TAKEAWAY: It’s a fact about today’s media consumer: we have options as to where to get our information, and sometimes two platforms with similar content lie side by side. PLUS: The Pope of the people and his newspaper habits.
Establishing differentiation in content presentation across platforms
The New Republic
New Straits Times (Malaysia)
Silicon Valley Business Journal (American City Business Journals)
Recently read this tweet from a friend and it alerted me to a thought I have been having often. Here is what my friend wrote as a tweet:
I just read a whole article from The Atlantic on my phone and then realized that I was sitting next to an actual copy of the magazine.
It happens frequently to all of us who live and function in a multi platform world: you are reading your favorite newspaper or magazine on a digital platform (for me usually the iPad), yet there is a printed copy of that publication standing by, ready to be picked up.
For me, it is usually with The New York Times, and, particularly, its Sunday edition. I read the Times on my iPad daily, but on Sunday, particularly, I like the “feel” of the printed edition (if I can access it,as when I am home in the US).
The tablet edition does not have all those color ads for theater and movies, which I find very enjoyable and which can be informative and fun to see. The tablet edition also does not carry the many listings with mini versions of the Times’ reviewers take on a show or movie.
So, in those occasions I find myself going from tablet to paper and back to tablet.
It is also on those occasions when I realize how much I would like the Times to be more pop up driven in its tablet offering, something I am sure they are working on, but not fast enough.
I would like to think that on those occasions when we have the same publication side by side in two or more platforms, we users should be able to see how each platform handles the information differently. Or, what would make me pick up the print version of that newspaper or magazine after I have seen its mobile platform edition?
The baseline should be to have all content available on all platforms. This, today, is often accomplished by having a sophisticated responsive website to act as the hub and catalog. Then, with other print and digital editions, you can choose among several useful options. Select a subset of content per a theme, such as Sports or Opinion. Or target a specific time of day—the morning edition, for instance, that gives you only what you need to know for the rest of the day. Or perhaps a content mode—in-depth, lean-back analysis of all stripes, for example.
The key is to avoid unnecessary duplication when there are so many interesting storytelling modes to explore!
Will the Pope read La Nacion on his tablet ?
Speaking of getting your information from more than one platform, here is a story that reminds us, again, about new Pope Francis’ sense of humility and the fact that obviously obviously considers himself an ordinary person.
Here is a New York Times story about Pope Francis calling his newspaper kiosk vendor in Buenos Aires to cancel his newspaper delivery back home.
We assume that Pope Francis will probably read La Nacion online or on a mobile platform, perhaps. Those guys at La Nacion will probably make sure that the Pope can get his daily newspaper fix regardless of platform.
The kiosk vendor, Daniel Del Regno, explained to La Nacion that they would usually deliver La Nacion to Cardinal Bergoglio at 5:30 am, and that he preferred that it be tied with a rubber band so the pages would not come apart in rain or wind.
“At the end of the month, the Cardinal would return the rubber bands to us, all 30 of them,“ Del Regno said. “He is a unique individual for sure.“
Original La Nacion story, in Spanish:
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1564883-la-historia-del-diariero-que-le-vendia-la-nacion-al-papa
Of special interest:
In the “now we know content that readers are very interested in” category, why are we not surprised that TIME Magazine’s March 4 cover story “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us”, appears ready to become its best-selling cover in nearly two years.
Time’s Health Care Opus Is a Hit
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/times-health-care-opus-is-a-hit/?hp
Pages we like
Frank Deville, our European blog correspondent, sends these double pages from the Bild am Sonntag this week.
As always, Bild’s editors have selected good, timely and informative topics.
First example: two teenage girls suffering from bulimia in a face to face, with a headline that reads: I am thinner than you.
Second example: A mega graphic titled The Living Tree
Third example: Planet Central Park, with detailed description of the New York City’s landmark “treasures”.
Where’s Mario until March 31, 2013?
Mario’s upcoming speaking engagements
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