Ontario Arts Council applications will now all be submitted online through new website

The Ontario Arts Council has launched a new website that will be home to its new online application Nova; all of the approximately 12,000 grant applications each year will now be submitted online. Some of the 2017 application deadlines have changed. Applications may be done two months in advance of the program deadlines. 

The new website and online application complement the major reworking of the OAC's funding framework which was recently announced and launched. (Some 31 magazines received funding in 2015 for a total of $574,383.)

Next Issue Media to Apple: "We're going with Android for now" (hint, hint)

The tight grip that Apple has on data about magazine customers served through its app store has been a constant irritant to publishers who want to sell digital subscriptions and control subscriber data. Apple's rules mean publishers can't even sell direct subscriptions to their readers if they sign onto the App Store. 

A shot has just been aimed across Apple's bow with the announcement that Next Issue Media -- a joint venture digital newsstand backed by big U.S. magazine players like Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time Inc. -- will launch its online store on Google's Android Marketplace, early next year. According to a story on MediaMemo, Next Media says this is because Android is an important tabloid platform and gives them more control.

It’s not a technical issue, [NIM CEO Morgan] Guenther says, because “we’re ready to support Apple as well,” and he says he’s confident that will happen. But “Android is a very important tablet platform, and a very important platform for smartphones.” 

Guenther wouldn’t disclose other details about his launch, but you don’t have to squint to read between the lines here. The takeaway is that Google has been flexible on the business issues that are important to the publishers that own his company. And that Apple’s not there yet.

The key split, still: Publishers want the ability to sell their tablet magazines directly to consumers, or at least to be able to access the data that iTunes collects when it sells them.

Replica mags not the only way to go, publishers find; device-appropriate applications the thing

Publishers are developing app strategies that better suit both the nature of their audiences and the devices on which the apps are being delivered. As a result many are determining that the "flip book" or "replica" magazines may not be the way of the future. According to a story published by eMedia Vitals, while everyone is very low on the curve at the moment, they are starting to sort out what works best, where and how.

One thing they quickly figured out: Smartphones offer a much different user experience than larger-screen tablet devices. Smartphones are very much utility-driven, with users often looking for specific information to help them complete an activity. Early research on tablets points to a "lean-back reading experience" that equates more with traditional magazine reading than with the task-driven Web.

“We look at each product as native to each device we’re going to use,” said Jerry Steinbrink, vice president of publishing for Consumer’s Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, which recently released its new Mobile Shopper iPhone app and is developing additional apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android environments. “We work very hard not to deliver a magazine-like experience in something that isn’t a magazine.”

By using consumer research, publishers (mostly in the U.S.) are sounding out what readers expect of a new app. And the article gives examples of three different categories of "non-magazine" magazine apps, ranging in price from 99 cents to $9.99:

• Utility -- standalone consumer experiences related to shopping, cooking, travelling and so on. Examples include Mobile Shopper (Consumer Reports), Gourmet Live (Conde Nast), Cosmo’s Sex Position of the Day (Hearst), Shape Flat Abs (Rodale), Golf Digest Tips (Conde Nast), Time Out New York.
• Special issues -- usually based on extensive publisher archives of photos or articles. Examples include Life’s Wonders of the World Photography Book, Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, GQ’s Men of the Year, Golf Digest’s Hot List, Popular Science’s Tech Buyers’ Guide
• Feeds -- apps that pull RSS feeds from websites and feature breaking news, video etc. They are generally free and examples include  Atlantic Wire, Sporting News, EW’s Must List, SI.com

2 for Couples magazine rolls out free app

  

2 for Couples magazine, has rolled out a free app of the magazine for the iPad, which will serve up monthly digital editions beginning with September and daily features such as the newsfeed 2Wire: Couples in the Know, with links to stories on celebrity couples, new studies and research on coupledom, relationship and sex info, as well as viral video content of interest to couples. Readers can also us 2Life—a section that allows couples to create profiles and store important relationship dates, sizes, household projects and gift wish lists.