Martha Stewart Living publishes first multimedia magazine

  

On November 10, Martha Stewart Living magazine launched its premier digital edition created especially for iPad. Like most things Martha Stewart does, jumping into digital publishing is bound to be a very “good thing.”  In this video Martha explains her decision to add a digital edition of MSL, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary. 

There is plenty to like about MSL's digital format, with its dynamic how-to's, rich photo panoramas and slide shows, and documentary-quality video features. It's an extraordinary example of what can be done editorially thanks to advances in electronic publishing and camera technology. 

For example, digital MSL has two video features: one on artisanal cheese making and another about fishing in Alaska, each shot using one camera (i.e. RED camera) that captures still and moving images. Now, a subject can be covered for an array of media platforms, working quickly, economically, and to very high editorial standards. 

According to Eric Pike, MSLO's creative director, Adobe’s digital publishing suite makes it easy to incorporate moving images and interactive elements into a digital edition that's based on the print edition's layout. 

The challenge for print-trained editors, says Gael Towey, MSLO’s editorial director and creative chief, is conceiving stories for multimedia by anticipating how and where digital readers will view them. Publishing MSL on an iPad makes it a mobile magazine and toolbox that can move from armchair to the kitchen counter, into to the garden and out to the local supermarket. 

Wi-Fi Direct – Rise in consumer connectivity could be a boon for viral marketing

The Wi-Fi Alliance, which oversees the specifications for Wi-Fi tech applications, has set the stage for greater device-to-device connectivity by certifying products such as, laptops, video game consoles, MP3 players, smartphones, printers, and other peripherals, as Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct.  

Why is this important?  With portable content like photos, videos and music taking center stage in the digital consumer experience, Wi-Fi Direct devices meet an important consumer need: directly and easily connecting devices for content-sharing, syncing, printing, and gaming, anywhere without running wires or connecting to another Wi-Fi network.

Many manufacturers are now shipping models equipped with Wi-Fi Direct, which interfaces with other technologies like Bluetooth. Wi-Fi Direct can also be added to older Wi-Fi radios via a firmware upgrade.

This short video shows why Wi-Fi connectivity is ready for the consumer mainstream - and great for viral marketing. The proliferation of Wi-Fi enabled devices will create a massive audience for original, quasi-commercial content that’s meant to be shared. Branded content can take many forms: music, artwork, narratives, video clips, games, coupons, advocacy/affiliation campaigns, and much more.

The Wi-Fi Alliance cites these compelling trends in consumer connectivity: 

- Consumers are quickly incorporating new technologies into their life.  Wi-Fi will enable ordinary people to integrate their digital tools in sophisticated, seamless ways 

- Wi-Fi makes content-sharing personal, dynamic and instantaneous. An estimated 82 million Wi-Fi enabled portable consumer electronics and 216 million Wi-Fi enabled handsets will come on to the market this year, with annual growth projected at 26 percent through 2014. Wi-Fi apps for portable devices will grow at a 50 percent annual rate

- Wi-Fi connectivity is inherently social. In the United States, 64 percent of young people report that Wi-Fi  connectivity helps them maintain relationships with their friends. Moreover, young Americans also report they often gather around devices for entertainment, with about 90 percent of people reporting they have gathered around a portable device to look at pictures, videos, or video games.

- Content is being amassed and it's increasingly portable. It's estimated that American youth now carry about 1,100 songs, 50 videos, and 1,200 photos on digital devices

"Digi-novelist" Anthony Zuiker erects "cyber-bridge” to mesh story across publishing, film and social networking.

What is a digi-novel? Digi-novelist Anthony Zuiker, who is also the creator of the hit TV show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” described it to J.D. Biersdorfer, tech reporter at The New York Times, as “the best of publishing, motion picture and social communities all kind of meshed into one experience.”

Zuiker just published, “Dark Prophecy,” the second in his "Level 26″ crime thriller series, that is being marketed both as a printed novel and an e-book for iPad with Web links to a 52 minute-long film edited into 11 segments. There is free content on Level 26’s YouTube channel as well.

To promote “‘Dark Prophecy” Zuiker wrote a serial killer from the book into his Oct. 14 episode of CSI – the book’s release date. That’s a hefty publicity score considering CSI reaches nearly 15 million TV viewers each week.

Zuiker told Bloomberg’s Ronald Glover that disappointing sales of his first crime novel, “Level 26: Dark Origins,”  prompted his to engage “CSI” fans by creating a cyber-bridge” to link the story across publishing, film and social networking.  He said, “If I can just get 1 percent of the 15 million people who watch ‘CSI’ to buy this book I’ll have a bestseller on my hands.”  

Hearst Digital debuts awesome ESQUIRE magazine for iPad!

Until now digital adaptations by popular magazines haven’t been all that exciting.  This month’s debut of ESQUIRE for iPad is truly an awesome editorial and technological achievement, however, and it offers a thrilling glimpse at where magazine publishing is headed. 

Developed by Hearst Digital and ScrollMotion, Esquire's iPad app makes each page a rich and dynamic experience. Take the October cover featuring actor Javier Bardem. He strolls right up to your screen and personally welcomes you to the issue as Esquire's masthead and interactive story call-outs fuse into rightful position. 

This video demo shows how the magazine goes very digital while still retaining its hallmark editorial design and quality. For example, photography in the fall style section can be rotated 360 degrees and viewed from various angles. The automotive review opens with a stunning still shot of an Audi roadster that turns cinematic when the driver revs up, roars away and then screeches back to give us a frontal view. Cool!  An article about the World Trade Center’s reconstruction is presented in layers of interactive text, high-resolution images and animation.

Josh Koppel, one of the co-founders of ScrollMotion, whose clients include Hearst, Random House, Houghton Mifflin, Simon and Schuster, and The Jim Henson Company, believes digital publishing should not be about putting a PDF version on an iPad; rather, he says digitization should be an additive process that makes each page a powerful multimedia platform.

No doubt magazines have much to gain by publishing digital editions. Consider that Esquire’s iPad app is sold at full price ($4.99) on a per-issue basis - no discounted subscriptions. (The iPhone edition costs $2.99 per issue.) As long as audiences keep coming back (how could they not given fantastic content?) it makes sense advertisers will be lining up, too. 

Fascinating example of Augmented Reality Drama and Transmedia Storytelling

^{This post links to a fascinating example of transmedia storytelling in the form of an augmented reality drama game called Conspiracy for Good. Developed by TV creator Tim Kring and sponsored by Nokia, Conspiracy for Good plays out on the Internet, on a mobile device and offline.  The audience plays the part of activists and supporters of the eponymous organization, Conspiracy for Good, and can join in and help direct the action by solving various puzzles spread across different media.} 

^{From a commercial perspective I am especially intrigued by the use of short narrative video clips designed to build interest and advance interaction. Imagine how a brand might engage fans with an episodic augmented reality series?}