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!
Coming this month to an iPhone near you: the December issue of your GQ magazine. Conde Nast has developed the technology to view the December issue’s content on Apple’s iPhone through a $2.99 app. This is the first time a major consumer magazine has made an entire issue available on a custom-built reader on an Apple app, breaking away from Amazon’s Kindle app. In the reader, GQ can be read in vertical or horizontal modes, and users can tap through pages and ads. It will also include video, audio, and links to external websites. The app comes out mid-November. See the full FOLIO story here.
Earlier this month, The Economist launched a mobile newsstand of sorts, allowing New Yorkers to get the week’s Economist overnighted to their home. It’s a simple system: Readers sign up for weekly texts, which arrive on Thursday, listing each week’s top stories and topics for the next day’s magazine. If they’re interested, all they have to do is click on the link and order by 9 p.m. The Economist will be hand-delivered to their door by 6 a.m. the next morning, before newsstands even get them. The overnighted copies cost $6.99, the same as the newsstand copies, and the system gives the Economist a better idea of what news topics readers respond to the most. The publication first tested the text message system in England, and it’s hoping to roll it out to the entire U.S. But hopefully by then it will be as easy as simply responding to the text to get a copy (rather than going to a website to order). Read the full story here.
Ever heard of QR codes? If you’re in publishing, you might be familiar with them very soon. It’s a new technology that’s being used in Japanese and European publications and is making its way to the U.S. How does it work? Get ready for this: a two-dimensional barcode-like image (like the one seen here) is printed on a magazine or newspaper page, and can be read by cell phone cameras, instantly linking a reader to a website through a mobile browser. It lets the publication track what’s important to readers and when, and it allows the readers to access additional (and sometimes exclusive) content. Advertisers can use it too, linking readers to buying information or special offers, and giving businesses a better way to track print response rates. Read the MediaShift blog about QR codes here.
The launch of Apple’s iPhone App Store opened the door for media companies to explore an all-new, interactive way to distribute content and engage readers. Magazines were exploring the mobile world before then, but the iPhone App Store suddenly made everything amazingly accessible—and magazines went to task creating some can’t-live-without mobile applications. Take the Style.com app, which won Condé Nast Digital the top spot in the “Mobile Application” category at min’s 2009 Best of Web Awards last Wednesday. It lets users zip through runway shots of the newest fashion collections, read reviews and find out how to snag the looks. And there were other top magazine-based mobile applications that won, too. See the full list of min’s Best of Web Awards winners here.
Next week, Time Inc. is launching new applications for Golf.com and CNNMoney.com, adding to its already robust collection of mobile apps, including those from Time.com and People.com. Time Inc., which says mobile apps are a “natural extension” for its brands, reports it has a million monthly unique visitors to its mobile sites.
Even local magazines are utilizing the iPhone App Store to create a more direct connection with readers. Here at TMG Custom Media, Washington Flyer partnered with GeoRadio and DC by Phone to create a Washington Flyer mobile app that gives customized guided tours of D.C.’s sights. Take a look. And tell us what magazine apps you love.
Coming this month to an iPhone near you: the December issue of your GQ magazine. Conde Nast has developed the technology to view the December issue’s content on Apple’s iPhone through a $2.99 app. This is the first time a major consumer magazine has made an entire issue available on a custom-built reader on an Apple app, breaking away from Amazon’s Kindle app. In the reader, GQ can be read in vertical or horizontal modes, and users can tap through pages and ads. It will also include video, audio, and links to external websites. The app comes out mid-November. 
Earlier this month, 
Ever heard of QR codes? If you’re in publishing, you might be familiar with them very soon. It’s a new technology that’s being used in Japanese and European publications and is making its way to the U.S. How does it work? Get ready for this: a two-dimensional barcode-like image (like the one seen here) is printed on a magazine or newspaper page, and can be read by cell phone cameras, instantly linking a reader to a website through a mobile browser. It lets the publication track what’s important to readers and when, and it allows the readers to access additional (and sometimes exclusive) content. Advertisers can use it too, linking readers to buying information or special offers, and giving businesses a better way to track print response rates. 
ds, reports it has a million monthly unique visitors to its mobile sites.
