La Presse to cease weekday print publishing

One of French Canada's most  prominent newspapers, La Presse, is ceasing weekday publication, effective January 1. A hard copy version will now only be available weekly, on Saturdays, and readers will otherwise have to rely on its free tablet app La Presse+. 

"Thirty months after its launch, La Presse+ is now more successful than the print version of La Presse after 131 years of existence," president and editor Crevier said in a news release.

La Presse+ currently reaches 460,000 people a week. 

The unlamented demise of the Apple Newsstand and the uncertain prospects of replacement

Magazine publishers have pretty consistently been wary of, or disappointed by, the Apple Newsstand. It was created -- and sold to the industry -- as a place where readers could search out and purchase digital versions of their favourite titles. Or, their favourite digital titles. 

Sometimes the Newsstand worked and sold some subs, but more often publishers complained that, lost in the jungle of thousands of apps out there, readers couldn't find their titles either through deliberate search or serendipitously. 

Well now that's no longer an issue since Apple is quietly killing the Newsstand and replacing it this fall with a content aggregating app called Apple News, a sort of Flipboard clone. It was so indifferent to its Newsstand and thought so little of its participants that it didn't even bother to mention its demise.

A column in Publishing Executive  by Ron Matejko says that Apple's decision.amounts to a mercy killing. 

"The end of Newsstand amounts to the mama bird kicking its baby off the tree branch to see if it can fly on its own, as digital magazines will now join the general public in the iTunes App Store. 

"Discoverability was a major issue for publications in a world of a few thousand apps. Swimming in the same pool as hundreds of thousands of other choices in the App Store will push all but the top titles further into needle-in-the-haystack territory."

Apple hopes publishers will benefit from ad sales: 

“Earn 100% of the revenue from ads you sell," it says "and 70% when iAd sells ads for you. iAd provides campaign management, targeting and reporting capabilities that help drive your business.” 

One Canadian publishing insider said

"I'd like to know how Apple News's ad-supported model will pay off vs. the paid circulation (read: high engagement) model we've built with our digital magazine editions. Likely they'll run as complementary products with complementary sources of revenue, but [if] Apple News is the only place anyone is looking, that could force us away from reader-paid content altogether." 

 A story in Nieman Lab says Apple Newsstand was launched with promise but quickly turned into a ghetto where news apps went to die.

"There’s no guarantee Apple News will be a big hit; Google Currents, probably the closest analog up to now, was a flop. But the broader narrative is clear: Individual news apps and individual news brands aren’t the primary point of contact with news any more. They’re raw material, feeding into broader platforms. The loss of power for publishers in that exchange is obvious; the potential benefits remain mostly undiscovered."

Cottage Life unveiling augmented reality in its Spring 2015 issue

Cottage Life magazine is debuting augmented reality in the issue hitting newsstands this week. The publication is using Blippar, an image-recognition and augmented reality app to offer interactive content through pages of the magazine. 

After downloading a free Blippar app onto their smartphone or tablet, a reader can use their device to access "blippable" pages with various kinds of print-plus content. For instance, there is a video by Cottage Life editor Penny Caldwell, explaining the initiative. And downloadable plans for a picnic table. A video of a dramatic rescue. And a preview of the second season of Cottage Life's TV show. 

The magazine is partnering with advertiser KEEN to use the same technology in the issue, only in this case to introduce an new sandal design called UNEEK. 

“We wanted to build an interactive experience for our loyal print audience that would integrate digital technology and enhance the way they interact with that form of media,” said Caldwell [in a release]. “This partnership with Blippar will not only change the way print magazines are consumed, but also change the way advertisers showcase their products. KEEN, our presenting partner, is our first advertiser to activate its print ad with this technology.”

The Blippar technology will also be available to readers in the western Canada edition Cottage Life West. 

House & Home releases iPhone app with August issue

House & Home magazine has rolled out iPhone- and iPod-friendly versions, starting with the August issue; this goes along with its previously released tablet app which won the magazine 2012 National Magazine Award for tablet of the year. According to a story on Masheadonline, House & Home is working on an Android app, too. 

Garden Making magazine goes all to pots with new container gardening app

Garden Making magazine, based in Niagara-on-the-Lake, has launched a free Phone/iPad app for people who like to garden in pots. The new My Garden Containers app provides users with plant recipes for various combinations and a list of 80 plus container plants, plus how-to articles and videos. Users can share photographs and documentation of their own plantings in a public gallery.

“We try to make gardening approachable while providing expertise, tips and techniques," says publisher Michael Fox of Inspiring Media Inc., which produces Garden Making.

The company developed the app with support from the Ontario Media Development Corporation and through collaboration with developer Addicted to Touch, a division of Symetric Productions, Inc. in St. Catharines, Ont. .

Toronto Life launches new iPad edition

Toronto Life magazine has launched a new iPad edition, coincident with its March "Best Doctors" issue that is available today on newsstands.The free custom app makes the tablet version of the magazine available (by subscription), along with video, interactive features and slideshows. The app is free at the iTunes store.Toronto Life print subscribers are being offered a 30-day free trial subscription of the tablet version.

Browsing app stores the preferred choice for finding new mobile apps

Most people in the U.S. rely on browsing through an app store (Apple or Google Play)or the recommendations of friends and family to find new mobile apps, according to data reported by eMarketer. Only 5% find out about them through magazines and newspapers and only 8% through sites accessed on desktop and laptop computers.

The same report quoted a Juniper Research forecast that the number of app downloads would double in the next four years, rising to 160 billion. 

Magazines now available on Google Newsstand for Android

Users of Android-powered devices, smartphones and tablets, can now easily access magazines and newspapers using the Google Play Newsstand. This is an upgrade of the existing Google Play Magazines app that has been available in Canada. It is going directly up against Apple Newsstand and Next Issue Media (including Next Issue Canada).

Among the magazine singles and subs available are Better Homes & Gardens, The Economist, Esquire, Fast Company, Forbes, Game Informer, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Shape, TIME, Vanity Fair and WIRED. There are something like 1,900 free and paid, full-length publications.

Flipboard magazine app is launching a desktop version that will work with any browser

[Click to see flip]

Flipboard, which sent more than a few shivers down the spines of mainstream magazine publishers with its magazine app for mobile devices, has now launched a desktop version. Prepare for more hand-wringing by publishers, whether or not it's justified.

The appetite for creating your own magazine-style compilations has led to more than two million being made. Now, the custom UI experience in HTML5 will be available to read, and to share, on desktop computers as well as handheld devices. The app’s trademark paginated, card-flipping experience is reproduced in the browser and resizes depending on the monitor.  

The company cautions that the full experience with search, table of contents and so on is not expected to be available until later this year. 

"Downloading the app on a mobile device is still the only way to get the full Flipboard experience," said a release, "including personalizing the social magazine, connecting social media accounts, accessing the Content Guide and creating a Flipboard account."

CEO Mike McCue told The Verge about the backstory of bringing Flipboard to the web. 

“When we started,” he says, “we thought we were going to build a website.” Hearing rumors about Apple’s iPad, they bet on a tablet app, and now, three years after launch, they’re moving back to the desktop. Though McCue agrees that the recent demise of Google Reader played into the decision to build for the web, the team wanted to open up its users’ magazines to a bigger audience, instead of keeping them stuck behind an app wall."

Rogers tops 1 million replica app downloads for its 22 magazine titles

Rogers Media magazine titles crested a digital landmark recently when it topped 1 million tablet replica app downloads for its titles. (This does not include downloads of Rogers Publishing standalone apps for tablets and smartphones.) 

The company said in a release that it is the more tablet apps than any other Canadian publisher and was the first major magazine publisher to have every one of its consumer publications on iPad, Android and Blackberry -- including well-known brands such as Chatelaine, Maclean's, Sportsnet, FLARE and HELLO! Canada and several of its business to business titles.

"The last few years have seen revolutionary change, innovation and digital growth within the publishing industry. From the start of this digital evolution, we have worked to deliver our premium branded content to our audiences on their preferred platform. Our successes—on the tablet, as indicated by the million downloads, and on other platforms—demonstrate that we are ahead of the curve in giving our audiences what they want," said Ryan Trotman, digital publisher, Rogers Digital Media.

Maclean's was the first major consumer magazine in Canada to create a tablet edition, in December 2010 and now it has 22 publications on tablet, reaching 1.3 million unduplicated, unique visitors each month.

Among Rogers standalone publishing apps, the Chatelaine 10-Minute Fitness app has reached #1 in 31 countries (including Canada and many European and Asian nations) in the highly competitive fitness and health app category. On iTunes in Canada, it also reached #14 overall (competing against all apps). Launched in May 2013, it was downloaded 50,000 times in its first month.

The Kit launches a new, interactive app

The Kit, the beauty and fashion online magazine has unveiled a new app for tablets and smartphones, which debuts with the February issue. The magazine now publishes 10 issues a year of the interactive magazine and the  app -- for iPad, Android and Kindle users -- now features 360-degree views of some items, such as being able to see a handbag from all angles.

The magazine, which is part of Star Media Group, a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, has 100,000 app installs and 70,000 subscribers as well as e-letters and a weekly newspaper print supplement in select copies of the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Edmonton Journal and Vancouver Sun. 

“Readers have new expectations with consuming digital media, and so we’ve redesigned our interactive magazine to fully utilize the multi-touch and multi-sensory experience that today’s technology offers,” said associate publisher Kelly Whitelock. “For advertisers there are opportunities to interact with readers in unique ways that are both meaningful and engaging.

Willingness to pay for apps is diminishing, study shows

Tablet owners and users are keen on apps, but not so much on paying for them. A study commissioned by the odnline Publishers Association -- detailes reported by AdAge -- found that 54% of respondents to a survey prefer free, ad-supported apps, up from 40% just a year ago. Only 19% said they'd pay to have ad-free apps, down from 30% a year ago.

The study found that 54% of respondents have bought content online have done so as the result of seeing a tablet ad, compared with 38% who haven't paid for any content.

 "The numbers show that these audiences have an appetite for advertising," said Pam Horan, president of the OPA. "Now it's time to take advantage of it with the capabilities the platform offers, not just transferring print ads to the tablet."

iPad Newsstand making sales of $70,000 a month for in-app publication apps

The top 100 grossing publication apps in the iPad Newsstand are bringing in about $70,000 a month, according to a two-year study carried out by analytics firm Distimo. In that top rank are the New York Times, TheDaily and The New Yorker. According to a story in Minonline, the Newsstand  -- which is only about six months old -- represents about 7% of the top 200 grossing apps.

Almost all of this revenue is coming from in-app purchasing. For February the top 5 grossing Newsstand apps were The Daily, NYTimes for iPad, New Yorker Magazine, National Geographic and Cosmopolitan.

More magazine apps not necessarily better

Perhaps this is a cautionary tale for publishers who are keen on app delivery of their magazines' content to them new-fangled tablets. Research by GfK MRI of 3,000 adult tablet owners found that the more apps downloaded, the less likely they are to be used. 

95% of consumers who downloaded fewer than 10 apps used them regularly; only 16% of users with 20 or more apps do so. 

66% of the apps downloaded in the previous 30 days were free, while 34 were paid; and the main way that tablet owners search for apps is at the app store. 

[Thanks to Ellie Behling's blog on emedia vitals]

Vancouver-based Zite magazine app may be bought by CNN

It is being reported by Techvibes that cable news giant CNN may buy Vancouver-based iPad tablet magazine Zite for up to $US25 million. 

Zite is an iPad app that, for now, is available for free from the App Store; it aggregates content (mostly news) based on users' personal preferences -- essentially a personalized web search engine.

CNN has understandably relied heavily on video for its own iPad app. It may be that it wants to incorporate Zite's technology to provide users with a more personal experience. Zite evolved from technology developed at UBC. Techvibes noted that Zite has had some recent bother from mainstream meadia sources unhappy with the "misappropriation" of their content; among the companies applying pressure are The Washington Post, the AP, Getty Images and, ironically, Time Warner (CNN's parent company). 

Zite: Personalized Magazine for iPad from zite.com on Vimeo.

How are the big US magazine publishers faring with their apps?

PaidContent.org has compiled a table of information about the magazine apps being developed by the big-4 magazine publishers Condé Nast, Hearst, Time Inc., Meredith. It details types of apps, with examples of each and some data on pricing.

In its introduction, it says that publishers are putting a lot of faith in apps and said the compilation was an attempt to show what they've got for their efforts:

The publishers are secretive with some of the metrics. Take total downloads. Meredith, the smallest of the four publishers, was the only one to provide a current download total for its apps—800,000. Back in April, Condé Nast told us its 22 apps (the number has since increased; see chart) had been downloaded 7 million times. Revenue, too, is something of a black hole, as publishers are happy to talk about the new bells and whistles in their apps, but grow silent when it comes to talking about the profit picture with their apps.

Long form comes to digital; Atavist offers pay per view articles up to 30,000 words

A new company called The Atavist is offering long journalistic stories on the Kindle and Nook and in an iPad app. The company doesn't yet offer a subscription model, but has hopes to do so soon, including allowing readers to buy a bundle of articles.

According to a story in Folio: the stories are being sold for US$1.99 each on e-readers like the Kindle and $2.99 in the app, which offers multi-media such as video. The application allows readers to switch between reading and listening to a story and keeps track of where the reader left off.

The Atavist was founded by Evan Ratliff, a contributing editor to Wired magazine and Jefferson Rabb, a programmer and web designer. The business was created mostly with Apple products in mind, but it is going to make the articles available in an Android-friendly format in coming months.  

Tablets change the way people read and perceive magazines, research shows

According to research conducted by Bonnier Publishing anad CP+B Group, an advertising agency, it is no longer just rival publications that will lure away a magazine's readers but publishers must now consider that they are competing for attention with apps and tablet features. This, from a story on Audience Development.

It also found that on a tablet, readers sometimes can't distinguish between ads and editorial content.

“In a tablet environment, each page stands alone and there's less context to help the reader orient herself. This presents an important design challenge for publishers: there should be clear visual distinctions between ads and edit, and both need to add value to the user experience,” the study said.

Bonnier's vice-president for publishing, Gregg Hano, said:

“We intend to work hard to make sure that it’s clear which content is our ad or edit, but we think it’s absolutely tremendous that people are equally interested in looking at both,” he said. Hano said that another study Bonnier has reviewed found that individuals that pick up special interest magazines read them not only for the editorial content but to view the advertisements as well.

Are magazine apps being met with a yawn by advertisers?

Magazines that have invested heavily in online apps are finding that the payoff is smaller than their investment now and may continue to be for years to come.

Those publishers who have taken the plunge and hired staff and put money into upfront and development costs are finding that their investments are being met at worst with a yawn by advertisers and at best lukewarm ad interest, according to a story in Brandweek.

While there is a lot of hype and a very few success stories, audiences are too small to have much impact.

"The problem with apps is, not a ton of people are downloading them," said Martin Walker, a publishing industry consultant. "It's a very small business at the moment. Apple still owns it and they won't let you sell subs. You can't make money on something where you're selling a few thousand copies."

Forthcoming tablets that support the Android platform are expected to offer a subscription option, but that opportunity won't come without extra cost. Until developers come up with a way to let publishers create apps that will work on multiple devices, publishers will have to spend more to customize their apps for each screen size and operating system.

Publishers privately downplay their apps' development costs. But whether they grow their apps in-house or use an outside developer, development and ongoing staffing costs are adding up.

Even for companies that profess not to be hiring a lot of additional people, there are the hidden costs of staffers' time that could have been spent on other products.

"There's a lot of investment for the future," said Andy Sareyan, president of consumer brands at Meredith Corp.'s magazine group, which expects to create apps for Better Homes and Gardens, Fitness and its other titles. But, he added, "there will be a time when these are profitable. When that time is, I don't know."

The Brandweek story notes that publishers, making apps free, may be may be replicating a mistake they made 15 years ago when they used websites as a upsell bonus and then found it hard to charge for online ads.

Prudery or prudence? Apple's app store rejects Esquire's sexy cover

One of the (alarming?) drawbacks of magazines selling their electronic versions through Apple's app store is that Apple calls the shots and editors and publishers are left to play the game "Guess what we're thinking?" And, yes, it almost always seems to be about sex.
That seems to be the case with the November issue of Esquire, which features a cover image of Minka Kelly, described as the "sexiest woman alive". Yet, according to a story on Mashable, four weeks after the magazine was on the newsstand, the iPad version has yet to appear on the Apple store site.

The problem? The issue is simply too risque for the App Store, one source familiar with the matter told Mashable.. The publication has submitted a revised version it expects to be approved in the next few days, around the time the December issue is slated to hit the App Store.

An executive at Hearst said that Apple has not, in fact, communicated at all to Esquire since the issue was submitted to the App Store, despite multiple entreaties — nor that the publication has submitted a revised version.

In a New York Times interview with Apple's head of worldwide product marketing, Phillip W. Schiller, he said that Apple has purged "an increasing number of apps containing very objectionable content" that drew customer (mostly female) complaints, although mostly not from well-established, bigger titles such as Playboy or Sports Illustrated.