TAKEAWAY: I am preparing for my presentation at the Nordic Media Festival conference in Bergen, Norway this week. What a difference a calendar year makes! As I take a look back at a similar presentation I did for the group in 2012, it’s like rewriting a book. TODAY: What we have learned about tablet editions.
More and more publications are going with tablet editions. It is no longer of whether one should have a tablet presence. Everyone should and must.
Right now, the question is more in terms of how to tailor that tablet edition to best serve the specific needs of a publication and its audience.
The choices are varied.
In 2012 we were still wrestling with the question of whether to create a special curated tablet edition, preferably at the end of the day, since the research shows that this platform is used primarily in lean back mode, in the evenings.
But, not only. During the past 12 months we have seen that tablets make appearances at other times of the day, and publications around the world are banking on morning editions, such as the one recently published by Canada’s La Presse, or the newsy one from Denmark’s Berlingske, which, by the way, has been so successful with that edition that it has started publishing an evening one as well.
We have learned that while lean back may be the preferred mode for tablets, newspapers are introducing curated tablet editions in the morning. The unspoken word seems to be: the tablet may replace the printed newspaper edition one of these days, so let’s get a head start.
And, so what is the tablet scene for newspapers in 2013?
The pdf edition on the tablet—-This is very much a 2010 carryover. At first, newspapers that wanted to get out of the gate with a tablet presence, simply put pdf pages of their printed edition on the tablet, allowing users to flip through the pages. While tablet users do like to have a pdf of the newspaper as it was printed, this, by itself, is not an option that satisfies in 2013.
The classic newspaper look for the tablet—-The New York Times and The Washington Post, among many, come to mind here. Simply mimic the look & feel of what we perceive to be a newspaper and recreate the experience for the tablet, with some videos and photo galleries, but not very pop up driven. The Financial Times also uses this strategy.
The newsy and pictorial— These newspaper tablet editions do carry lead news items on their home page, but allow for a more pictorial navigator, as does the UK’s The Guardian, or Brazil’s O Globo. To me, this is the way to go, achieving a balance between the news that tablet users want with the more pictorial click and go sense of navigation.
The tabloid look— Nobody does it like Germany’s Bild: offering the familiar, colorful and chaotic look & feel of print, but going full blast with pop ups for selected stories. Readers of TheMarioBlog know how much I like the creative presentation of pop ups here.
The Flipboard look-- We confirmed what we suspected when we conducted the Poynter Institute EyeTrack Tablet study, with tablet users giving a big thumbs up to the more pictorial presentation of content for a newspaper tablet edition. One great example, Denmark’s Berlingske, with its morning and evening editions offering distinct content that adapts to the morning lean forward and evening lean back modes. This is also the look presented by Canada’s La Presse, stunning in its presentation, but perhaps less newsy than a morning tablet edition should be.
For more information on these tablet editions mentioned here:
La Presse
http://garciamedia.com/blog/pla_presses_new_tablet_app_too_lean_back_p/
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/pa_news_app_look_feel_and_what_it_says_p/
Financial Times
The Washington Post
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/pthe_washington_posts_new_tablet_app_highlights_and_disappointment_p
Berlingske
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/pdenmarks_berlingske_tidende_here_is_tablet_app_that_strikes_the_balance_of
Bild Zeitung
http://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/bilds_3.0_version_of_app_its_a_pop_up_fest
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/the_ipad_lab_19_pop_ups_dont_have_to_be_complicated
The Poynter Institute EyeTrack Tablet research:
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/mobile-media/151844/poynter-tablet-research-tap-touch-pinch-swipe-eyetrack-stories-staffing-revenue-and-more/
http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/visual-voice/192252/follow-poynters-eyetrack-conference-online/
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/the_ipad_lab_20_what_poynters_eyetrack_tablet_teaches_us
http://www.slideshare.net/SaraQuinnPoynter/poynter-eyetrack-tablet-presentation-sxsw
Tomorrow in TheMarioBlog:
Getting smart about those smartphone editions
