iPad App for Fortean Times

[DougalLongfoot]

Probably a decision to be made in the higher echelons of Dennis Publishing, but with the launch of the Apple iPad, I was wondering whether there are any plans to do a tablet computer version of Fortean Times Magazine? I thought of lots of different poll questions I could include, but in the end kept it simple and hope people expand on their ideas here.

My own thoughts are that I prefer a paper version, and can't see this changing in the future. FT for me is something I like to keep and archive (though as the years mount up, that might be more difficult). But then, I'am also an avid collector of books, and can't see myself buying my favourite authors on a tablet/e-reader service either. For me, the only content I can see myself purchasing on an iPad like device are things like the daily paper, Single use magazines like TIME, and read once novels (for me, things like the Doctor Who novels, or movie tie-ins).

I can see some benefits to a FT App, it might include richer content (videos of sightings for instance), it would be instantly available worldwide and it should come at a significant price advantage over the paper version, especially for us worldwide subscribers. Advertising might also be able to be localised.

I'm in no way affiliated with FT or Dennis, I'm just throwing it out there for discussion, let everyone know what you think.

 

[Anome]

It doesn't really need to be an app, they could just sell a subscription to a PDF or epub format, so you can read it using existing applications.

Certainly, while I have an iPhone, and fully intend to get an iPad at some point, I don't think Dennis or the FT people should lock themselves into one platform. Better to produce something that can be read on all devices.

 

[escargot]

The Guardian's done it with their crosswords. It's buggered up the format for everyone else, including people who do them online, print them off or cut them out of the paper.

 

[DougalLongfoot]

I've never heard of Wired magazine, but this video shows what they are doing, and it looks pretty good:

The Wired Tablet App: A Video Demonstration

 

[Anome]

Well, they've probably heard of you.

(There's an old joke from the 90s that Wired was going to fold after it had interviewed everyone on the internet. Which at the rate they were going at the time, was predicted as being a week from Tuesday.)

I find Crosswords and Sudoku to be the biggest problem with online publications. I had a discussion with a sales rep for the New York Times at MacWorld last week (ooh, 'ark at me!), as I think no tablet or PC based system can beat a pen and paper. Yet.

And my brother tells me that the Guardian's online crossword can't handle the Jigsaw Puzzles properly, as it needs to link each location to a specific clue.

Anyway, online is the future for print media, at least as things stand at the moment. I'd much rather carry around one device with a dozen books and magazines on it than a dozen books and magazines.

 

[ramonmercado]

I've never heard of Wired magazine, but this video shows what they are doing, and it looks pretty good:

The Wired Tablet App: A Video Demonstration

Wired.com is pretty good for free tech articles & cyber culture / politics.

 

[PeniG]

I don't even have a cell phone (I'll get one when they come up with a "binoculars" ap that makes it possible to birdwatch on the fly), much less an iPad. The trouble with technology is it changes too fast. In five years, will anything support that format? And how are you supposed to hook young folks who find the dusty stash of magazines in the trunk if all you've got is a hunk of outdated technology?

I think electronic versions should operate like paperbacks. First, the hardcover; about a year later, the smaller, cheaper, less durable versions. In the case of a magazine, maybe bundle and resell each decade worth of issues in whatever the Hot New Format is periodically - that way back issues can generate a steady income stream.

 

[Anome]

Selling an electronic version of a magazine for timely reading is a different matter to a long term archive, where the viability of a given format is important. A number of publications started out with their electronic forms in one format, only to change it to another (typically PDF) later on.

If you ask me, the benefits of distributing content without physical media, be it paper, plastic, gold-plated vinyl, or whatever, far outweigh the archive problem, since libraries and archives are getting around it now. And this will probably be their future business model, keeping existing archives accessible as technologies change.

Besides, no-one is suggesting that they stop publishing Fortean Times as a magazine altogether, just that they provide an alternative method for reading it.

 

[linesmachine]

I now read the majority of books on a laptop in pdf (or other digital) format. After years of threatening to go digital it was the Gutenberg project that pushed me over the edge. I'm going to buy an iPad as soon as they are available as it's less awkward to read from than a laptop and is backlit (unlike the majority of eReaders) so I can read in bed at night without annoying the wife with lights. Plus the heat coming out of the laptop tends to cook my chestnuts after a while.

If the FT was available to have on my iPad I would definitely have it rather than a hard copy. But, as someone else has already said, you don't need an app, just a digital copy. There's already a system in place for crosswords etc.

 

[DougalLongfoot]

It would definitely take something more than a pdf file to get me to switch to an e-reader version of FT, I'd say the technology being developed now has more potential than that, just as TV quickly developed into something more than the old radio programs that transferred across. As to changing formats, well I'd be hopeful that open formats could be developed that become cross platform, but we'll see what happens. This of course would depend on who has more bargaining power, the publishers, who I'd imagine would want their books available on as many platforms as possible, or the e-book vendors who would want to tie up publications to their particular e-reader.

 

[theopaijmans]

Currently I am looking into the iPad. I think a suitable format that would make full use of the iPad's capabilities and therefore would include films, interactive content and links to blogs and the social media would kick FT into the now.

I am a big lover of books and the analog media, but over time I have noted that there are some very exciting developments in the digital world. Sources have become accessible that in the analog world were unreachable for me. New methods of research can be formulated (I write about this in Anomalist 14, in my essay 'The Topography Of The Damned'), I have been able, owing to the digital revolution, to bring many new and hithertofore unsuspected sources to light.

Take for instance my regular articles in the 'Blasts From The Past' section. How would that translate on an iPad in the most ideal circumstances? Direct links to the actual sources. Films and interactive background info in regards to various aspects of the BFTP article. Links to films (for instance, when writing about Spring-heeled Jack one could link to the film projects and movies involving SHJ, as well as movies about his kin (The India Stoneman) with links to that movie) etc.

But then, the iPad has got to run Flash! But all I want to say is that we're way beyond the stage that a posted pdf file can be regarded as a true and fully exploited digital enhancement of a printed magazine. These days, we have so many more possibilities. And don't forget the capabilities of the mobile phone sector. What with augmented reality, instant connection to the social media, the capability to watch films and browse the web, the possibilities for a visionary mind are limitless.

How I would love to write a proposal for an internet strategy and business model for FT for Dennis Publishing

Sincere regards,

Theo

 

[Jen_O]

This is all definitely something we’re thinking about. There’s the usual question of resources, of course, and of Dennis’s company strategy, but as previous posters have pointed out there’s tonnes of exciting ways FT’s content could be enriched by expanding over various new platforms. Obviously, an indication of demand from FT readers and website users would be invaluable – let us know if you’re in favour, and any thoughts on what you’d like to see in a digital version, and we can formulate a proposal to take to the powers that be.

 

[DougalLongfoot]

Review of the iPad and comments on e-publishing successes and failures:

Next up are magazines. I spent the last couple of years telling people that not all digital magazines were as crap as they usually are. For example, here's The New Yorker showing you how not to do it: they've dumped their existing magazine online and left it. Conversely, lad's mag, Monkey Magazine and tech mag, iGizmo have embraced the digital magazine format and come up with an entirely new, engaging medium. The difference is vast and we're already seeing similar on the iPad. GQ was a famous first title to appear on the platform. It looks rubbish. According to Mashable, it sold only 365 issues of its Men of the Year issue. Yet the publisher boasted, "This costs us nothing extra: no printing or postage... Everything is profit, and I look forward to the time when iPad issue sales become a major component to our circulation."

By simply dumping the existing magazine pages into an iPad friendly format, you've got a glossy magazine that looks completely half-arsed and not as good as the original. Adding hyperlinks onto ads is hardly innovating or exciting to readers. Conversely, have a look at Time Magazine and Paris Match. These magazines have embraced the new medium and come up with tailored magazines which look better than the originals. Even the ads, with their ability to expand into other windows, are fun to play with and highly engaging. They cost a bit (around $5) but you feel like you're paying for something rather than lining GQ's pockets. As with books there's a real difference between "made for iPad" and "dumped on iPad".

From a design point of view: the successful iPad magazines and books look to be the ones which format according to single pages - not spreads. Also, we found having side-scrolling contents bars, with thumbnails of each page, hovering at the bottom of the screen, to be preferable to flicking through pages in a magazine.

ABC's The Drum - Apple's iPad: hot or not?

Personally, I'm really disappointed that TIME have gone for a $5 price for their iPad edition, no justification for actually making it more expensive than the print edition.