Posts filed under ‘digital magazines on iPad’
Apple Publishing Inc. (2)
Book publishers in general are happy with Apple’s iPad. The 30/70 revenue share was gladly accepted and seen as a way to break the Amazon dominance on the e-Reader market.
So much for the book publishers. One-off (book) revenue deals sound fair, but what about the newspapers and magazine market in the US? Recurring sales on newsstand is one, but just think about the subscriptions! These reader relations are dating back for years and will now be consumed by Apple.
Another issue is the ownership of subscriber data. Publishers have spent millions of the years to collect data about their readers. That knowledge not only influenced their marketing plans, but also sometimes the editorial directions a publication took. By getting separated from these data (Apple doesn’t have a habit of sharing consumer data with partners) publishers claim not to be able to make a good publication in future. Other like Conde Nast are more positive and consider the iPad as a ‘digital newsstand’. Listen to Sarah Chubb, president of Condé Nast Digital: “We also don’t get the consumer information in a typical newsstand sale, so part of why I’ve been thinking conceptually about this is, out of the gate, we think of it as a newsstand buyer.”
The companies will also pull in revenue from advertisers through the iPad. Condé Nast has gotten its GQ iPhone app approved by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. That means each copy sold digitally counts in the same way as a newsstand copy, and is included in its guaranteed circulation. It plans to do the same with iPad copies. That means if the iPad and iPhone apps take off, Condé Nast could charge advertisers more for each ad page. Smart!
Another interesting thought I read goes like this: media is segmented by format, vehicle and purpose. Books, newspapers, magazines, radio, television and movies stand alone as distinct entities. However, the iPad presents new possibilities for blurring the lines between these various media types. Unlike the iPhone, the iPad mimics the size and portability of traditional printed material such as books and magazines. In the example of the New York Times, the design of the page is easy on the eyes and demonstrates how typography and page design can be preserved in digital media.
And this one: good news for advertisers, too. The creative ads we are accustomed to seeing in printed publications can be incorporated into page layouts for the iPad app, eliminating ineffective and irritating banner and pop-up ads that plague browser-based versions.
Finally this reassuring one: it is once the dust settles and a preferred tablet OS is established or two (next blog), competing for that space, that we should begin to get nervous about a possible dominant role of Apple in publishing land. For now, I think they deserve a big hug and thumbs up!
“There’s no iMagazines and there’s no iNews,” said Sara Ohrvall, senior vice president, of research and development for Swedish media company Bonnier. “Either we have to package our products much differently, or we just lost the paid content game.” The simple answer is that magazines should offer their own apps to control the distribution.
Apple Publishing Inc. (1)
Threat or Opportunity? – We sometimes wonder how much Google can be allowed to be dominant in the sector of web search, but what about Apple? Some people are warning the industry – like at last week’s Ad Age digital conference. Apple has just launched a device that has the potential of changing the world of portable computing, just as it did with the iPod and portable music. But with the iPad – basically a big iPod Touch – it’s not just offering another smart, shiny new consumer device, but it’s also tightening its grip on its platforms as it transforms into a media company. It’s complicating relationships in media, to say the least! Somebody, on the other hand, called it “standard (US) symbiotic oligarchy” (or: nothing has changed).
The NYT recently opened an article on the iPad saying: “the print world welcomed Apple’s new iPad on Wednesday, eager to tap into the 125 million customers who already have iTunes accounts and are predisposed to buying more content from Apple”. A very optimistic view. Think about it: Apple has control on the hardware (the iPad), how publishers create content (the software-development kit), how consumers access media (the App Store) and, since its announcement last week, also advertising (iAd).
And don’t forget the 30% share Apple is forcing on traditional publishers taking their off-line publication on the iPad. Apple chose which publishers would be on the iPad launch platform and hand-picked his favorite papers and magazines. Some welcomed Steve Jobs as the new messiah. Tables were turned. A new digital magazine format inviting publishers to offer their content on it! To put it even clearer: can or will Apple Publishing Inc. decide which media will be available on iPad? Or are they just a media retailer and not a publisher? Kindle from Amazon didn´t create a problem in book publishing either (apart from book price pressure).
Originally, the iPad was an answer just to Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader, purely aimed at digital book publishing. In negotiations with Apple, publishers agreed to a business model that gives them more power over the price that customers pay for e-books. Publishers had all but lost that power on Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader. In a newly set price range, Apple will keep 30% of each sale, and publishers will take 70%. This fixed agreement with Apple gives publishers leverage to negotiate with Amazon on future pricing. Apple’s strategy could bring significant changes to the e-book market, where Amazon has so far captured more than 90 percent of the market. Apple just brought back competition in a market dominated by Amazon.
Five of the six largest publishers — Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster— had signed on to provide e-book content for the new tablet. Only one book publisher did not sign (yet) on to the iPad: Random House, the world’s largest publisher of trade books.
Who’s publishing with iPad?
The Apple wireless tablet publication, or iPad, (or XL-size iPhone if you wish), is entering the publishing market by storm. It offers publishers a full color and interactive e-reader platform. The question whether the storm is just caused by the Apple tribe can’t be taken too lightly. Whatever happens with iPad, publishers know they got to act quickly not to miss the boat ready to leave the digital port. Some of those publishers have built really new apps for the tablet, while others are kicking off with converted versions of existing iPhone apps.
I’m listing all the first seven US print publishers joining iPad (with help of Advertising Age).
- Conde Nast: Wired, Vanity Fair, Glamour and The New Yorker are expected later this year. Kick- off on the iPad is with its GQ app, (i-Phone optimized version). Each issue of the GQ app costs $2.99/issue.
- Rodal: publisher of Men’s Health offers an iPad edition for $4.99/issue. Each issue will include all the editorial content of the print edition plus extras such as video. Gillette secured sponsorship of the April and May issues of the Men’s Health iPad edition by increasing its other ad spending with Men’s Health (hence the print+ model).
- The New York Times: NYT’s “Editors’ Choice” app is offering a selection of news, opinion and features, available free to consumers and relying on advertiser support. The Chase Sapphire card is sponsoring the app at the start.
- Bonnier: Popular Science is the first iPad app by the Swedish publisher. The app will feature content from the magazine’s April issue and touts flow navigation “more like a panning camera than a flipping page.” Future issues will sync with the print publishing schedule and will be on sale within the app.
- Time Inc.: this iPad app will include all the magazine’s weekly content plus additional slide shows and video, costing consumers $4.99/issue. Initial advertisers include Fidelity, Korean Air, Liberty Mutual, Lexus, Toyota and Unilever.
- USA Today: this app will include much of the editorial content from each morning’s paper and will update around the clock. It’s free to consumers for the next three months, courtesy of a sponsorship from Courtyard by Marriott, but will require a paid subscription after that. USA Today has not yet set the subscription price.
- The Wall Street Journal: WsJ for iPad is a free download with some free content, but complete access will require a subscription that runs $3.99/wk. The subscription will include news throughout the day, top picks from editors and access to the last seven days’ worth of print content. Initial advertisers include Buick, Capital One, Coca-Cola, iShares, FedEx and Oracle, with full-screen ad units that appear between article and section pages.
is iPad just ‘print plus’?
An interesting publishing debate is going on since Apple launched the iPad. All major publishers, media agencies and advertisers are closely studying how consumers are using this new tool. Trying to figure out how they can benefit from they way content is consumed and how interaction takes place in that process.
How will this new pattern of content consumption influence their buying and selling of magazine and newspaper ads on this new device? Is it a threat or opportunity? Are ads worth more or just less? Are you selling or buying ads in fixed combination with print or just separate?
The first sponsors didn’t wait for the outcome and just jumped on the iPad publishing bandwagon. Like Marriott’s Courtyard Hotels joining USA Today. USA Today, is selling iPad ads completely separately. Its iPad edition, which is already available, will be free to consumers for three months, courtesy of a sponsorship sold on its own to Courtyard by Marriott. The paper is free for hotel visitors, so it will be interesting to see if they can get them pay for it after the three months are over.
“These (print and iPad) effectively are going to be very different media,” argued David Hunke, president and publisher of USA Today. ”
“For us it probably makes sense to have some flexibility with that,” said Gini Gladstone, senior director for Courtyard marketing. “Because we’re buying less print and more digital over time, it would be difficult for us to say ‘Let’s bundle those together.'”