TAKEAWAY: The iPad was barely on store shelves when a journalism class at the University of Oregon decided to start a tablet-only magazine. Two years later, it is a trendsetter. We talk Ed Madison, the professor guiding the process.
Readers of TheMarioBlog may remember that I wrote about the University of Oregon journalism students engaged in the creation, editing and design of OR Magazine, an iPad only publication.
I first became aware of what the Oregon students were doing when I was invited to “Skype in” for an engagement with students in Prof. Ed Madison’s class in May 2012. It was an incredibly fun and rewarding experience and at the time students were working on a new issue of OR Magazine.
Madison, Assistant Professor/Media Partnerships Manager, is a veteran journalist and a founding producer of CNN, was a UO journalism teaching fellow and doctoral candidate, when he put together by-invitation only senior level lab class – called Mobile Media Production – with advertising professor Deborah Morrison. The iPads were barely on the shelves when the class began.
Today OR Magazine is strong, offering multimedia packages, such as a recent one titled “How to Be a Badass,” which includes video, a photo slideshow, and a profile of someone who balances a training regimen with university classes and work as a bouncer.
With the success of OR Magazine, it is a matter of time before other colleges and universities decide to go with tablet editions of their newspapers and magazines. So I reached out to Prof. Madison with a couple of questions:
Mario:
What do you think has been the biggest challenge to get your students to work in an iPad only publication?
Madison:
The biggest challenge was starting OR Magazine from scratch in 2011 with unfamiliar tools. Adobe’s DPS software was still in beta, and we didn’t have much existing knowledge about the platform to draw from. We wanted user navigation to be intuitive, since few readers had ever experienced reading a magazine on an iPad––yet we also didn’t want to “dumb it” too far down.
From an organizational standpoint, I borrowed what I learned from my two-year dissertation study of the award-winning journalism program at Palo Alto High School. What works is creating a climate of “ownership” for the students, where they begin to realize it is their publication, not mine. They came up with the name and the publication’s editorial vision.
Next is empowering student leaders to be leaders. This strategy ignites a sense of passion that gets them through the all-nighters during the final stretch of production. They feel a genuine sense of accomplishment that isn’t driven by a desire for grades.
Mario:
Did you have trouble convincing your faculty colleagues?
Madison:
Our dean and the vast majority of our faculty are forward thinkers. We have a mechanism in place that allows us to fast-track experimental courses. The OR Magazine initiative is consistent with our school’s tagline: “Ethics, Innovation, Action,“ with emphasis on all three words. We’re deeply committed to providing our students with cutting-edge learning experiences. All of this momentum has now spawned OR Media, an in-house production entity. Details here: http://or-media.com
For magazine lovers
Here is a publication that will delight all who love magazine and magazine design, not to mention that you will be helping one of this industry’s most talented designers and a personal best friend.
Last May, after former SPD President and design icon Bob Newman was hospitalized after suffering a severe head trauma, the design community came together to help. An online fund was established to assist with his mounting medical bills and now some of the top creatives in the world have teamed up and create a magazine to help raise additional funds.
It is great to report that our dear Bob is making steady progress, but it is a long road ahead till his full recovery. He still needs our support.
Jeremy Leslie of MagCulture and Andrew Losowsky of The Huffington Post gathered together 88 magazine makers from around the world to create My Favo(u)rite Magazine.
Go here for a preview, and details of how you may get this wonderful collection:
http://www.spd.org/2013/09/my-favourite-magazine-launches.php
Related links:
The Society of Publication Designers has a selection of excerpts on their website:
http://www.spd.org/2013/09/an-excerpt-from-my-favourite-m.php#more
In addition, Magculture.com is running a weekly excerpt, as well as posting additional favorites that weren’t included in the original publication:
http://magculture.com/blog/?p=18844#more-18844
Creative Review covered the project here:
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/august/my-favourite-magazine-publishes
Eye magazine did too:
http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/a-mag-for-bob
En español:
http://arq.clarin.com/diseno/revista-Bob-Newman_0_973703016.html