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Entries in Magazines (20)

Monday
Feb072011

Five days of The Daily

If you're in the news business, the big industry buzz of the past week was the launch of The Daily, Rupert Murdoch's new iPad-only news app. Even those who don't have iPads were chiming in on The Daily, good or bad. I can't recall this kind of interest in a news product in a long time.

If you're a regular reader of this site, you know I posted back in November that I was tired of pre-launch hate for The Daily, which only picked up steam with Wednesday's launch. I thought some of that post-launch criticism was justified (particularly with technical issues and thin hard-news report) while much was blind hate toward Murdoch and something different. After Day 1, I shared a quick update to that November post and said I'd follow-up after a few days of thorough review.

An iTunes-style story carousel is a great way to scan storiesAnd?

I feel like a piece of swaying seaweed writing this but I after 5 days of reading, I have a love-hate relationship with The Daily. One minute I'm thrilled, the next I'm shaking my head in disgust.
An iTunes-style story carousel makes it easy to skim topics.

I understand The Daily is not supposed to be The New York Times or even Huffington Post -- it's a tabloid for tablets. "The Daily" is not a publication of record. It skims the news and makes no bones about ignoring important news that for whatever reason doesn't make the cut.

Presentation is frequently striking, which is magnified on a high-resolution platform like the iPad.But too often The Daily seems thrown together, with digital tricks often inserted at the expense of relevant information.

I think The Daily is a product with tons of promise that surprises me enough each day to keep me coming back. But there are some flaws that I consider serious in light of The Daily's $25 million pre-launch costs and $500,000 per week operating costs moving forward.

So, follow me as I run through some highlights and lowlights, as well as a few suggestions:

 

Click to read more ...

Monday
Dec062010

Virgin's "Project" raises the bar for digital publications

After skimming the debut edition of Virgin's iPad lifestyle magazine "Project," I was immediately struck  by two things:

  1. Why couldn't a company like Virgin, which exudes passion and energy, come up with a better name for what is a dynamic digital app?
  2. The "Project" cover displays dynamically in portrait or landscape mode"Project" captured my attention and imagination like few magazines have done before. In the infant age of tablet publications, it's reset the bar for digital magazines and publications in general. That's saying something when magazines like Wired and Popular Science are doing innovative things. But "Project" is so well-packaged and executed that it's at times breath-taking. 

Unless you own an iPad, it's hard to describe all that "Project" is (although the video above offers a glimpse). I don't say that to be elitist -- there are millions of iPads after all -- but to reinforce the fact that touchscreen tablet computers will dramatically reshape how we view and interact with content. But here are some things about "Project" that knocked me out:

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Nov102010

Letting readers influence your cover

Screenshot of an Entertainment Weekly survey page asking for input on possible cover storeisI got an email from Entertainment Weekly (I'm a subscriber) on Tuesday, asking me to share my thoughts on "a couple of possible Entertainment Weekly cover stories." I was asked to "rate your interest in each of these stories," using the simple form shown at the right.

This isn't rocket science and isn't new, but seems to be a trend, as I recently was asked to cast my vote for Sports Illustrated cover prospects.

It'll be interesting to see 1) whether any of these EW covers appears and 2) whether this trend spreads to other magazines. My sense is that it will.

It's interesting that this really hasn't taken off with newspapers. The Wisconsin State Journal appears to have stopped its experiment in letting readers pick one front-page story every day. Many media companies already generate "most popular" story feeds on their websites, and that smart editors take those and other web tools into consideration when gauging reader interest.

I also believe newspaper subscribers really do prefer skilled and experienced editors to make choices on the story mix each day. It's a premium that separates "curated" publications from the 24-7 onslaught of digital news streams.

If you know of other publications giving readers a large say in their cover story selections, lemme know.