WAN-IFRA

Shaping the Future of the Newspaper

Date

Sun - 01.02.2015


Apps

The mobile newsreader app Flipboard announced this week that it is partnering with SoundCloud, NPR and PRI in order to fully integrate audio content into its app. The new feature will allow Flipboard users to listen to music and radio content while flipping through articles.

The BBC points out that Flipboard is the first mobile reading app of its kind to integrate audio in this way. Although other social readers such as Pulse and Zite may include some links to audio elements, Flipboard is the first to make audio content an integral part of its product.

As the company explains in its press release, the new feature allows users to explore audio content, select tracks and listen to them, then continue to flip through text stories. Audio tracks are sorted into sections, and the app will continue to play though all the tracks in the same category as users read articles. "With this latest addition, we're giving our readers a personal soundtrack to their Flipboard," says the company’s founder Mike McCue.

The BBC writes that Flipboard is hoping its new audio content will help boost ad revenue. “Adding audio is an attempt at reeling in users and keeping them around longer in a bid, ultimately, to attract brand advertising,” the article says.

Author

Hannah Vinter's picture

Hannah Vinter

Date

2012-05-16 17:45

Social media giveth, and social media taketh away… When Facebook launched its "frictionless sharing" social reader apps last September in partnership with news organisations including The Guardian, The Independent and The Washington Post, many in the media business hailed it as a major boost for the industry. Now, however, the number of people using social news reader apps has taken a plunge, after changes implemented by Facebook.

Just over one month after the social reader’s launch, Facebook announced that The Guardian app had been installed nearly 4 million times, and had pushed up page impressions by around 1 million every day. According to Facebook, The Washington Post’s app gained 3.5 million active monthly users in its first month, and 83% of its users were under 35.

Author

Hannah Vinter's picture

Hannah Vinter

Date

2012-05-09 17:06

Storify, the popular curation tool that allows users to create stories by pulling together elements from Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram and other social networks, has announced that it has struck its first syndication deal, with the news app Pulse as its partner.

A selection of Storify’s feeds will now be available on the popular newsreader app, which allows users to select a number of news organisations, blogs and social networks, and see their latest content collected within a single display.  According to TechCrunch, Storify’s co-founder Burt Herman says that Pulse will start by making just nine Storify feeds available, but this number may be expanded based on the response from users.

TechCrunch quotes Herman, who clarifies that “Pulse users can follow certain select user accounts that have been doing great work with Storify, including The Washington Post, Al Jazeera and the White House.” He explains further: “We’re also offering our own Storify Featured Stories feed as a channel, where we curate the day’s best stories created across the platform – the same stories that are also featured daily on our own homepage.”

Author

Hannah Vinter's picture

Hannah Vinter

Date

2012-04-19 17:25

When it comes to launching tablet and mobile apps, “the experience is everything,” says Greg Taylor, UX Strategy Director for Tigerspike which developed The Telegraph in the UK’s successful mobile and tablet apps.

Taylor presented the app roadmap that the Telegraph took in developing and ultimately launching its tablet app.

That roadmap included the experience of developing the app over a number of years, launching and testing the app to gain valuable feedback to improve the product, and ultimately creating a coherent monetisation strategy.

“Getting your head around how your users will use the app and content is absolutely critical and I don’t think companies do enough of that,” he said.  “I am interested in how people feel after they put that device down. And please make everything you do on these devices as simple as possible.”

For more on this story, please see our Digital Media Europe blog.

Author

Dean Roper's picture

Dean Roper

Date

2012-04-19 10:33

Barely a day seems to go by without a publisher launching a new app for Apple or Android. But now it's Microsoft's turn for a spot in the limelight, as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp announces its launch of a range of apps for Xbox 360.

Those who sign up to News Corp's Gold Subscription Package - costing £39.99 a year - will now get access to content from FOX, Fox News Channel, The Wall Street Journal and other News Corp media on their Xbox.

Most relevant to news publishers is the app from The Wall Street Journal, WSJLive. The app will offer four hours of live programming from across the Journal's other digital platforms. This will not only include content from the Journal's core new site, but also from its subsidiaries Dow Jones Newswires, Barron's, MarketWatch, SmartMoney and All Things D.

The FOX Broadcasting app and Fox News Channel app will give viewers access to news programs and to entertainment shows like The Simpsons, Glee, Bones and House. The apps will be integrated with Facebook, giving them a social dimension, and will also make use of Xbox Kinect's voice and motion control technology. Only "authenticated subscribers of participating cable and satellite television distributors" will be able to view Fox video content.

Author

Hannah Vinter's picture

Hannah Vinter

Date

2012-01-11 14:11

For years now, the line between the software business and the media business has been blurring. Software applications used to take the form of packaged goods, sold through retail outlets at set prices. Today, as a result of cloud computing and other advances, applications look more and more like media products. They're ad-supported, subscribed to, continually updated, and the content they incorporate is often as important as the functions they provide. As traditional media companies have moved to distribute their wares in digital form -- as code, in other words -- they've come to resemble software companies. They provide not only original content, but an array of online tools and functions that allow customers to view, manipulate, and add to the content in myriad ways.

Continue reading on Nieman Journalism Lab

Author

Anton Jolkovski's picture

Anton Jolkovski

Date

2011-12-20 17:44

Publishers, don't start skimping on your iPad editions now. Magazine and newspaper apps' quality seems to be the most important factor in their success with consumers, according to the first annual "The State of the App" report from McPheters & Company's iMonitor service, drawing on iMonitor's evaluations of 3,000 apps from publishers around the world.

Continue reading on Ad Age Mediaworks

Author

Anton Jolkovski's picture

Anton Jolkovski

Date

2011-10-31 09:28

by Jeff Sonderman

A couple weeks ago I predicted that Apple's virtual Newsstand for iPads and iPhones would provide "a little more convenience for the user, and a little more discoverability for the publisher -- but nothing here is a game-changer."

I stand by the first part of that diagnosis, but it's now clear there is something game-changing about Newsstand. Since Apple launched it last week in the latest version of its iOS operating system, its impact has been immediate and significant. Many Newsstand apps now rank among the top free apps overall, and magazine and newspaper apps are benefiting from a surge of downloads and subscribers.

Continue reading on Poynter

Author

Anton Jolkovski's picture

Anton Jolkovski

Date

2011-10-24 17:22

by Dean Roper

Béla Papp, publishing director of Ringier Studios, owned by international publisher Ringier in Switzerland, describes how this new venture aims to build up a client base and a new revenue stream.

The company is focusing on developing apps for iPad and Android tablets with the clear goal of "being a leading app provider," says Papp during a World Editors Forum session focusing on tablet publishing.

Continue reading on the 18th World Editors Forum Blog

Author

Anton Jolkovski's picture

Anton Jolkovski

Date

2011-10-24 10:22

There was a great story in The Onion a few weeks back, right after Steve Jobs announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Apple. The headline read, "New Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'I'm thinking printers'"

Not that there's anything wrong with printers, mind you. Something has to do the dirty work of printing out all those Groupons. The point is, with all the creative talent Apple has at its disposal, all the cutting-edge skills and resources, the company is probably better served developing cool products, not designing slick new ink cartridges for the DeskJet.

Continue reading on Poynter

Author

Anton Jolkovski's picture

Anton Jolkovski

Date

2011-10-19 10:42

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