EPublishing – Threat or Opportunity for Traditional Printers

iPads, iPhones, and the glut of diverse tablet devices presently hitting the market are changing how many humans look at publications. An increasing range of people is locating that the usage of mobile gadgets to access a wide range of material (regularly even as commuting) is more convenient than magazines, newspapers, and other conventional print media. The wonderful display screen resolution has promised to make the iPad the new medium for analyzing magazines.

This previously inexperienced fashion is a supply of issues, even worry for a few printers and publishers. But is that this fear nicely founded? Was the preliminary buzz across the iPad and magazines only a fad? Is this a threat or possibility to the print enterprise? After all, there appears to have been a downward trend in iPad mag subscriptions after the initial frenzy. When Wired launched their iPad mag in June 2010, they bought greater than a hundred,000 ‘copies.’ But extra currently, it has been mentioned Wired’s iPad mag simplest sold a mean of 31,000 copies in keeping with the month in Q3/10. Falling in addition to 22,000 and 23,000 for October and November, respectively. Vanity Fair fared no higher and has visible declines in iPad sales from 10,500 in August, September, and October to 8,seven-hundred copies of its November trouble. Glamour dropped around 20%, Men’s Health has experienced a 28% drop, and GQ has lost customers. Fewer and fewer human beings appear to buy virtual magazines for the iPad.

So is this a sign of destiny? Does it suggest printers and publishers need now not worry? With the glut of tablets and smartphones expected on the market shortly and the reducing entry price, I am certain there may be a long-time period for ePublishing. And for printers and publishers with vision, ePublishing should be seen as a way of complimenting their ‘ink-on-paper publishing – it is a risk to get in advance of competitors, gain lower distribution fees, boom attains, and creates new sales streams.

1. Provide a hyperlink to a PDF record from a present internet site. Most tablet gadgets have the capability to download and look at PDF documents easily, so this is an easy approach if people are already touring your website.

2. Make your PDF downloadable from the Apple iTunes keep an “App.” There are many alternatives for converting a PDF file to a “page flipper” app, which may be indexed on the iTunes store. While this will offer a degree of marketing publicity, it’s far uncertain how many gains this presents as it can wander away most of the two hundred,000 games and other apps in the iTunes Store.

To listing applications on the iTunes keep, it’s far necessary to open an account with Apple, which includes sending numerous paperwork and employer details to Apple. One downside is that programs for iPad and iPhone devices will now not run on non-Apple gadgets. This is an extreme difficulty if one considers the range of vendors and projected growth for Android-based totally phones and capsules.

3. An alternative to growing Apps is to submit e-books. Apple guides the way to do that. Their pointers are that if the text goes to be the famous person of your presentation, use the ePub format, but if the format is essential, then use pdf files. Both of them can be posted via the iTunes service as a digital eBook. To list an eBook with iTunes, you want to open an account with Apple, and you want to get an ISBN quantity to your publication. This isn’t always an easy process. The essential benefit is that you may be listed as an ebook rather than an App, which could have credibility implications.

Limitations of Page Flippers, Unfortunately, most readers are skilled with the internet and are no longer happy with simple pages of text intermingled with photographs. They want sites that permit them to “do stuff.” They need to look at films, search through content, access associated data, “browse,” discover prices, purchase things they like, and follow their whim. They often are not happy to flip backward and forward through pages. To meet those expectancies, an exceptional approach is required. While there are numerous possibilities, the most flexible and fee-effective approach is to convert your utility to a “Web App.” In simple phrases, a Web App is an internet site that may be allotted or accessed as if it were an application jogging on the cell device.

Rather than being a simple “web page flipper” for viewing a PDF document, a Web App has the capability to contain greater functionality. Such functionality may be associated with improving the person’s revel in (for example, inclusive of videos, menus, hyperlinks, and interactive functions), or related to producing revenue from the report (focused marketing, or the ability to make purchases at once from in the publication), or related to providing a useful provider to the reader (calculators, get right of information entry, Facebook connections, and so forth).

However, with the proper development tool, you can flip your booklet right into a first-rate looking Web App with a degree of pleasant regular with your printed e-book(inclusive of a preference of up to three,500 fonts) – ‘re-purposing your layout and print attempt to multiple digital delivery systems such as the web, drugs, and smart-phones using various operating systems (e.g., Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows Phone), and additionally from the Internet.

With an approach that ‘goes beyond page-flipping,’ you may reap huge industrial blessings, including accelerated sales possibilities, such as a. Regionalise advertising, i.e., provide advertisements unique to the area the man or woman is getting access to the publication b. Introduce a “click via” fee machine for advertisers. When a reader clicks on a selected advertiser’s access, you’re able to fee for this (just like Google Adwords) c. Place simplest a short model of your book online to entice readers to i. Subscribe to the broadcast model, or ii. Setting the ebook behind a price gateway has readers purchase the current online guide or subscribe to destiny online versions.

Maintain the high-quality ‘look and feel of your book. With the ever-growing array of electronic gear on which human beings access the internet, first-rate guides must be provided professionally. What may also appear remarkable on a laptop display screen from an internet site will now not translate to an effortlessly regarded presentation on a smartphone or pill. Speed Matters And, it is not enough nowadays to provide an App or a Web App that conforms to the layout and marketing view of the mag. Users are becoming increasingly worrying. Marissa Mayer, Google VP, has said that their trying out has proven a “half of 2d put off [in page loading] prompted a 20% drop off. Half a second put off killed person pleasure”.

Pages want to load quickly to provide users that ‘on the spot-on’ revel in. It is not any use having the first-class-looking mag web page, which takes 2 minutes to load up – there won’t be absolutely everyone there to study it. The current load instances of the ‘The Daily’ iPad app is a great example. Use new media Today, publishers and printers can go virtual or ‘ink on paper, but many are selecting a collaborative method, still handing over traditional print but complimenting it with amazing digital variants.

With your online version of your book, look to embed video and audio documents on the repurposed website. This makes the media come to life and gives a rich multimedia revel in if the writer desires to accomplish that. This gives the publisher the possibility to develop revenue streams using classified ads embedded inside the new media. Most importantly, this new media must be brought using an era that ensures compatibility with the extensive form of structures, including Apple iOs, which are unfriendly to flash, and non-Apple gadgets.