iPad Makes New Media Publishing Sexy Again

Mag+ live with Popular Science+ from Bonnier on Vimeo. [hat tip Michael Sippey]

With the creation of iPad, Apple is making new media publishing sexy again -- and helping the industry rethink how it proposes content through simplification. If you watched this short video, you will see an example of how a magazine translates to the new medium.

It's not just about design, as many Web sites still tend to be. The new editorial and production workflow  make the publication happen in the app so that the user can have the proper experience. It turns out that comments and co-creation are not the only kind of interaction possible.

In fact, the biggest interaction people have with content, and with a brand, is up close and personal. However, while the experience is very personal, the ability to bring this experience to you highlights one of the trends in the future of work: collaboration.

Popular Science+ app was developed by Bonnier's Research and Development Team with BERG, a design consultancy.

What about brands?

BHH Labs introduced an iPad app for Cadillac with Cool Hunting and Front Ended. Their goal was to encourage readers to interact with the content instead of just looking at it and reading. Gavin Heaton makes an astute observation about Apple building a system that appeals to the rest of the none percenters -- those who wants to consume content instead of creating it.

Regardless of whether you agree with him or not, Apple has built a new context for content, one that is inspiring magazine publishers and brands alike to rethink how they present information in favor of the many ways in which we behave online and digital media.

Bullet points don't make content easier to scan if they carry less meaningful information. Links are an improvement, but how many organizations' sites want to keep you on their page without making the experience of getting their content compelling?

Karen Swim comments that before digital, we didn't evangelize people to create music or books but to consume them. Essentially Apple is closing the loop that has often alluded many content creators. And it helps simplify digital content again.

I invite the skeptics on the value and necessity of simplification to read Clay Shirky's thought-provoking piece on the collapse of complex business models [hat tip Tom Peters].

Building a community, opening an idea site, crowdsourcing are activities that brands with a following earn relatively quickly if they're willing to put skin in the game, facilitate conversations, use the ideas, give customers a return on investment. Yes, we're really good at calculating ROI as customers.

The iPad opens up new opportunities for brands and publishing. Break out of the invented constrains of best practices and rethink interaction. How will you rethink the way you present content and build context inspired by this new tool?

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Related posts:

Apple and Brand Evangelists

Top 5 Rejected Names for the New Apple iPad

© 2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Suyog Mody]

Valeria - as always, great post! Both Gavin and Shiky's posts that were linked to, were very insightful and well-articulated (especially Shirky).

I'm wondering if you are heading towards establishing a hierarchy of collaboration - something like ...
1. Collaboration
a. Interactivity
i. Comments
ii. Co-creation
iii. Conversation

Would be great to get your thoughts on what else goes in this mix (outside of the tools themselves)

[Shari Weiss]

At $500 a pop, how is this going to work for the "common man"?

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Suyog - thank you, thought provoking proposition, I like those! Will mull it over, there's opportunity for a discussion for sure.

@Shari - I'm flattered, somehow you see me part of the Apple team setting the price for this tool. I'm rereading the post to see if I said "democratic" anywhere :) Hey, books work for the "common man". Teaching babies and children to read has been my lifelong mission.

[Vaspers aka Steven E Streight]

All that scrolling seems like a nightmare, especially for deep linking. Better to have separate web pages for each item, easier to bookmark, reference & link to.

iPad is an over-priced, over-hyped joke. There's more it can't do than what it can do. No Flash. No camera. No multi-tasking. Heavy weight. AT&T. (The negative litany goes on and on.)

[Stu]

Great post Valeria, and I'm glad I've found your blog.
I'm interested in your point about Apple having built a new context for content. It's so true.
I see that new context very broadly stemming from people being able to seek out whatever content they like, not just whenever they want, but more specifically, wherever they want.
Self-selecting (the whatever) immediacy (the whenever) and mobility (the wherever) is what will breed a multitude of new contexts for content.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Steven - I'm along the same lines as you are as I look at this first generation. However, I do see opportunity in the system, and hope Apple enables the service economy that is possible with this new device.

@Stu - thank you. Feel free to dig into the archives. Lots of content in here. Now we just need Apple to liberate its device so that products don't run over services.

[Mae Buzen]

iPad certainly made it super sexy. I enjoyed my iPhone but have gotten the iPad just recently though I've only been playing puzzle games. I'd like you to try out StarFaces if you have one. Certainly one of the best iPad app. I had played this game on my iphone for a while and now I have it for ipad and its great! Love the photos option