3D Issue Blog, digital magazine and publishing news

17 August 2010

It’s been a busy and positive first half of 2010 for digital publishing. Apple’s iPad has certainly had a huge impact on the digital publishing market since it’s launch and eased to a huge 3 Million sold – in just 80 days. The competition to the iPad is also set to heat up – see our recent post on the future devices that will compete with the iPad. There’s also been a number of iPad Apps released that have been classed as ‘sozines’  – dynamic publications that are populated based on a readers preferences such as Flipboard and Pulse. So a lot of developments in the last 6 months alone which has sparked a number of reports and studies that given interesting insights and predictions.

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16 August 2010

News Corp. is set to launch a new national newspaper which will be distributed on mobile devices, via a paid for App according to a recent LA Times article.

It is believed that the new digital newspaper is likely to compete with the other national publications including  USA Today and The New York Times and will be marketed towards those readers wishing to consume their news ‘on the go’.

This latest news may not come as a great surprise to many, and has perhaps been on the cards since Rupert Murdoch CEO, News Corp. voiced his opinions for the potential success of the iPad recently “We’ll have young people reading newspapers,” he said during a recent conference call. “It’s a real game changer in the presentation of news.”

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13 August 2010

It’s been reported that on 4th August 2010, Microsoft filed a trademark application for the name “ONIT,”  which has been described as a “An Internet website portal featuring information of general interest to men.” The portal will focus on providing “information in the field of entertainment, sports, fitness, recreation and leisure activity.”

This is not the first time Microsoft has delved into online magazines, Glo and WonderWall are other recent online magazine sites launched by Microsoft. They recently declared that the lifestyle sector is clearly one of their most popular categories on MSN reaching more than 8.2 million unique users a month.

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12 August 2010

Steve Jobs and the iPad’s rules of  ‘no to nudity’ has been well documented this year, first there was the removal of 5000 apps from the from the App Store, including many that were claimed to feature “overtly sexual” content. Then there was the famous exchange of words via email between Jobs and Valleywag’s Ryan over “Freedom from porn”.

Steve Jobs has stated “If we find these apps contain inappropriate material we remove them and request the developer make any necessary changes in order to be distributed by Apple.”

Now as more Publishers look to make their content available on the iPad we’re looking into the various approaches publishers are taking….

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10 August 2010

Sideways, the first magazine exclusively designed and written for the iPad, recently surveyed readers as part of the Magazine’s July Issue (June 2010 was the debut issue) and garnered an impressive 20 percent response rate with 93 percent completion rate. Sideways takes full advantage of the iPad’s capabilities to present stories that are immersive and engaging in ways that print alone is not.

Many of the survey responses were in line with the typical early adopter demographic. Results include the following:

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9 August 2010

Over the last few weeks I have been watching the rise of social magazines or ‘sozines’ with great interest.  For any of you who are not familiar with social magazines, they are dynamic publications that are populated based on a readers preferences rather than the content that the publishers decides to insert into that issue of the magazine.

A ‘SoZine’ is a publication that is of that moment, dynamic, updated on every launch . A digital publication or digital edition is an online recreation of a print publication, in which the content is (normally) static or fixed.

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6 August 2010

At 3D Issue we often get enquiries from new and existing customers about web hosting. As the 3D Issue software is a solution rather than a service our customers create and then host their own digital magazines.  So what should customers look out for when selecting a hosting provider? and how can they find the right host for all the 3D issue digital magazines produced using our software?

The size of your digital publication is will depend on the content within the edition; so the number of pages, videos, audio clips etc.. will all go towards the final file size, the more content you have in your publication the larger the end result will be and the longer it will take your users to open the digital edition to view.  Always remember by altering the “DPI” and “Image quality” to a lower setting you can lower the demand on the end user’s server.

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5 August 2010

So you’ve set up your Facebook and Twitter accounts, you’re tweeting and posting away but…… not exactly sure if anyone is listening.  Is what you’re talking about of interest to your networks? Are your posts / tweets being forwarded on to your networks’ networks? There are probably people talking about your publications right now providing valuable reader feedback (positive or negative) that perhaps you are not aware of?

When publishers implement Social Media activity there is sometimes an initial period of confusion and doubt about what and how to measure, what metrics and results to record and track.

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4 August 2010

It seems that nobody can hide from the digital publishing revolution.  It now appears that airlines could emerge as a serious contender in getting your publication in the hands of your targeted consumer base, especially for publishers in the travel industry.

Singapore Airlines announced yesterday that they are to replace their in-flight print magazine with a digital edition that can be viewed through their in-flight entertainment system.  The airline has a total of 3 magazines: SilverKris, KrisShop and KrisWorld, all of which will be made available through their in-flight monitors. Not only will it save the airline the cost of printing the physical magazine but they will also save on overall weight and fuel expenses.

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3 August 2010

The New York Times has long been the leader of innovation in digital publishing, no more so than with their Times reader application, an app they developed in conjunction with Adobe showcasing the functionality  & possibilities that Adobe Air offers publishers.  We have been discussing over the last couple of posts about the new self-titled ‘future of newspaper’ applications that seem to be hitting Apple’s iPad app store with such fanfare.

The issue for most content owners is the methods they use to collect content.  A lot of these applications are using RSS feeds as anchors to detect the main content in the links associated with the feeds.  These applications are then scooping that content from that site and are determining how much content to display in their automated digital editions before providing a link to the article on the publishers website.

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