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
– [email protected]– Twitter.com/nztaylor– Blog: activitypress.com/ereport
• Also available for questions:– Michael Carney, NetMarketing Services,
[email protected] – Roger Shakes, Kiwa Media
[email protected]– Karl van Randow, CactusLab, [email protected]
