Digital Magazines: Is 2010 the Magazine’s iPod

Moment?Presentation to New Zealand

Magazine Publishers AssociationMartin Taylor28 April 2010

Introduction

• Martin Taylor– Long involvement with technology,

magazines, the internet and more recently books and ebooks

– Director, Digital Publishing Forum, a book industry initiative

Today’s talk*

1. How big is this market and how fast will it grow?

2. How to get magazines on the iPad (and others)

3. Some things to do today

* A bit techie … but alas you need this stuff

How big is this?

• This is happening in the midst of a generational shift in technology– Decline of PC, rise of mobile web and “the

cloud”

• Proliferation of smart mobile devices connecting to the cloud– standards wars (but has Apple already

won?)

• Google, Apple, Amazon are early drivers

Music’s iPod moment

• Disruptive technology changes the game

• Apple sells billions of songs in the face of free

• Five years for 5 billion, 1.8 years for next 5 billion

• iTunes share now 69% of online music sales (Amazon 8%) and 24% of all music sales in US

Source: MacRumors.com

iTunes reaches 10 billion music downloads, 24 Feb 2010

Books’ iPod Moment (courtesy of Amazon’s 90%

share)+333% Q4 2009 vs Q4 2008

US trade ebook market growth, 2002-2009

Amazon Kindle launched

Sony Reader launched

Source: ASA and IAB

NZ Advertising Market 2003-9

Magazines?

Skiff Hearst / Plastic LogicDell Streak

Google Android

HP Slate Windows 7

Google Nexus One

AndroidNotion Ink

Adam Android / Pixel Qi

Speed of consumer technology adoption

Source: NY Times

Is this already a one horse race?

Source: Flurry.com

Mobile App Development by Platform

How to get content on the iPad

(or iPhone or iPod Touch)Three routes*:

1. An App sold through the App Store 2. Thru the web via web browser3. Thru the web via an e-Reading App

* Similar options for other devices, Android

1. An App• Software, sold via App Store• One-click purchase, 150

million credit cards• Apple takes 30% cut• In-App sales: New content

can be purchased from inside app via Apple iTunes store

• Programmed in Objective C• Must be approved by Apple

(days, sometimes weeks)• iPad/iPhone lock-in

2. Thru the web

• Content via iPad’s Safari web browser– HTML (HTML5), CSS(3), Javascript– No Adobe Flash support (eg most ads)

• Completely bypasses Apple ‘ecosystem’ eg iTunes store, App store

• Ultimate in cross-platform but not as pretty as an App

2. Thru the web

1. Simple: Website can be made iPad-specific– Use custom style sheet for iPad (or iPhone)

2. Web apps: HTML5 / CSS3– Offers local storage, web apps work offline– Interactive rich media: javascript, video, audio,

geolocation– Google Editions (late 2010) will use this

technology approach3. iPad-specific tuning of web apps

– Browser window and toolbar can be turned off, Apple styles (buttons etc) added, some hardware features accessed, eg Accelerometer, etc

– (using eg JQTouch, PhoneGap, PastryKit)

3. E-Reading Apps

• New content can be delivered into an e-Reading App via the web– Bypasses iTunes store,

Apple’s 30%– Bypasses Apple’s approval

process

• Users must register with you or your payment processor (eg PayPal)

• But rego/payment process often complex

Kobo iPad App

3. E-Reading Apps• Magazine e-Reading

apps– Publisher-branded:

Woodwing (eg Time magazine)

– Aggregator-branded: Zinio, Blio

– Coming: Next Issue (Conde Nast, et all), Skiff (Hearst)

– NZ: M2 Magazine (iPhone)

• Ebook e-Reading apps– Kindle– Kobo (ePub) – NZ in

May’10– Apple iBooks (ePub)

Kobo iPad App

Could the ePub standard for eBooks work for magazines?

• Yes …– Uses web standards: (x)HTML, CSS, JPG/SVG– Reflowable, Downloadable (wrapped in .zip file)– Wide device support, plus Apple, Google, Adobe etc– Instant paid distribution: Kindle (similar to ePub),

Kobo (NZ launch May 2010), Google Editions, iBooks– D-I-Y or cheap conversion services (from PDF)

• But …– Limited rich media and interactive support– Not yet article- or page-centric– ePub 2.1 will be much better, 18 months away

Magazines on the iPad and iPhone

• Multi-touch: Pinch, swipe, tap

• Page vs scroll• Accelerometer,

geolocation, websites

• Text readability on many screen sizes

• Multiple media types• File sizes/bandwidth• Online/offline (DRM)

Source: YouTube, woodwing.com, the wonderfactory.com, zinio.com

Can I use my Adobe software?

• Sad: Adobe’s cross-platform strategy stymied by Apple’s banning of Flash, stalling the much-demo’d Wired iPad edition

• Easy (sort of): Extensive ePub support inside Adobe InDesign

• Slick: Third party plug-ins combined with iPad e-reading app– Woodwing.com (used by Time mag)

Where to from here

• Learn what mobile digital readers want • Use the technology (iPad, iPhone etc)• Do something simple to get in the

game, eg a special issue with ePub on Kobo or iBooks, or an outsourcer such as Zinio

• Consider the international market• Experiment early with paid content• Build online marketing channels

Questions

• Slides at slideshare.net/nztaylor• Martin Taylor, Digital Strategies

– martin@digitalstrategies.co.nz– Twitter.com/nztaylor– Blog: activitypress.com/ereport

• Also available for questions:– Michael Carney, NetMarketing Services,

michael@netmarketingservices.co.nz – Roger Shakes, Kiwa Media

roger.shakes@kiwamedia.com– Karl van Randow, CactusLab, karl@cactuslab.com