We spent the last month looking back at the first decade, and now we’re ready to look forward. What’s going to happen in the custom media industry in 2010? Do we need to get out our credit cards to read content online? Change our magazine format to read better on the new tablets? Start looking for a return on those viral videos?
In this featured video, your favorite TMGers predict the five ways content will change this year. Communications Manager Rebecca Loveridge predicts new devices will put the emphasis back on original, quality content. Principal Richard Creighton believes people will start paying for content. Video Publishing Director Kate Ottenberg says publishers will focus on ROI with online video programming. Washington Flyer Editor Michael McCarthy says magazines will walk back from the plank. Social Media Director Andrew Hanelly believes social media will get fragmented.
How do you think content will change in 2010? Tell us!
The industry is buzzing about today’s announcement of a digital storefront for publishers (read the AdAge story here), but that’s not the only thing going on in the print-to-digital content world…
Conde Nast and Adobe are building a digital version of Wired magazine, according to the Wall Street Journal. The e-reader app will be available sometime next year, and then Conde Nast will move on to building apps for the rest of its titles. The app will let readers flip through the pages as if they were in print, as well as access additional layers of content, launch videos, and link to the Web. Read the Wall Street Journal Story here.
Meanwhile, Hearst is launching a service and online store in 2010 that will deliver newspapers and magazines from a variety of publishers on a variety of electronic devices. Called Skiff, the service will work with Sprint to connect readers through dedicated Skiff e-readers sold in Sprint stores, as well as other devices. Read the FOLIO story here.
This magazine will make your coffee table look really, really good. Vintage is a “celebration of design, culture, and the creative possibilities of print.” We like! It’s inspired by Fleur Cowes’ Flair magazine, which published in the 50s. Editor in Chief Ivy Baer Sherman caught an exhibit in New York on Flair and immediately went to work creating this biannual multi-textured publication, which will feature an “eclectic roster” of artists and contributors. For a sneak peek at the content, you can read through the “Issues” section of the website.
Apple is reportedly in talks with several media companies to negotiate content for a new electronic device said to “redefine print.” The tablet will hybridize content, drawing not just from the printed word, but from audio, video and interactive graphics. And if it’ll be anything like the iPod, it could be a game-changer for publishing companies. This next generation publishing device could be officially announced as soon as January 2010. Read the iLounge report.
The release of the new, upgraded iPhone last week might mean the dawn of a new digital content distribution channel. The first publisher to get its feet wet with the upgraded phone? Men’s Health magazine, which is selling an app that offers workout regimens and exercises to try. But it’s not just a novelty app—where you download it, use it, then forget about it. The new iPhone’s apps allow for continuous upgrades and new features to be added (in the Men’s Health case, new workouts) for additional fees, allowing publishers an outlet for a constant stream of content and a constant stream of revenue. The Men’s Health app, reports AdAge, is selling for $1.99, and additional sets of workouts will go for 99 cents.
With advertising revenues down, publishers are increasingly investigating non-advertising ways to bring in additional revenue, such as raising subscription and newsstand pricing and cutting rate bases, like New York just did this week. Another small light at the end of the tunnel comes in the form of the iPhone, as iPhone applications created by – and touted by – magazine brands are gaining in popularity and bringing publishers just a smidgen more much-needed cash flow. By bringing the right amount of exclusive content to readers, and making it interactive and functional enough so that people will want to pay for it, magazine publishers might be on the right track with their iPhone apps. MediaWeek reported this week that Hachette Filipacchi Media, the parent of brands such as Elle and Car & Drive, are launching iPhone apps later this year that will focus on shopping and cars. Also, Meredith Corp., which has lifestyle titles like Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle, plans to launch apps focused on food, parenting and fitness. Apps run the gamut of prices, from free to ad-supported, to $5 or $10 a pop, to bundle subscription-based “premium” features that are added onto free apps. We applaud publishers not stemming the flow of great content, but instead finding new outlets for it.
Apps aside, will the iPhone become the new digital medium for magazine content? Perhaps iTunes will become a virtual newsstand for magazines, bringing the newest issues straight through to your iPhone. In a recent article in AdAge, publishers say the idea isn’t so far-fetched. “iTunes is a great marketplace for entertainment, movies, music, TV, even books. Magazines are actually conspicuous in their absence,” Ryan McConville, publisher of Bauer Teen Magazines, told AdAge.
If you think it would be hard—virtually impossible—to translate a magazine spread onto such a small screen, don’t blink. Companies are already hard at work figuring out a way to do just that. One such company, called Bite Sized Candy, is working with Condé Nast and Hearst to provide magazine content to the iPhone via iTunes—and they’re looking at launching the solution this summer. Can’t wait to see it!
Everyone’s buzzing about the Silicon Valley start-up that’s supposedly developing the next big thing for the newspaper and magazine industry—a 8.5-by-11-inch Kindle-type touchscreen e-reader that will allow you to view and read newspapers and magazines from anywhere (through a wireless network). Made entirely of plastic—and appropriately named Plastic Logic—the first models aren’t expected to reach consumers until 2010, and will display ‘zines and ‘papers in standard black and white. Expect to wait longer for your magazine spreads to hit the e-reader’s screen in full, glorious color. Publishing houses hoping to have their content on the Plastic Logic reader have to partner with the company so their articles will be available to consumers through the Plastic Logic Content Store (think iTunes, but for articles). Also, check out Time magazine’s recent article on the device, and yesterday’s article in The New York Observer.
Deciding whether to implement subscriptions or some kind of a payment system for your online content is a tough call. Here’s a look at a company that embraced the concept early and reaped the benefits of their decision: Access Intelligence’s Chemical Business Media switched its Chemical Week and Chemical Engineering Magazine Web sites to a paid-content model in 2007, according to Jason Fell at FOLIO Magazine. Fell reports that since the switch, the group has generated 30,000 new customers, helping to put a stop to a 30-year slide in revenue. Parts of ChemWeek.com are free for visitors, but most of the users convert to paid subscriptions to access more in-depth content. Read Jason Fell’s article on the company’s switch here.
American Express, Time Inc. and CNN are launching a new take on the travel guide with “Weekend Getaways,” an initiative that delivers travel content through print, online, mobile and broadcast. It’s a smart cross-brand, multiple-format solution jumping off the success of last year’s Infiniti-sponsored “City Guides” initiative. The three-part “Weekend Getaways” booklet will run in the April, July and October issues of Travel + Leisure and a few other American Express Publishing and Time Inc. titles. Solely sponsored by Infiniti, the in-magazine booklets will cover nine Weekend Getaways in the Northeast, Southwest, and the West. Then, CNN and its airport network will air the travel segments, beginning this month and running through September. In addition to the print and television outlets, dedicated websites, like this one at Travel + Leisure and this one at CNN feature tip itineraries, travel tips and more.
Meanwhile, Hearst is launching a service and online store in 2010 that will deliver newspapers and magazines from a variety of publishers on a variety of electronic devices. Called 
This magazine will make your coffee table look really, really good. Vintage is a “celebration of design, culture, and the creative possibilities of print.” We like! It’s inspired by Fleur Cowes’ Flair magazine, which published in the 50s. Editor in Chief Ivy Baer Sherman caught an exhibit in New York on Flair and immediately went to work creating this biannual multi-textured publication, which will feature an “eclectic roster” of artists and contributors. For a sneak peek at the content, you can read through the “Issues” section of 
Apple is reportedly in talks with several media companies to negotiate content for a new electronic device said to “redefine print.” The tablet will hybridize content, drawing not just from the printed word, but from audio, video and interactive graphics. And if it’ll be anything like the iPod, it could be a game-changer for publishing companies. This next generation publishing device could be officially announced as soon as January 2010. 
The release of the new, upgraded 
With advertising revenues down, publishers are increasingly investigating non-advertising ways to bring in additional revenue, such as raising subscription and newsstand pricing and cutting rate bases, 
Apps aside, will the 
Everyone’s buzzing about 
American Express, Time Inc. and CNN are launching a new take on the travel guide with “Weekend Getaways,” an initiative that delivers travel content through print, online, mobile and broadcast. It’s a smart cross-brand, multiple-format solution jumping off the success of last year’s Infiniti-sponsored “City Guides” initiative. The three-part “Weekend Getaways” booklet will run in the April, July and October issues of Travel + Leisure and a few other American Express Publishing and Time Inc. titles. Solely sponsored by Infiniti, the in-magazine booklets will cover nine Weekend Getaways in the Northeast, Southwest, and the West. Then, CNN and its airport network will air the travel segments, beginning this month and running through September. In addition to the print and television outlets, dedicated websites, 
