with a price tag however, depending on the seriousness of your business it can definitely be worth the investment. Adobe’s Publishing Suite is just one of the many examples of software tools used for digital publishing. Various other applications offer similar services for publishers to create their electronic magazines with.
3.1.2 iBooks Author In the beginning of 2012, Apple launched its iBooks Author. Software that allows users to create ‘multi-touch’ books for iPad devices without coding knowledge. These multi-touch books can contain any sort of multimedia in it like photo galleries, video, sound, interactive diagrams or even 3D objects. Although iBooks Author is still quite limited in multimedia and social media integration, it inspires other companies and start-ups to create something similar or even more advanced. Authors will eventually create more advanced books with endless possibilities. When taking a look at a couple of the most popular animated eBooks available for the iPad, it is clear that technology made a giant step forward in just several years. These books are currently focused on children since it can make stories come to live, but imagine these potentials moving over to the big majority of adults. The technology that these animated books bring forward can eventually be a basis for other products as
25 Adobe® Digital Publishing Suite, http://www.adobe.com/products/digital-publishing-suite- family.html
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Magazines and newspapers. For now, users can experiment with the functionalities that iBooks Author has provided. In his presentation for TED26, Mike Matas introduces a similar interactive eBook as an example for modern books other than fairy tales and novels. By taking Al Gores ‘Our Choice’ as a first example, he explains how the next generations of interactive books could look like. The book was build for iPad and iPhone only and uses HTML 5 intensively for all the multimedia integrations. Photos are viewable as Lightbox (pop-out web image viewer) galleries and video and sound leverage the content of the stories, all these impressive techniques give a new dimension to eBooks and printed books.
3.1.3 PhoneGap Many publishers need a mobile application to leverage their magazine. These digital magazine apps are extremely popular but require platform-based coding experts. With the PhoneGap framework, developers do not have to use underlying languages as objective-C (for iOS), but can directly use HTML 5, CSS 3, and JavaScript to make apps. The result is a Hybrid application that looks and feels like a native app, but is based on web technologies. For developing a digital magazine app, PhoneGap can be the perfect choice when it comes to budget and ease. Another good reason for using PhoneGap is because it supports up to 7 mobile platforms so developers never have to make different app versions for all platforms. Examples of companies that used PhoneGap for their mobile application are: Facebook, Adobe, IBM and Microsoft.27 Besides PhoneGap there are several other frameworks like: Sencha Touch, jQuery Mobile and dojox.mobile, which make Hybrid development allot easier (see chapter 4.5 for more on PhoneGap).
3.2 EPUB 3.0
EPUB or ePub (short for electronic publication) is an open source digital text standard designed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) in 2007. The file extension .epub is meant for globally displaying text that is optimized for devices using the EPUB protocol. Both publishers as conversion houses use the EPUB file format to create text for mostly eBooks that can be distributed and sold under the Open eBook standard. The EPUB format is supported on all the major eBook readers and on eReader and eMagazine apps on mobile and tablet devices. Only Amazon decided to not support EPUB on its Kindle.
EPUB is based on one of the first released versions of HTML back in the 90’s. Programming EPUBs can therefore take quite some time and effort since the syntax is rather out-dated. Most eBook publishers use an automatic EPUB converter, which requires only the original file in order to convert it. There are many low cost publishing options available, such as Lulu.com and Calibre. These services also connect very well with iTunes and Amazon.
In October 2011, EPUB 3.0 was released which finally steps off from XHTML 1.1 and embraces HTML 5 and CSS 2.1. EPUB 3.0 is probably the most wanted feature for publishers
26 Mike Matas, The next generation digital book (April 2011), http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_matas.html 27 Andrew Trice, Who Uses PhoneGap/Apache Cordova? (March 2012), http://www.tricedesigns.com/2012/03/27/who-uses-phonegapapache-cordova/
21 The Future of Digital Magazines
since it allows users to create interactive publications. This means audio, video, web and layout can be completely customized to create new reading experiences. EPUB is more common in the eBook industry than it is in the eMagazine world. But with the release of the new 3.0 version, magazines can use this global mark-up to enhance interactivity and media embedding in digital editions.
EPUB 3 consists of a set of four specifications: 28
• EPUB Publications 3.0, which defines publication-level semantics and overarching conformance requirements for EPUB Publications. • EPUB Content Documents 3.0, which defines profiles of XHTML, SVG and CSS for use in the context of EPUB Publications. • EPUB Open Container Format (OCF) 3.0, which defines a file format and processing model for encapsulating a set of related resources into a single-file (ZIP) EPUB Container. • EPUB Media Overlays 3.0, which defines a format and a processing model for synchronization of text and audio.
With the release of EPUB 3.0, the possibilities for book, magazine, journal and newspaper publications are extended. Because the previous EPUB versions lacked compatibility with modern web technologies and only supported text-centric books, precise custom-styled books where impossible to create. For example comic books, which need to be created using a custom layout. Another improvement of EPUB 3.0 is the MathML support, which makes equations possible within the layout. The new EPUB version also has the possibility for interactive linking within and between EPUB books.
The future of the EPUB format looks bright on first glance. Now that HTML 5 and CSS 2.1 have been supported, publishers and software makers can enhance their services to a new level. However, big market leader Amazon still does not support EPUB on its Kindle, which still makes the format not a full 100% compatible with all mobile devices. Also Apple’s iBooks Author does not support EPUB 329 but its own *.ibooks format, which still puts EPUB out of the game. EPUB for digital magazines is quite new since it is now more supported with the 3.0 version. If digital editions of magazines keep continuing their distribution by apps and the web, EPUB can be used for developing these editions. Just like Asidemag, an eMagazine can become completely build in HTML 5 thus supporting EPUB 3.0. With EPUB supported magazines, a wide selection of devices, readers and services can be targeted with just little effort. The open standard idea sounds promising, but for now, it looks like EPUB 3 is not going to be a big breakthrough in any market. Major players want to keep their own file format and use it as an extension on EPUB.
28 EPUB 3.0 Official website and troubleshooter, http://idpf.org/epub/30/spec/epub30-overview.html 29 Craig Grannell, iBooks Author riles standards advocates, Netmagazine (January 2012), http://www.netmagazine.com/news/ibooks-author-riles-standards-advocates-121714
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3.3 Google Currents
In December 2011, Google launched its own version of a social/personal magazine app based on its Google RSS reader. Trying to compete with the earlier discussed Flipboard, Zite, Pulse and Flud, Google focuses on the ease of feed subscription and self-publishing. When downloaded and opened for the first time, the app looks like a basic content aggregator with news feeds from all the popular online news channels. But Currents has something very original, it embraces self-publishing, and with Google Chrome installed for desktop, users can actually create their own editions on which other Google Currents users can subscribe on using the app. It allows people to create their own online magazine or newspaper.
The web app (only accessible through Google Chrome) is called ‘Google Currents Producer’ and requires logging in with your Google account. Once logged in, users can directly start creating a new ‘edition’ using the iPad, iPhone, Android or Tablet preview mode to directly view their creation. A wide range of options is available for the user to experiment with. The edition template can be customized by using HTML mark-up (including HTML 5, CSS 3 and Google’s customized XML e.g.
By using Google Currents, everyone can publish something within the app, making it the first accessible self-publishing mobile application that aggregates news updates in the form of a magazine. Within the app for mobile, users can test their own editions by syncing their accounts. The service is fast, easy and maybe most interesting, customizable.
3.4 We are all publishers
Creating digital editions has become easy thanks to the numerous ‘drag & drop’ tools that do not require any specialized skills. Publishing an app is not that difficult either anymore. With PhoneGap available, web developers can already make a start into mobile applications by knowing only basic web programming languages. With Google Currents released, something new and interesting is emerging, which is the use of customizable articles. Will this be the future of digital magazine reading, something between e-reading and personalized digital editions? The customization options within the Google Current app are just the beginning. The functionalities of the app itself are not stunning since it is based on the same pulling techniques as the rest of the available content aggregating apps. But one thing is clearly visible, the differences between apps and web technologies are blurring.
3.5 Digital demands
23 The Future of Digital Magazines
Digital publishing has become easy, very easy. In fact, everyone is doing it and there is no clear distinction between trash and professional content anymore. Digital publishing became so accessible in 2010 that many independent authors and publishers joined the industry. Not mentioning web publishing, where Facebook and the millions of online blogs also count as publications. As the publishing tools become cheaper and more easy to use, major brands are slowly becoming publishers in their own right. For the user, this can be quite confusing because at the moment, there are thousands of blogs wanting to be your number one source of news updates. It is therefore hard to tell if something is true or false, because the line between brands, marketing, media and publishing is blurring.
3.6 Content aggregation
Flipboard, Zite, Pulse and Flud are all content aggregation apps that are based on the ability to let the user customize news based on specific interest groups, pulling in content from a various mix of online sources. These apps are the pioneers of what is now called ‘social and personal magazines’. No longer does a licensed publishing company decide what you need to read, people filter articles by themselves now. It seems that after ten years of slow developments, the digital magazine is finally beginning to move forward. Who says that we need to clone print magazines to digital devices? Social magazines are the perfect example of magazines being used in a different way. Currently, the developments of these social magazines are blazing fast, start-ups carving out new variations trying to invade this new app market with as a result that bigger companies acquire them for a monetizing expansion30 (in August 2011, CNN purchased Zite for $20 - $25 million). Eventually, the magazine industry has to find a way to create a stable balance in content and revenue streams by creating a monetized system for their publications. A recently announced app is coming closer to that idea, The Magazine Channel (TCM)31 aggregates licensed content from various company print clients in specific interest categories such as travel, cooking, health and sports. The app will be available in a both native as a web-based form. It brings back the professionalism of long-form content.
3.7 Long-form vs. short-form journalism
Printed media is always in the favor of long-form content. This is what makes magazines and books so attractive to the reader. People want to be taken into a story, taking the time to carefully read every line in it, experience it. With the rise of social media, and the thousands of online content sources, long-form journalism should be nearly dead in the digital world, or is it not?
Ten years ago, yes, long-form journalism failed its integration on computers. On-screen reading was a pain to the eye, and why go through all the trouble if printed magazines and newspapers are still the best option? Remember that people did not have any HD Retina
30 Rafe Needleman, Why did CNN buy the news aggregator Zite? (August 2011), http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-20099927-250/why-did-cnn-buy-the-news-aggregator-zite/ 31 Dick Ryan, Publishers Press Introduces The Magazine Channel at Publishing Business Expo (March 2012), http://www.pubpress.com/External_JSP/currentNews.jsp
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screens, or electronic ink yet, but just early CRT monitor screens that affect the eye after using it regularly. And even now, reading PDF files on a computer screen is tiring, inconvenient and most off all uncomfortable. When the Internet got more developed and social media was involved, people started to interest in short-form articles, stories that where not longer than a thousand words. Today, many online publishers think that short- form content is the leading form of digital journalism. But the fact is, that long-form journalism has finally come to life on our electronic screens with the increasing popularity of tablets and Smartphones. The iPad opened new roads for long-form journalism. Together with the increasing usage of Smartphones, tablets changed the way people wanted to read content. Long-form journalism is now a popular content form because people enjoy reading on their mobile and tablet devices. In a research32 done by readitlaterlist.com, it is clear that iPad owners changed drastically from computer reading to mobile reading, most notably the iPad. The main reasons33 for this resurgence of long-form journalism according to Mark Amstrong, the founder of Longreads.com, are:
1) The embrace of mobile devices and tablets. 2) The rise of social recommendation—when people read something they really love, they become its biggest cheerleader. 3) A community that has embraced a new way to organize this content. 4) The ability to take a story offline with you — and finish it in places where you might not have wifi (read it later option) — is critical to the success of long-form content.
There are several ventures that promote long-form content like Longreads, Readitlater, InstaPaper and The Atavist (atavist.net). That last one is particularly interesting because it functions as a platform for publishers specialized in long-form content as well. Evan Ratliff, a co-founder featured in Forbes Magazine’s previous quoted article, explained that The Atavist wanted to create “a place that first of all allowed us to publish a certain length (5,000-35,000 words) of quality nonfiction story, between magazine articles and books, sold as individual issues.” The Atavist now sold more than 100,00 copies of 10 titles making the company think about subscription models for in the near future.
Long-form journalism can definitely compete with the wide offer of short-form content. In the previously quoted Forbes article about long- and short-form content, Lewis DVorkin explains that large cover stories featured in Forbes Online Magazine where just as popular as short-form articles. Because of the iPad’s excellent mobility, people can decide themselves when they want to have their own personal primetime reading. It can be marked as the ‘save-and-read-later’ culture.
32 Readitlaterlist.com, Is Mobile Affecting When We Read? (January 2011), http://readitlaterlist.com/blog/2011/01/is-mobile-affecting-when-we-read/ 33 Lewis DVorkin, Inside Forbes: How Long-Form Journalism Is Finding Its Digital Audience (February 2012), http://www.forbes.com/sites/lewisdvorkin/2012/02/23/inside-forbes-how-long-form- journalism-is-finding-its-digital-audience/
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4. Rising technology
As we move forward to Web 4.0, looking back on previous trends and technologies, the Internet is making giant leaps in terms of technological developments. Digital publishing is in the middle of all these developments and is constantly changing appearances. Probably the most talked about topics on the web are the future of the web, mobile and cloud computing.
4.1 Web vs. Apps
Since 2010, the discussion between web-based- and application-based technologies is cutting the online technology world into two sides. On one side, developers embrace the rise of HTML 5, saying it will outrun device specific apps, and on the other side, ‘anti-web’ fanatics are determined to leverage on app development in the future. Start-ups, experienced companies and even technology giants as Google, Apple and Amazon have to forecast and somehow choose a side. However, it is not going to make things easier because both sides represent an interesting view on future technologies. The opinions about what will happen to the web are divided; speculations can only be made based upon what the user will do. Apps are likely to be an Internet phase that cannot last forever. Eventually, web technologies will outrun the native app functionalities and benefits. The truth is that the user does not really care what is going to happen, as long as they can get everything for free and it works well, whether it is done by web- or native technologies. In a survey done by the Pew Research Centre, 1,021 Internet experts affiliated with or part of major tech companies as Google, Apple and IMB where asked his/her vision about Web vs. Apps towards 2020. 59% of them think that the web is going to overtake the app industry, 35% think that apps will continue to rule the Internet landscape, 6% did not respond. Below is a summarized reaction of the 59% that choose web.
“In 2020, the World Wide Web is stronger than ever in users lives. The open Web continues to thrive and grow as a vibrant place where most people do most of their work, play, communication, and content creation. Apps accessed through iPads, Kindles, Nooks, smartphones, Droid devices, and their progeny—the online tools GigaOM referred to as "the anti-Internet"—will be useful as specialized options for a finite number of information and entertainment functions. There will be a widespread belief that, compared to apps, the Web is more important and useful and is the dominant factor in people's lives.” 34
Looking at apps like Flipboard and Flud, both of them still have a bright future ahead and the chances that the web will pre-dominate them within the next few years are rather small. People love apps, love their Smartphone and love free content. Why would people subscribe and pay for online magazine editions when content is already free within these applications? Although this might sound logical, the iPhone was like a dream come true for publishers. They could let people pay for subscriptions and apps for which they would never pay on a
34 Janna Quitney Anderson, Elon University, Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project (March 2012), http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Future-of-Apps-and-Web.aspx
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desktop computer. When the iPad was released, everyone saw it as a giant iPhone, which was good because if it would be considered as a portable desktop, no one would buy a thing out of the App store.
4.2 Mobileʼs Potential
In a new mobile statistics release35 by Mobi Thinking, it is clear that mobile usage is only continuing to grow the next 5 – 10 years, and the end is not even imaginable. Desktop computers have changed from being the primary all-round device in every household to a secondary tool only used for important matters as work, study, banking etc. According to an advanced report of Morgan and Stanly analysts, mobile computing will overtake desktop usage before 201536. Mobile-, and now also tablet computing are part of a new worldwide mobile society in which we all participate. Another striking number is the amount of mobile- ready websites currently online. In 2008, this amount was only 150.000, only two years later it was 3 million37, pointing out the rise of web for mobile. It is now expected from users that every popular or well known website has a mobile optimized version online, making it easier to navigate through. Just imagine what the impact of mobile web will be in ten years, people will not even remember browsing on their desktop computers since it will be not needed anymore. And the importance of mobile is clearly visible in the way investors act. The best example at the moment is iPhone and Android app Instagram, which allows users to take photos and add vintage camera effects to it and then share them with friends. The start-up chose to be a mobile-only app on purpose, embracing its potential to overtake desktop. If the service would have been released for desktop as well, it might never reached the point where Facebook paid $1 billion to acquire it, not even mentioning the 40 million active users.
“To understand the potential of mobile, all you need to do is, next Friday night, take a second to look up from your mobile to notice that no one else is.”38
– Brett Martin, Founder and CEO, Sonar
4.3 Mobile apps: The differences
Sticking to today’s apps trends, every company or independent developer needs to look at the differences between native- and web-apps before entering the app market. Below is a brief summary of the most used app technologies including their up- and down sides.
35 Mobi Thinking, Global mobile statistics 2012: all quality mobile marketing research, mobile Web stats, subscribers, ad revenue, usage, trends (February 2012), http://mobithinking.com/mobile- marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats 36 Jolie O'Dell, New Study Shows the Mobile Web Will Rule by 2015 [STATS], Mashable (April 2010), http://mashable.com/2010/04/13/mobile-web-stats/ 37 Helen Leggatt, dotMobi: 2000% growth in number of mobile-ready websites, BizReport (October 2010), http://www.bizreport.com/2010/10/dotmobi-2000-growth-in-number-of-mobile-ready- websites.html 38 Meghan Peters, Can Instagram’s Mobile-Only Strategy Work for Other Apps?, Mashable (April 2012), http://mashable.com/2012/04/18/mobile-only-social-networks
27 The Future of Digital Magazines
4.3.1 Native Applications that have been designed and developed for a particular device or platform can be called ‘native applications’. The native app is currently the most used form of mobile-app technology and can be downloaded through numerous sources connected to the Internet. The most known distributors for native apps are the Apple ‘App Store’ and the Android ‘Market Place’. Native applications offer a couple of benefits over web applications 39:
• Native Apps tend to respond more quickly than web apps, because they where developed for a specific platform or device. • More direct and personal interface because the app is accessible on your own device. • Executed directly by the operating system (Usually from out the Home screen) and does not need another “container App” (The app is yours and it feels yours because it does not require it to open through an application like Safari which feels it is from someone else) to run it. • Makes explicit use of operating system APIs allowing them to access the device hardware like camera and sound.
Basically, native apps have 2 levels of API’s. The hardware-based API’s and the software based API’s, which communicate with each other and the applications. Because of this perfect connectivity the native app is the absolute winner in speed and performance. However, according to critics featured in the Pew Research Center’s Life Project survey from the previous chapter, it will not take that long anymore before the web will make the native landscape shrink.
4.3.2 Web Web based applications are based entirely on web technologies as HTML 5, CSS and JavaScript. Where native apps use the OS to run their code, web apps use the browser. Executing web applications can be done by: entering the URL, clicking on a hyperlink, QR Code scanning or using bookmarks. Some web apps execute self-installation using HTML5, which removes the address bar, adds a Homescreen pin and imitates the look and feel of a native app. Do not mistake a mobile web app with a mobile web site, these are two different approaches when it comes to displaying web content. Mobile web sites are normal websites optimized for mobile devices that need an Internet connection; while a mobile app is web installed, touch optimized, interactive and available offline. Compare it with the mobile website of Wikipedia for mobile and a HTML5 mobile version of the game ‘Avalanche’. Wikipedia is based on static pages; Avalanche is made in canvas and is loaded with interactive content for mobile. The benefits of using a web app over a native app are:
• No need to download an app, but request a URL that displays the most up-to-date version directly in your browser.
39 Worklight (Part of IBM), Native, Web and Hybrid Apps explained (2011), http://www.worklight.com/resources/webinars-and-tools/native-web-hybrid-mobile-app- development
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• Homescreen “pinning” for frequent use. (The ability to bookmark the page and save on the homescreen of the device so it looks exactly like a native application). • All-platform access. Works on all computers, tablets, mobile devices compatible with modern browsers. • HTML 5 content is available in offline mode so users can still access the app without the need to be connected to a mobile or Wi-Fi network. HTML 5 even adjusts its content and pictures to the connection of the user. • It is easy for developers to create and maintain due the use of common web languages.
4.3.3 Hybrid While many big ventures are debating the future of web apps and native apps 40, others tend to use the best of both to create what is called a ‘hybrid app’. A hybrid app is a native, downloadable app that runs all or some of its user interface in an embedded browser component. Users often not even notice when an app is hybrid because it looks and acts the same as a native app. But for developers, the hybrid app offers many benefits because instead of making an app for each OS, developers can write content in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, which is accessible for all devices. Despite the fact that hybrid apps could take over native, there is still a ‘dark-side’ and several constraints to deal with. Because most of the content in hybrid apps are using web technologies, it could be easy for hackers to insert malicious code, therewith cracking the application. Also, using web languages make it difficult to communicate with the device hardware such as the camera, GPS and speakers. However, more open-source frameworks as PhoneGap41 are starting to appear, which make all of these features possible. However, heavy custom graphics for gaming purposes and such are not yet supported using hybrid.
4.4 The right choice
It is definitely important for companies, developers and start-ups to make a tactical choice42 in whether they are going to use web, native or hybrid to achieve their goals. All of these techniques offer several benefits and downsides, which determine what suits best for what project. If a concept for an app contains for example; complex rich multimedia, including video, audio, graphics etc. consider using native resources, since it offers more device functionalities for users to engage in. Web apps can be more interesting when offering search queries, profile information, readable content, data libraries and cloud services. These are all relatively lightweight functionalities that can easily be accomplished through web technologies for all mobile browsers. Consider making a hybrid app if you already have lots of information ready that has to be compatible with a mobile app. This information can be stored or displayed through the web and then pulled in a native app so it can be downloaded from an app store or marketplace. Users will not tell the difference. In his blog
40 Matt Marshal, Venturebeat, How HTML5 will kill the native app (April 2011) http://venturebeat.com/2011/04/07/how-html5-will-kill-the-native-app 41 Phonegap, App developing made simple, http://phonegap.com/ 42 Lionsbrigde, Mobile Web Apps vs. Mobile Native Apps: How to Make the Right Choice (February 2012) http://en-us.lionbridge.com/kc/mobile-web-apps-vs-mobile-native-apps.htm
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post Ron Jerry describes the choice for hybrid apps as following: "Hybrid app development employs native capabilities while also serving as a strategic stepping stone towards adoption of HTML5." 43
For the time being, native apps will continue to dominate the app-landscape; they provide the most powerful tools and functionalities for users and developers to engage in. About four years ago, when HTML 5 was released, allot of wonderful ideas and demos where shown to show off the strength of the enhanced web-language. Many mobile developers where convinced that web apps will take over native in just a few years. But that takeover is still on a hold because Apple and Android stand behind Native as their platforms are based on it and the tools to build with web are still poor. In the long run, Web technologies will improve as HTML 5 matures and new platforms around it will be introduced.
Going back a couple of years ago, we could see the same thing occurring on computers. People used a relatively high amount of software installed on their computer in order to perform their daily tasks. Nowadays, we see web-based applications taking over. Google documents, Dropbox, Groupon, Grooveshark and Facebook are all examples of web-based services that make users forget about their operating system. That brings up an interesting questionnaire; do we even need to pay attention to what OS we run? Whether it is Mac, Windows or Linux, all of our daily needs are inside the browser. People like to discuss about whether Mac is better looking than Windows or Windows being more advanced than Mac. Opening Firefox, Chrome or any other browser one might use makes this whole discussion pointless, everything looks and works the same within a browser and that might just be happening on a cross-platform (computer, tablet, mobile) scale.
4.5 Making web-based mobile apps
According to the previous sub-chapter, native apps will still continue to dominate app technology for now, but creating web apps is a strategic step towards the future of the web and also offers many budget- and content-related benefits. Hybrid- and web apps are both web-based apps. However, they have several differences that define both in performance and distribution. Hybrid apps use web technologies wrapped inside a native coat while web based are entirely URL-based. But how do this all work and which of them offer the most potential? Actually, the process of creating a hybrid or web app is not rocket science and can be accomplished with basic HTML and CSS knowledge. (Because web technologies are the main focus within this research towards a mobile future for publishing, native development will not be discussed.)
4.5.1 PhoneGap Build One of the easiest ways to make a hybrid app is using the PhoneGap services. PhoneGap offers developers two approaches for creating hybrid apps. PhoneGap Build allows users to create cross-platform mobile apps based on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript through a simple web
43 Ron Perry, Hybrid mobile apps take off as HTML5 vs. native debate continues, Venture Beat (July 2011), http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/08/hybrid-mobile-apps-take-off-as-html5-vs-native-debate- continues/
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interface. After registering, PhoneGap Build lets you choose between uploading an existing PhoneGap project as a package zip or a source control repository to link to the application (Github). Both options are relatively easy to set-up. PhoneGap Build requires at least an index.html, config.xml and a png icon image. The structure of this idea is similar to building websites. A CSS file and many other JavaScript, jQuery, HTML 5 and XML extensions, can support the index.html. The app can be distributed for all major mobile platforms within minutes and is downloadable. Only iOS requires more effort because of its strict app policy.
4.5.2 Using the PhoneGap SDK For a more advance app development PhoneGap offers a free SDK named Cordova, which can be completely customized. After downloading Cordova from the website, developers can set it up within their preferred editor like XCode (iOS) or Eclipse (Android) where device specific API’s can be accessed. In this way, you are able to use for example the camera functions of a device by using simple API communication commands in JavaScript and HTML 5.
An example of using the camera object to take a photo and retrieve the Base64-encoded image on any device supported by PhoneGap44: navigator.camera.getPicture(onSuccess, onFail, { quality: 50, destinationType: Camera.DestinationType.DATA_URL }); function onSuccess(imageData) { var image = document.getElementById('myImage'); image.src = "data:image/jpeg;base64," + imageData; } function onFail(message) { alert('Failed because: ' + message); }
4.5.3 PhoneGap vs. Web apps PhoneGap apps differentiate themselves in numerous ways from web applications. In a full list of comparisons45 it is clear that PhoneGap apps focus on complexity, distribution and API connectivity rather than just displaying data. It is smart to use PhoneGap apps when the idea is to make an application with multimedia, data visualization and minor device API functionalities.
4.5.4 Building a web app Probably the easiest way to make an app is creating a web application. All there is to do is uploading the index.html (that is especially for mobile use) to a domain and the app can be accessed on any mobile device. To build an app equal to today’s native applications, will require more complexity and knowledge however. There are no crucial differences to building a website, you will need a database and all of the file linking is the same. jQuery mobile offers many open-source tools for creating quick and impressive touch-friendly
44 Apache Cordova Documentation, Camera functions (version 1.7) http://docs.phonegap.com/en/1.7.0/cordova_camera_camera.md.html#Camera 45 NS BASIC Corporation, Tech Note 08: Web Apps Compared to PhoneGap Apps (December 12, 2011) http://www.nsbasic.com/app/technotes/TN08.htm
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animated widgets to play with. The big advantage of publishing a web app is that every change you make in the database or on the website is directly updated in the actual app. Native apps require review time, update limits (Apple has a 3-week limit in publishing updates to apps) and more testing and debugging.
The most interesting part of publishing a web application is the functionality to make it look and feel like a native app. This can be accomplished by removing the address bar when the app is loaded. This small snippet code shows how simple this can be: window.addEventListener("load",function() { setTimeout(function(){ window.scrollTo(0, 1); }, 0); });
Another popular function web-based apps offer is the option to pin the website to the home-screen of the device so that it can be entered like a native app.
4.5.5 PhoneGap apps vs. web apps Web apps are a good choice for displaying fast and simple data queries and text. But for more complex concepts it might not be suitable. The web-performance of CSS and JavaScript on a mobile device through the browser is rather poor46 compared to native applications. It takes allot of time to load web-kit effects and canvas animations. Because the browser cannot access any of the device specific hardware, it will depend entirely on the browser’s performance (which is not superb on any device yet). The basic problems47 according to Brian LeRoux (Adobe and PhoneGap contributor) of mobile web programming are:
“ The web is sandboxed. This is a feature, not a bug. The currently web has a very poor offline story. The web cannot participate in app store distribution revenue (or discovery). The web cannot access Device APIs. The web has shitty tooling.”
These are enough reasons to consider making a hybrid or native app for every serious business. Web apps offer enough to start with and getting familiar with app development, but in order to become a serious candidate for an app success, it will require more strength in performance and distribution.
46 Brian LeRoux, Mobile web programming is a bloody mess! http://brian.io/slides/debug-mobile 47 Brian LeRoux, PhoneGap introduction, http://brian.io/slides/phonegap-intro/#/12
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4.5 Media in the Cloud
Since 2008, the cloud has become rapidly popular. ‘Are you in the Cloud?’ became a more commonly used phrase by businesses around the globe since data storage became more affordable. Cloud computing is the overall term for delivered hosting services over the Internet. The term ‘cloud computing’ was founded by the cloud symbol that is often used to visualize the Internet by flowcharts and diagrams. There are two types of cloud computing, public and private. A public cloud sells services to anyone that is on the Internet. An example of a popular public cloud is Amazon Web Services, which is also the largest public cloud provider. Private clouds are focused on large networks of data centers that provide hosted services to a specific group of users.
The cloud computing services are divided into three main categories: Infrastructure-as-a- Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The last one of those three, SaaS, is the most interesting and promising48 model concerning digital publishing. In this software-as-a-service cloud model, the supplier already provided the hardware and software so that the user interacts with the front-end only. Users do not pay to own software but to use it only. Popular examples are: Dropbox, Spotify and Sugar CRM. Saas might sound the same a web-based system, but the difference is that systems based on SaaS have a self-regulating subscription model (often charged) and support multi-tenancy. These are the most fundamental factors that define a SaaS application. The SaaS model is becoming much more popular since it relies on cloud and web technology rather than dedicated software usage, offering a ‘pay-on-the-go’ model instead of purchasing an organization license. Multi-tenancy49 gives organizations or single users the ability to share databases so the application itself operates collectively. Instead of organizations having software structured only for them, they share a system, which still feels dedicated for everyone. SaaS is an evolved version of web-based services because it makes the system self-regulating. The powerful aspect of having a SaaS for your business, is that it not only provides a strong architecture, but also a business model on itself since it relies mostly on subscriptions.
In terms of general cloud-based publishing services, Facebook is definitely one of the bigger players. The service has an immense photo database online and processes millions of status updates in the form of text, video, audio and images every day. Another well-known cloud service on the web is Dropbox. It provides users with free cloud data storage (2GB) and even more when subscribed. The cloud stores user data and keeps it secure, allowing users to access their files anywhere without the need of device specific soft- or hardware. The downside for allot of users is that they never know if their information is stored secured enough since it stored somewhere else in the world.
Cloud computing has a high impact on the digital publishing industry since it results in a win-
48 Laurel Group, Thought leaders of the SaaS revolution (May 2011), http://bit.ly/IidRZW 49 Scott Chate, Convert your web application to a multi-tenant SaaS solution (December 2010), http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/cloud/library/cl-multitenantsaas
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win situation for publishers, authors and readers. Resources are stored on ‘the cloud’ and are always up-to-date. Any future publishing service can benefit from these cloud-stored resources since it reduces storage capacity and can be accessed or streamed from anywhere in the world. Below are a few examples of services that use the cloud for publishing purposes in a revolutionary way.
4.5.1 Amazon The biggest online bookstore of the world makes great use of cloud service techniques, and can easily be ranked as one of the leaders in cloud computing. It is widely known as the ‘iTunes for books’, offering a model where the user can download/read a book per purchase. Amazon’s Kindle tablet, the Kindle app for Smartphones and the Kindle desktop reader are all part of Amazons broad cloud network for reading books. Purchased books are stored within the Amazon cloud and can be accessed and read from the Kindle eReader, Smartphones and desktop computers. The electronic books are not even stored on your device, but purely based in the cloud. Coming back on the discussion of web vs. apps, it is clear that Amazon tries to focus on the web rather than providing app solutions. As stated earlier, desktop computers are already more web-based than any other device at the moment. That is why the Kindle desktop reader is concentrated on web-based reading. Although their services are spread through apps on the iPad, iPhone etc. they still promote the cloud, which indirectly promotes the web on its turn.
4.5.2 Spotify After the invention of the mp3, the spreading of music done by Napster and the discovery of new tracks through Pandora, the real future of music publishing started in 2008 with the founding of Spotify, a Swedish startup. Spotify is a cloud-based service that allows people access to their 16 million song library, with the ability to create playlists, share songs as well as downloading them. No matter where people are, Spotify can be accessed on any kind of device so that users can listen, share or download songs by using its cloud network. It is seen as a technological breakthrough because the service is integrated with user’s personal libraries and allows them to share songs and other files with friends on social networks. Sean Parker, founder of the Internet revolution ‘Napster’, mentioned Spotify as “The realization of a dream”50, marking it as a future model of media. The service gets revenue mainly of its freemium model, which allows user to try-out Spotify for one month, after that they have to subscribe for $5 (unlimited normal quality streaming music for computers) or $10 (unlimited high quality streaming music for computers and mobile devices) a month. The Spotify model is a win-win for the service, artists, record-labels and listeners because they all get what they are asking for. The technology behind Spotify is astonishing, while many think that Spotify is web-based, it actually uses a peer-to-peer (p2p) network to stream its music and meets the demands of millions all at the same time. Just 8.8% of music playback comes from the actual Spotify servers. The rest is coming from its p2p network (35.8%) or a users local-cache (55.4%)51. Only the mobile version of Spotify gets music directly off the Spotify servers.
50 MG Siegler, Techcrunch , Sean Parker On Spotify U.S. Launch: "The Realization Of A Dream", "The Answer To Piracy” http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/14/sean-parker-spotify-us-launch/ 51 Gunnar Kreitz, Fredrik Niemelä, Proceedings of IEEE P2P'10 (April 2011), http://www.csc.kth.se/~gkreitz/spotify-p2p10/spotify-p2p10.pdf
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4.5.3 Video on demand (VOD) HBO GO, Netflix and Hulu, are all part of the VOD business, primarily based within the U.S. What they all have in common is that they deliver streaming videos to computer and mobile devices. HBO Go for example, delivers all of its streaming content to the iPhone by using the ‘HBO Go’ application. By subscribing to the HBO service, users can watch as many streaming television series, movies or documentaries as they like. All of these videos are cloud-based and compute their content to connecting users around the world. Netflix is currently the biggest provider of VOD services. Starting out with delivering DVD’s by mail, it now switched over to offering cloud based streaming subscriptions. Notable is that they do not have a datacenter for storage themselves, but partnered up with cloud giant ‘Amazon’. This turned out to be a win-win, because Netflix did not had to worry about structuring its own datacenter and hiring staff whilst Amazon profits from its biggest client by expanding in global cloud services. Netflix plans to expand to Europe and other continents as part of their global service expansion. As we move forward in the next generation of mobile life, people are more likely to pay for ease and comfort, and definitely with the release of the iPad, they simply want things as fast and smooth as possible.
4.5.4 24symbols Marked as the ‘Spotify for books’, 24symbols is a new start-up service which is currently in an open-beta period, offering on-demand access to a modest collection of popular titles in a similar way to how most streaming music services operate. At launch, 24symbols featured around 1000 electronic books in their library from various overall smaller-sized publishers. This relatively small collection of titles is more to represent the experimental aspect of the service since it is more a demonstration of a future books-on-demand model.
Everyone can sign up for the service and once registered, one can easily explore all of the available titles and instantly read them without any limitations. With the use of social integration, people can recommend and share their favorite books, passages or authors on Facebook. The service offers web-based reading through their HTML 5 application, which is reachable from desktop computers, Smartphones and tablet devices. Besides their experimental web-based reader, they also provided Android and iOS users with a native application. 24symbols currently operates on a freemium model where people can subscribe in order to get the ad-free version. The start-up pays publishers based on how many pages users read from their books as a proportion of the overall number of pages read across all titles. Currently the free version has ads that are not overwhelming or annoying enough to make one subscribe and pay for the same amount of titles. Locking off the best titles to premium users could be a solution for that once the start-up grows and gets more and bigger publishers in. Then again, this is just the realization of a concept that could only grow further as they will get more attention.
The entire service of 24symbols is build upon the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Now, this is where it gets interesting, the service has opened up for other to use, for example publishers, academic institutions, product and service enterprises and beyond. The targeted groups will be able to establish their own cloud library for internal or perhaps public usage
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without the need of any specialized engineering team. Say that for example an academic institution possesses all of the licensed material for their students but has too little recourses to set up the actual system to distribute it. The 24symbols cloud-based network will do all of the complex work when it comes to the application, cloud storage and cross- platform compatibility.
Looking at all the platforms listed above, we can clearly see that each one of them went through a series of technological developments in order to become what they are today. Cloud computing and the release of many hardware specific devices like the iPhone and iPad play a vital role in the success of services like Spotify and Amazon. When the mp3 had its breakthrough on the web, no one could have ever imagined that one day all the music would be stored in one big floating library for people to listen to regardless where they are. Has this also happened to electronic magazines? The answer is, no. Whereas the music, video, web and book-publishing industry have rapidly changed appearance and models over the years, the electronic magazine stood still for over ten years. As stated earlier, magazine publishers are not focused on a possible digital success, which they should, because the web is only going to be bigger than it already is. Although it is definitely changing, with social magazines and more personalized content coming up, app developers, start-ups and publishing companies are realizing that people finally want to read digital because they all own iPads now!
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5. Conclusions
To come back at the main research question of this thesis, “How can we use the future of digital publishing to bring electronic magazines to a new level”?
The future of electronic publishing is a combination of two elements, mobile devices and web technology. Together with a Spotify-like subscription model, future media can become stronger than traditional publishing. This is already happening to the music-, book- and video-publishing industry by using the web’s potential to create what is now called ‘all-you- can-eat’ subscription models. We as consumers reached the stage where online- payments, social activities and digital media-usage have become common habits. Moving forward, and letting go of the idea that traditional media can live on using digital print clones are essential to reach any success in digital publishing. The potential of mobile is exploding, and in order to leverage on that, mobile-only should become a more primary focus for those who are involved in the publishing industry.
Cloud services are going to play a vital role in the future of media publishing, as SaaS models are offering full multi-tenancy support, giving publishers more flexibility in scale and functionalities. Content is now accessible, shared and read anywhere on the world.
Digital magazines have been stuck in the same unfortunate form for fifteen years until the iPad was introduced in 2010 and the ‘app madness’ broke out. Before that, PDF clones of print magazines where distributed online and through CD-ROMS, weighting an average 500mb per issue. Even now, electronic magazines are still large in size, require a specific app or platform per publisher, and still use PDF as a main source of display. The difference now is that it looks better on an iPad, adding more social media features and multimedia aspects in it to enhance it. Although subscriptions on digital magazines have grown heavily over the past 3 years, it was basically the iPad who caused it together with the rise of Smartphone devices, not the innovation of a next generation magazine. Social and personal content aggregating apps are currently winning over other digital magazines, re-inventing the definition of the magazine. Yet, these services provide only free online sources as short-form content. In order to create a next-gen service for magazines, publishing companies and writers have to unite and leverage on long-form journalism. No more bundling or stand-alone apps for issues but single, categorized stories are the future of licensed magazine content and bring hope for the eventual replacement of traditional print.
The web is eventually going to take over native applications in mobile development, but until that time, native apps will still continue to grow, as the web did not yet surpass their capabilities. But HTML 5 is definitely becoming a more used and developed technology that still needs allot of improvements and support in order to dominate mobile computing. Making hybrid apps are strategically smart and low budget, but publishing native applications is still the favored choice for at least the next two years.
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6. A proposal for the future of electronic magazines
People like free, but do not mind paying for something unless they are sure it is going to be good. The Netflix and HBO GO services are drawing its users by promising them streaming videos in high quality on all sorts of devices. It is easy to use, the content is appealing and the model is perfect. The same goes for Spotify, Zinio, Amazon and Apple’s iTunes. These where all radical game changers in the media publishing industry. Why not implement a model like this for magazines? Leaving company politics out of the picture for now, technologically, magazines can join the subscription revolution. How? Here is a start.
Instead of trying to create all these apps that aggregate and collect magazines, news feeds and social updates, publishers should focus more on individual stories rather than bundles. Next Issue is an interesting online magazine platform providing digital editions based on an ‘all-you-can-eat’ subscription model. For $9,90 users will get unlimited monthly publications that are working with Next Issue, for $14,90 all the weekly publications are included as well. Currently they have accomplished to get some of the bigger names on board like Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp and Time Inc. It is starting to get somewhere now since we do not need separate apps for each magazine anymore. Instead, all digital editions can be read in one place by using the recently launched Next Issue app for mobile and tablet devices. However, the magazines are still nothing more than a digital ‘clone’ or imitation of a printed magazine. Also the file size per issue did not make any improvements. The idea of this subscription based magazine app is great however. Together with the earlier discussed ‘The Magazine Channel’ app, subscription and content-based services will likely dominating the future of digital publishing. How would this future model look like?
6.1 MagMix
Individual stories should be the main focus for a next generation magazine service. Based on the same model that Spotify has, people will be able to read an unlimited amount of stories instead of complete editions. The stories will be collected based on their interests and feature long-form journalism in combination with strong professional writing and editing skills. The system does not focus on magazine bundles, but on magazine stories, introducing ‘MagMix’.
The system will work in a similar way as Spotify works, when one creates an account (linked to Facebook), the user can browser through a list of latest stories from favorite publications and interest groups. Also, popular stories will be displayed that come from recommendations and shares through social media. The stories appear in a list just like a playlist for music, displaying a small thumbnail, heading, date, category, rating and publisher. The item opens up slightly when the user clicks on it showing a small teaser of the story item, how many people liked this story, the magazine’s logo, advertisers and a link to the publisher’s profile on MagMix.
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6.1.1 Reading boards Reading articles is going to be a brand new experience blending multiple techniques together. Introducing the ‘Reading boards’, playgrounds for publishers to do anything with. The concept of the reading board comes slightly from the ‘Reader’ function in the Safari browser (on Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch). When visiting a web page containing a large amount of text content (e.g. blog post or news article), the user can click on the ‘Reader’ button displayed in the address bar as soon as the page is fully loaded. The text now appears in a read-friendly frame, which allows the text to be increased or decreased like on the Kindle. It makes it allot more attractive and easier to read articles, which can sometimes be to small to read or require zooming in and out all the time.
The reading boards however, will support HTML 5 and CSS 3 and will give stories another dimension because they are completely customizable. Every story will be different in reading and publishers can choose themselves how they want to theme their stories. For example: National Geographic releases a new story about the wildlife in the Himalaya area. The story is long and engaging, but what really makes this story complete is the design of the reading board. The designers choose this week’s cover story to have an aerial view of the Himalaya as the background with animated birds flying over now and then. In every story, the developer team is hiding Easter eggs, which can be useful for contests. Also advertisements in the form of design friendly logos are embedded in the story. The readers will not encounter any grid boxes anymore in sidebars or the story itself. Words can be annotated or looked up in the dictionary like on modern eReaders. Every story will support rich multimedia as video, audio and animations. Underneath the story, users can leave comments, which can be linked to Facebook.
The app will contain a section where you can see all the stories that you are reading at the moment and the ones that you saved for later. It displays the completion of the article in percentages and once finished it will be added to the ‘completed list’.
6.1.2 Profile pages MagMix will create a profile page where user can see their most recently read, favorite and shared stories. Here, users can also indicate their interest and their favorite writers. You can have friends to get ‘recently read’ and ‘now reading’ updates from them. Storywriters have a profile too which users can subscribe to in order to get ‘latest work’ updates. Some writers will use their publisher’s account while others will be more independent. In an ‘upcoming writers’ feature, users can vote on, or even donate writers that have potential to become big and maybe get hired by a publisher. Just like book clubs, MagMix features a magazine club where subscribers with the same interest come together. Every interest category is also a ‘club’, for example: The Photography Club. People who like to get updates on latest comments, upcoming writers, news and more can join these clubs.
6.1.3 Issue maker Like Spotify allows people to make their own playlist to share with friends or other users; MagMix can let them create ‘issues’, a collection of a maximum amount of stories that can
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be shared within the user clubs. For example, a user makes an issue of 10 stories covering the Himalaya. Not only travel items can be added, but also news items about Nepal’s regime or food specials on what to eat while trekking through mountains. Every issue can also be ordered for print.
6.1.4 Revenue model The big difference between MagMix and apps like Flipboard, Pulse and Flud, is that the content sources are all licensed while these apps use free online sources as a RSS reader. Based on the Spotify and Netflix models, user subscriptions will be the main source of income for MagMix. For $9.90 a month, users will have unlimited access to all stories that feature in the service. It will be hard to convince magazine publishers in cooperating though, since their whole current model is based on bundle sales. But as soon as the major players are willing to cooperate, they too will see that this is the future of magazine publishing. Just like happened to Spotify, all parties involved would profit from the service. Publishers will get their fair share, so do the writers and advertisers. MagMix will offer high quality long- form journalism, which puts the spotlight back on licensed publishers again. Companies have to comprise in order to keep breathing in the online media world.
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7. Case study: Eat Magazine
Eat is a creative branding agency based in Tokyo, engaged with businesses across North America, Europe and Asia. Established in 2000, Eat build up an organized team of 14 specialists with a wide range of specialties. Their team exists of internationals and local professionals to stay highly involved in both Japanese as international projects. Over the years, Eat build up an impressive network including a big variety of partners to collaborate with. Eat’s main activities include branding, visual strategy, graphic design and web. Projects done by the company mainly result in logo design, web design, web development and print. Their main drive lies within the graphic user experience they want to establish within each project. Creating visual strategies in which users can be engaged.
The company has a wide range of different clients. Most of them have a connection with Japan, and are looking for a bilingual approach. An example of Eat’s clients are TEDxTokyo, SEGA, FIT for Charity and New Zealand Beef & Lamb. All of them have an interest in growing either their Japanese options or their International expansions.
7.1 Eat Magazine
The agency was originally focused on ‘Eat Magazine’, combining what the company did and knew best, food-related journalism wrapped inside a graphical craftwork. The magazine was their first consumer product, which was not only focused on Japan, but also on other international cultures, covering exclusive stories about worldwide food-related content. The magazine was designed in a very trendsetting way, and provided high quality content from top journalists and photographers all over the world. Stories where not only translated but also completely rewritten to accustom to the targeted culture. Eat magazine had therefore build up its own cult while it was running (2000-2003).
After three years, Eat had to retire from their magazine as the result of high distribution and publishing costs. Only a small amount of people ever got to read the magazine since the distributional channels and tools we have today where not present in the early years of the new millennium. The Internet was far from being grown-up, Smartphones and tablets did not yet exist in full-glory and advanced software was still expensive and scarce. Eat Magazine had all the factors to make itself a worldwide success in the food journalism industry. If it had started a decade later, it would be allot easier and cheaper to distribute the magazine.
This thesis has focused on the future of digital magazines by researching various innovative and groundbreaking applications and services that are going to shape the digital landscape in the next few years. An easy digital revival for Eat Magazine would be making an iPad version to distribute through Apple’s Newsstand, Zinio, Next Issue or one of the many other publishing platforms. A relatively easy solution with all the next generation publishing tools available today. Though, it would still be a print magazine imitation or clone, which is not innovating, challenging, emerging or socially engaged at all. It might look well once opened, but the longer-term objective is of course to engage in future technologies and possibilities,
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trying to stay one step ahead of the competition. The question is, how can Eat use the future of digital publishing to step into the electronic magazines industry?
7.2 Eat Magazine 2012
In the previous chapter, the Spotify based model for magazines is explained as a proposal and vision of the future for electronic magazines. The main focus of this model is individual story telling. It is not about bundling anymore in the digital publishing industry, but all about individual items. This should be the main focus for Eat Magazine’s next generation editions as well. The MagMix proposal is however a large totalized concept of the magazine industry, a future vision of the potentials of this system. What is mostly important is the technological framework that surrounds this service. Based on this system, a concept for Eat Magazine is set up that represents a more scalable version of MagMix.
7.2.1 Professional Food Journalism Eat Magazine will be a platform for professional online food journalism. The whole idea of this system is exclusiveness, giving people a feeling of joining a professional and high quality community of food-related content. The system will be based on the simplicity of meetup.com52. On the top of the page are two options: ‘Read’ (Magazine section) and ‘Cook’ (Recipe section). These are the fundamentals of the platform.
7.2.2 Reading stories ‘Read’ will bring the user into a playlist-like screen filled with stories. Each story has its own ‘Eat Reader’ based on the reading board (see MagMix). There is no such thing as issues anymore; the system now purely focuses on individual stories. Featuring engaging reads, not just blog-posts, but long-form journalistic stories that are written by experienced editors. Each of these stories can be categorized so it fits a certain direction or culture.
The whole point is to read these stories on your iPhone, iPad or any other mobile device, where all of the content really comes to its right. Users will have their own reading list where all their favorite, recent and saved-for-later reads are stored. When a story is opened it will mostly be focused on text rather than images. The design of the reading board is customizable; it is just like in a print magazine cover story completely up to the design team to fit the story into the layout.
7.2.3 Recipes The ‘Cook’ section will focus on recipes. It will be displayed as a playlist of recipes. Each recipe is opened in an ‘Eat Recipe board’, which is similar to the Eat Reader; only that this is purely focused on displaying recipes. Users will gain an exclusive feeling around the recipe section because these recipes are not just the average ones but are bounded to stories featured in the ‘Read’ section. Every recipe has its ‘secrets’, and is just like the cover stories unique and not common. People learn where this recipe comes from by reading the linked story to it. In this way, a recipe will not only create appetite, but also bring experience. The Eat Recipe Board can be customized in the same way as the Eat Reader, adding its own
52 More information about Meetup.com, http://www.meetup.com
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unique atmosphere and design to a meal. Everything can be added, photos, videos, maps etc. Users will not see the same recipe-design twice, every time they open a new one they will find it to be completely unique and accustomed to the meal.
7.2.4 Subscription Eat Magazine will be based on the same freemium business model that Spotify maintains. This means that users get free access to stories and recipes for 30 days only. After that, users have to become an Eat member for a monthly $5 subscription fee, in order to continue accessing the service’s content. In the first 30 days of the trial mode, some of the big cover stories will still be locked to trial members. Also, some of the exclusive recipes will not be accessible for them.
7.2.5 Social media What is important to integrate is off course social media support. Facebook, Twitter and newcomer Pinterest are the most popular social networks of the moment. However, stories cannot be shared completely but are limited to a fixed amount of words so that people have to subscribe in order to read the entire article. The same goes for recipes; people will only be able to see a fraction of the full recipe, where subscription reveals everything.
7.3 Technology
The service will be only available for mobile devices like iPhones, Android phones, iPads and other tablet computers. A computer version for PC or Mac will only slower down the process of a new digital experience in magazines. Since magazines where never made to read on a regular computer screen, it will now reach its full potential by making it a mobile exclusive. The app can be downloaded from Apple’s App store and Android Marketplace.
7.3.1 Mobile choice The choice for the new Eat magazine to be a Hybrid app is based on several advantages:
1. It will reduce development costs and time since web will be the main source of technology for all platforms. HTML 5, JavaScript and CSS mark-up can be used for this development. The service PhoneGap can make this process only easier by using its framework to avoid platform and device specific development.
2. The Web will be more likely to take over the native application in a range of 5 – 10 years from now. Though, native apps are far from dead and still work best for using it on mobile devices. By combining a future compatible technology with the frame of a native application it will place itself in a strategic position.
3. Eat Magazine will not contain any high-advanced graphical functionalities that need to access the device hardware. Instead, it focuses more on web- reading, design and social sharing.
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7.3.2 Development process As explained in chapter 4.5, using the PhoneGap framework Cordova is a smart way of creating a hybrid app. It provides all the necessary tools that are needed for making the service run on a mobile device. Below a general overview of the app’s functionalities and techniques:
Functionality Technique Device specific requirements Reading list with Usage of general mysql database. Through None individual stories the CMS, stories are updated, deleted, added - Local storage or edited. Updates on the app will be made automatically every time the database is updated. Stories will mark ‘read’, ‘unopened’ or ‘continue’ based on the reader’s progress. Reading board HTML 5 powered page per story, which can - Dictionary API be fully customized. Text is selectable and - Facebook API can be looked up in the device dictionary. - Twitter API Top bar is a menu with options to read it later (synced with cloud space per user), share through social media, like it or go back to the reading list. Readers can also bookmark a selection within the text that is synced with the cloud. User profile Database collected data. None Read-it-later list Cloud synced data that is connected to the None stories within the app. Stories can be loaded offline. Login Facebook and Twitter login which pull basic - Facebook API user info and allow access to location and - Twitter API status updating. Normal registration is default. Upgrade to Subscription system that upgrades the user None premium member from free trial to premium member. This includes PayPal and Visa. Story notifications Push notification when a new story is added - Notification API to the reading list. User comments Allowing users to comment underneath every None story or recipe. Only visible when one completes the story.
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7.3.3 Eat Reader and Eat Cooking Board Like explained in the MagMix concept, each story will have its own Eat Reader, which can be completely customized by the Eat Magazine’s editors team. The reading board supports HTML 5 and can contain various sorts of multimedia. However, the service should focus on delivering long-form journalism as a primary activity.
On top of the screen there are options to exit the ‘Eat Reader’, Save to read for later, Like the article, share it on social networks. The whole area will be there for playing around with it. The developers from Eat Magazine can do everything within the Eat reader, HTML 5 and CSS3 are supported.
There is also a section called ‘Eat Community’ where users can see an activity stream of other members. Members can like articles and share them through social networks. Comments will also be visible in the activity screen making it a dynamic area to engage in.
7.4 Scenario
Every two days Eat Magazine will release a new story. Today’s cover story is about fruit salads. The cover story is highlighted in the home screen of the application, and invites the user to jump in by an attractive picture.
image 1: Homescreen of eatmag
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Image 2: Reading section of the eatmag
As soon as the user clicks on the latest story, everything fades out and the Eat Reader appears. On all devices, the Eat Reader will take up all of the screen space. The Eat Reader first loads up a thin upper bar on the top screen. It will fade in, and displays ‘Eat Reader’ on the left as a logo and on the far right, there will be a couple of icons: like, save and finish later, share, a read-progress bar and close. The content can be quite large too load all at once, so it will divide first. Just like on Facebook and twitter, the first parts of the story are loaded. Then, when the user scrolls down, the second part will load. It will not wait until it is completely at the bottom but on 70%, so the change of waiting is reduced. The story is loaded, and starts off with an introduction about fruit salads. The first part is designed in a neutral way with a couple of photographs in between the text, but as the story evolves, users will notice that whenever a culture is targeted, the design changes. On
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the sides of the screen…additional photographs are slightly sticking out. When the user touches these photos, the screen will slide to the left (or right) and change into photography mode, showing photos with a detailed description underneath it. There could be 5 photographs in these windows when it automatically slides back to the story. This photo-mode can return later in the story with a similar functionality. These are just examples of the many possibilities the editor team has for using the eat readers.
7.5 Business objective
Eat mag will engage in the future of digital magazines by presenting an exclusive and innovative system meant for reading long-form articles. The reading board will give the editor and design team new possibilities to play with and will give an extra dimension to stories. However, a vast and steady business model is required in order to obtain a business objective. The main drive behind Eat mag is the opportunity to step into the rapid developing world of online magazines, and deliver compelling content within a self- regulating system. That does not say that building up Eat mag will be easy. In fact, time and effort are required in order to get the concept running.
"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." - Margaret Wheatley (Source: Wikipedia)
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8. Bibliography
Most of the used sources of information are cited in the research itself. During the thesis research several other sources contributed the overall process. These sources are stated below.
Papers
Anderson J.A & Raine L.: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. March 2012
Kreitz G. & Niemelä F., Proceedings of IEEE P2P'10. April 2011
Bury J.: GOAL: Read Magazines. Siskiyou County Library, 2009
Goscinski A. & Brock M.: Toward dynamic and attribute based publication, discovery and selection for cloud computing. School of Information Technology, Deakin University, Australia, December 2009
Koychev I., Nikolov R., Dicheva D.: SmatBook – a vision for the future e-book. Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Sofia, Bulgaria & The Computer Science Department, Winston-Salem State University, USA, 2009
Wang A.: The effectiveness of mobile magazines: implications for mobile marketers. Mobile Marketing Association, 2011
Literature
Kawohl C.: Magazines in a Digital Lunchbox Constantin Kawohl. Berlin, GRIN Verlag, March 2011
Wimmer R.D., Dominick J.R.: Mass Media Research: An Introduction. Atlanta USA, Wadsworth Publishing, 2010
Buyya R., Broberg J., Goscinski A.M.: Cloud Computing: Principles and Paradigms (Wiley Series on Parallel and Distributed Computing. New Jersey USA, Wiley, March 2011
Hess A.: iPad Fully Loaded. New Jersey USA, Wiley, December 2010
Straubhaar J., LaRose R., Dravenport L.: Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology. Belmont, California USA, Wadsworth Publishing, January 2011
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Essays
Mod C.: The Digital Physical. March 2012 http://craigmod.com/journal/digital_physical/
Mod C.: Post- artifact books & Publishing: Digital’s effect on how we produce, distribute and consume content. June 2011, http://craigmod.com/journal/post_artifact/
Websites and Projects
Digital magazines timeline, http://www.magforum.com/digital_history.htm
EPUB reference manual for developers, http://idpf.org/epub/30/spec/epub30- overview.html
Giles J, Johnson B.: MATTER, A Journalism project in San Francisco. CA 2012. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readmatter/matter
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