TAKEAWAY: It is Wednesday and I start my day in Cape Town, South Africa, ready to conduct a full day workshop for the Media 24 group in charge of lifestyle-oriented publications. Soon, many of these titles will enter into the world of the tablet. What happens on a first day workshop?
Going tablet? Start with the workshop
Many of you often write to ask me what the first baby steps must be for you to take your printed product to a tablet edition.
I always recommend a workshop setting, where key people in the organization gather to explore ways in which they can make the transfer from print to tablet in a functional, easy and successful way.
That is precisely what I do today all day here in Cape Town, concentrating on a group of titles of Media 24, which will be the first to make the transition to tablet. These are the lifestyle content related publications.
What happens in such a workshop?
I usually begin with an overall view of what I call “the essentials” of iPad edition creation—-covering everything from the specific characteristics of the tablet (design for the finger, too), to functions (start with a good navigation system), to look and feel (sophisticatedly simple is the way), and, of course, extracting the DNA of your publication (this will take up the first part of the workshop—-who would want to come to a tablet edition of your publication, and what content would they be willing to pay for?).
The second part of the workshop is hands on, and I encourage simple sketching so that all ideas come to the front for discussion. At the end of the day, participants return to their newsrooms with a clearer idea of how to proceed, then the real work begins.
Who participates?
I encourage publishers to assemble a group, NOT according to seniority, but according to talents and skills. Who are the best people in the team who can work across platforms?
The group is usually about 12, and it includes team members from not just editorial, but advertising/marketing, technology and, of course, those whose concern is to make sure that the proper business model is created.
I plan to do a follow up to today’s workshop here later in the day.
