By Kat MeyerIn one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes, Kramer comes up with the brilliant idea for a coffee table book with fold-down legs that makes it into a little coffee table--a coffee table book COFFEE TABLE book. Hilarious.Today I receive a press release from the folks over at Sideways announcing, "Sideways Takes the Coffee Table-Style Book to the iPad."Huh, I think. That's just silliness. How can an app be a coffee-table book? The coffee table book is an icon. The coffee table book is, by definition a big hardcover expensive book you keep on your coffee table. Right? Just in case there is some chance I am incorrect about this, I grab my iPad off my coffee table and check with Wikipedia, which backs me up, and I quote:"A coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for portability."Thought so.I email Charles Stack of Sideways. He calls me. I get to the point."Okay, Charles," I say. "About this press release. How can you claim that an iPad app is a coffee table book? A coffee table book is a big heavy book you keep on your coffee table." (I don't go as far as telling him that I have verified this with Wikipedia).And Charles, who (I soon learn) has an answer for everything, pipes right up:"I have three kids and a wife. We have between us, two ipads. They are quite often on our coffee table. Sometimes I will be using one to play Sudoku, while my wife does a crossword puzzle on the other. Other times, we will use them to look up info about what's on TV. Sometimes we use them to look up stuff we might be disagreeing about to prove each other wrong. The ipad is the new coffee table book."So, he's being cute with me, eh? Before I have a chance to say, "Well, yeah but you know what I mean...," Charles continues with the real answer, "Printed art books done well are about beautiful images. I spend a lot of time with them. But they don't have that immersive quality of images viewed on an iPad. The experience is so different. The iPad really lends itself to contemplative browsing."Okay, okay - but that's what the web is for, right - looking at pretty pictures can be easily done on the web already, yes?Charles corrects me, "The web is NOT about contemplative browsing. The web is about 'hunter' browsing." Which, I have to kind of agree with...web and contemplative - not so much. While I'm contemplating this, Charles goes on to explain some of the more practical features of the Sideways "coffee table book" platform:"Printed art books are expensive for the publisher to produce, and they are expensive for the consumer to buy. With the Sideways platform, an art book house or museum can produce a 'coffee table style book' at a fraction of the price it would cost them to do a print version using the least expensive overseas printer."Okay, I guess I can not argue with that. It all sounds good. But, does it look good? Is it really a "coffee table book" worthy experience, this coffee table book-like app?I check out photographer Diana Curran's "coffee table book" app - created using the Sideways platform. And, it's nice. It really is a contemplative experience. I can even see how this is not so much a cutesy play on "coffee table book," but a valid reinterpretation of the term.So, long story short, I won't be getting rid of my big heavy gorgeous printed coffee table books, but I like the idea that I can now fit (and afford) a whole lot more "coffee table books" on my coffee table via my iPad.Learn more about Sideways here.The Diana Curran 'Personal Gallery' App on iTunes.
Content For iPad Makes New Strides
Content For iPad Makes New StridesBy John GaffneyContent created specifically for the iPad benefited from a few major announcements this week. Zinio announced an innovative new package from its partnership with Rolling Stone magazine, and Sideways announced what could be the first actual readership study from an iPad specific content property.
The Zinio announcement represented a new level of interactivity and promise for interactive content. On Tuesday it introduced an interactive release of Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Songs of All Time on its cross-device Unity platform. Using the Zinio App for the iPad the magazine’s digital version allows the reader to sample and purchase music with a swipe of a finger. The interactive edition will be available on other platforms as well, including Windows, Mac and Linux PCs. So people can read about the recording sessions for “Like A Rolling Stone,” sample it, and then buy it on iTunes.Meanwhile, Sideways has put its stake in the ground as an iPod publisher. It was confident enough in its first issue, published in July to release some data about readership. It shows a surprisingly high engagement rate, and a decidedly male readership skew. Sideways magazine did not release the total page views or app downloads, but it did show that 234 readers clicked on its readership survey and 93% completed it. Most publishers would be happy with 10 percent. It found 80.8% of responders are male; 50.2% hold an advanced degree; average age is 47, and 24% of those who purchased the initial app for the magazine updated it.“Obviously this is a very early adopter profile and it will change,” said co-founder Eliza Wing. “But its very encouraging that our early adopters are so willing to give information about themselves. One of the issues we have to deal with, and all publishers have to deal with, is measuring apps. How do wee know what happens after they’re downloaded? This can help inform our story choices and increase our relationships with the reader.” The August issue of Sideways will offer a free update. Wing says the company is working on other interactive projects similar to the Rolling Stone issue that will be announced soon.
New edition of iPad-only magazine, Sideways, now available
By Matthew Miller for The Mobile GadgeteerI bought the first Sideways issue in June when it launched on the iPad and enjoyed this $3.99 iPad-only magazine. The editor then coincidentally contacted me about possibly writing articles and contributing to the magazine so I submitted a couple of articles that you can now read in the latest issue, Sideways 10.07. I thought it was an interesting approach to publishing where the magazine was created just for the large color display and connectivity of the iPad where you can view photos, follow hyperlinks, check out video content, and more while enjoying written articles. This is a monthly publication with music and game reviews scheduled for weekly updates.In this issue you will find my articles on AT&T’s iPad pricing plans and changes and traveling outside the US with your iPad and iPhone. Other articles include organic shopping, summer festivals, places that ban the iPad, tips on getting the most from your device, and more. I am open to ideas you readers have for articles you would like to see me write for the publication too so feel free to leave a comment or send me an email with your ideas. So, do you think an iPad-only magazine is a good idea?
Crystal Semantics Offers License for Semantics
By Gavin DunawayIn “Star Wars” spoof “Spaceballs,” Yoda stand-in Yogurt (played by writer/director Mel Brooks) famously explains: “Merchandising, merchandising — where the real money from the movie is made!” When it comes to ad serving technology, the same statement applies — except swap “licensing” for “merchandising.”Today at the Semantic Technology Conference, Crystal Semantics announced that its Sense Engine semantic classifier and SiteScreen ASP brand protection tech will no longer be confined to parent company ad pepper’s iSense ad network. Instead it will be open for licensing to any inquisitive player in the space: ad agencies, publishers, ad networks, ad exchanges, demand-side platforms — Crystal Semantics don’t discriminate.“The drive towards automation in online media requires greater intelligence about audience and the context in which that audience has been identified,” said Crystal Semantics Managing Director Ian Saunders. “Crystal Semantics is uniquely placed to meet the needs of agencies and advertisers, buy and sell-side platforms, ad serving providers, marketplaces and publishers.”The baby of master linguist and distinguished Professor David Crystal OBE, the Sense Engine classifies content on any web page into one of 3,500 categories in nine languages. SiteScreen ASP identifies objectionable content and blocks ad delivery — Crystal and Sacha Carton, iSense president and ad pepper board member, described the mechanics to Adotas back in November.
Sideways: The First iPad-Only Magazine Is About . . . The iPad
Sideways: The First iPad-Only Magazine Is About . . . The iPadBy Erick SchonfeldWhile the print magazine industry is hanging its hopes on the iPad to lead it to the digital promised land where people actually pay for digital editions, it is still stuck with adapting a product designed for paper to the screen. But what if you threw the paper out to begin with and started with a magazine meant to be read only on the iPad? If you do that, you get Sideways, a mag app that claims to be the first iPad-only magazine. Its first issue is on sale now in the App Store for $3.99.Sideways is an iPad magazine that covers, well, the iPad. There are articles about apps for the iPad and music for the iPad and training for a marathon with the iPad (my tip is you leave it at home). “You have a built-in demographic,” says CEO Charles Stack. “Who are the readers? The people who own an iPad.” There are also other articles which would appeal to that affluent, techy demographic. The first issue has a lot of World Cup themed articles, including one on World Cup apps, a guide with venues and dates, and a primer on how to fake your way through the World Cup.So what makes it different than Wired‘s successful iPad mag or Time‘s. “It was ground-up designed for the iPad, not an adaption of a print magazine,” says Stack, who founded Books.com in the early 1990s before he sold it to Barnes & Noble. The articles are laid out in a familiar magazine format, taking advantage of the iPad’s large screen and lovely fonts. Video and audio is also blended in where a photo or graphic might be in a print magazine (still, nothing too radical here—Wired and Time are doing the same thing). You scroll through pages up and down like on the Web, not sideways, which is silly given the name of the magazine and the fact that side-swiping is becoming the norm for iPad magazine apps.Where it starts to be different is when it departs from the printed word and starts to feel more like an app. For instance, the article on World Cup stadiums and dates pops open a map studded with all the stadiums across South Africa. There is an interactive timeline of the entire iPhone product family in another article. And there is a photo gallery app which shows large, full-screen high-res photos from events that occurred over the past month. It is kind of Life 2.0. Sideways has six full-time staffers, a lot of freelancers, and is based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is self-funded. For now there are no ads, but the music reviews all have affiliate links to the iTunes store. And you can imagine similar arrangements with Amazon affiliate links for reviews of other types of products. Stack sees Sideways as a flagship product for a publishing platform he will eventually license to other magazine and book publishers.New ideas are more likely to come from people like Stack and others outside the industry. Still, I think charging $3.99 a pop for a digital magazine is going to be a hard sell, especially once we start getting the same experience on the Web.
Book publishers agree change coming; details murky
By Mark Egan and Christine KearneyGiants and upstarts of publishing gathered at the annual BookExpo America here this week agreed e-books will transform the business, although exactly how it will all shake out remains unclear.From biggest publishers to newcomers there was agreement on one thing -- the big change will come when there is a standard format across which all e-books can be published and shared.The industry has been going through a tumultuous period as Apple and Amazon duke it out for dominance in the nascent market for electronic books.Both want their devices -- the iPad and the Kindle -- to be the one consumers use to read e-books, and each wants to be the biggest virtual store were such content is sold.For Michael Serbinis, chief executive of Kobo, a company that allows users to buy e-books and read them on most devices, that battle is a distraction to the real changes coming."Today you can buy a book at Barnes and Noble and you can buy a book at Walmart and you don't have to keep them in separate rooms in your house," he said. "You buy a book from Apple and Amazon and you have got to keep it tied up with your Apple universe or your Kindle universe."Ultimately, consumers want freedom, said David Shanks, chief executive of leading publisher Penguin Group USA."Our fondest wish is that all the devices become agnostic so that there isn't proprietary formats and you can read wherever you want to read," Shanks told Reuters. "First we have to get a standard that everybody embraces."The issue, he said, is the fear of piracy and how to set a common digital rights management system to thwart it.The battle over technology formats is a familiar one. A century ago, Edison and Victor made records that could not be played on each other's players. There was the Betamax/VHS videotape struggle and more recently Blu-ray beat out HD DVD.BookExpo showed traditional books are alive and well. There was buzz for the upcoming book from news parody king Jon Stewart and raucous Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richard's memoirs as well as a book on home design by Barbra Streisand.EVIDENCE OF INNOVATIONAnd there was evidence of change coming in the age of e-books, although the new format was displayed only in one small corner of the sprawling Javits Center convention halls.Among the digital companies here were Sideways, which helps authors and publishers transform text into multimedia content, adding video, pictures and features such as Twitter feeds.Another company, Ripple, allows adults to buy children's e-books and record their voices reading them. And there were gadgets such as the enTourage eDGe -- a twin-screened device which opens like a book to reveal an eReader on one side and a NetBook on the other.Eileen Gittins of Blurb, which helps authors and companies self-publish, predicts e-books will make up half of all sales in five years. In 2009, the global publishing business, including print and digital, was worth $71 billion, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers."We're seeing now in book publishing what had happened previously in the music publishing industry. And that is, a massive disruption of the business model," she told Reuters.The problem is that the cost of printing is a minor cost of publishing whereas developing work with an author and marketing it consume the lion's share of costs.That means, she said, that the book industry will become more like the movie business. "The book publishing industry is becoming more blockbuster focused," she said.Susan Petersen Kennedy, president of Penguin Group USA, said publishers will not make the same mistakes as the music industry, which had an epic struggle over electronic distribution and piracy and lost huge market share."It's always treated as if the publishers are the Luddites," she told Reuters in an interview. "The devices have not caught up with the content. Contrary to popular opinion, the book is actually so far more flexible."Serbinis says the industry will see dramatic change. He predicted consolidation among publishers and said tablet computers will be common. He expects readers to eventually be able to lend e-books to each other.And books won't just be for bookstores any more as new distribution channels from mobile phone companies to gaming companies join the party, he said. "It won't only be the bookstores that have gone digital," he said.
Annual publishing expo deals with changing industry
Annual publishing expo deals with changing industryBy Allan Hoffman/For The Star-LedgerTen years ago, when the music industry was in an anguished tumult over Napster and illegal downloads, at least one cornerstone of the industry remained a symbol of stability and tradition -- the song. CD sales were dropping and musicians might need to find new ways to support themselves, but the song, thank goodness, wasn’t really in flux.Not so with the book.Everything is up for grabs in the publishing industry right now, and BookExpo America, the industry’s major gathering, is a testament to the tumult. The panels ("Designing and Executing an e-Strategy for Authors"), the companies attending (Amazon, Google and an assortment of tech startups), and the issues discussed and debated (Twitter, the iPad, social media) all reflect an epochal transformation.BookExpo America wraps up today at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York — an opportune moment to consider the questions facing the industry (and, let’s face it, anyone who reads and cares about books).What is a book?The dictionary definition of a book, as a "printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers," sounds downright archaic these days.E-books, like those available for Amazon’s Kindle e-reading device, have forever changed our idea of what a book is. Yet the e-books now widely available — typically consisting of digital text from traditional books — are primitive compared with the kind of books being touted at BEA.One company, Sideways, displayed what it calls a "digital publishing platform" to produce elaborate multimedia books combining text, photographs, artwork, video, maps and links to social networking tools.A demo for a not-yet-released book for the iPad, "Morrison NYC," includes vintage photographs of the Doors’ Jim Morrison, a visually stunning timeline and an interactive map of New York City, with clickable markers leading to more photos and captions. Charles Stack, founder of the company, said the company is "expanding what’s great about the printed book into something greater.""It’s just bringing the whole printed page to life," he said. "It’s all new techniques, all new opportunities."At a panel on mobile tools for books, Josh Koppel, co-founder of another company reinventing the book, ScrollMotion, showed off a study book for the MCAT exam allowing the reader to take sample test questions, within the book, and then have the questions graded.Peter Costanzo, director of online marketing for Perseus Books Group, displayed an iPhone version of the popular teen novel "Cathy’s Book." Within the book, you can press on a phone number to call the title character. "We’ve gotten thousands and thousands of messages from kids to Cathy," Costanzo said.Making phone calls from books? Taking tests? Watching video? Yes, the book is morphing into "a reading experience that actually defies the traditional notion of what a book is," as Koppel said.What is an author?With books integrating a lot more than text, what will the role of the author be? Sideways aims to provide tools to authors to create multimedia books like "Morrison NYC." Will a new generation of authors make their mark by their ability to craft hybrids mixing words with art and video? Or will the role of the author remain focused on the text, with others — publishers, designers, project managers and programmers — working with authors to transform their books for phones, tablet computers and e-readers?What is a publisher?The major publishers were all at BEA, but clearly other companies are edging into their territory. Print-on-demand publishers, like iUniverse and Lulu, let anyone print a book. Technology startups are working with authors — or other publishers — to bring interactive versions of books to mobile devices. You can even now buy a book of content from Wikipedia from a new venture called PediaPress.What is a bookstore?Where do you buy a book? Along with traditional stores and online retailers, you can now buy books through Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iBookstore and other stores connected to websites and tools for viewing e-books. If you own an iPad, for instance, you might buy a book from the iBookstore, another from the App Store — if the book is an app (as "Morrison NYC" will be) — and others from stores connected to various e-reading tools, like Iceberg Reader and Stanza. Quite confusing, and likely to remain so as publishers and technology companies continue to experiment with e-books.What is a book worth?No one knows, yet this question is fiercely debated in publishing circles.Traditional publishers fear e-book pricing is settling at $9.99 for a book, yet it’s possible miniature books — or apps — will be available for substantially less, while elaborate multimedia books might cost more, just like today’s coffee table books. One BEA panel, " ‘I’ll Never Pay Over $9.99 for E-Books!’ and Similar Lies" reflected the anxiety in publishing over book pricing.What is a reader?When a book is a multimedia concoction, is the person consuming it ("consume" being one of the words now applied to books) as a reader, or something else, like a user? Maybe the latter, as suggested by the title of this panel: "How the Digital Book Cloud Works for Publishers and Users." The panel’s sponsor? Google, of course.
iPad Developer Sideways to Launch at BEA
iPad Developer Sideways to Launch at BEABy Calvin Reid
Sideways is a new multimedia software development company specializing in creating new digital publications for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and other mobile devices. The firm is launching next week at BookExpo America, offering two experimental digital magazines that will show off the capabilities of its suite of authoring tools.
Founded by Charles Stack, founder of the former Books.com online retailing site acquired by B&N, and Sideways president and COO Eliza Wing, Sideways offers authors and publishers the opportunity to “reinvent the book form,” according to Stack. Sideways, he said, offers a set of authoring tools that can target specific categories to create rich multimedia experiences. Sideways is financed by Stack.
Stack said that Sideways is developing multimedia publications in a range of categories from how-to books and cookbooks to graphic novels and children's literature. Stack pointed to a trademarked Sideways multimedia tool called Anigraphic that the company is marketing to comics artists and cartoonists. Anagraphic, Stack said, will enhance their ability to create “well-scripted comics stories with animation and audio embedded.” The Anagraphic tool allows creators to embed multimedia and interactivity into their publications while “keeping the author's vision intact,” said Stack. Sideways is also focused on creating, “highly graphical,” publications Stack said, the digital equivalent of the old Life magazine. Stack said the firm is in negotiations with a number of publishers to create iPad enhanced versions of of books and magazines.
“Our team has a deep love of books,” said Wing, “and is passionate about bringing them to this new medium. Rather than jettison all that we enjoy about reading, we focus on deepening the experience.”
Sideways is also at working developing an Anagraphic version of Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Tales for Children and an iPhone camera guide by David Busch. Both Sideways’ publications are still in development, but the firm will be demonstrating its technology at its booth and debuting two experimental publications. Sideways will showoff TapTilt, a digital magazine for the iPhone/iPodTouch available now through the Apple App Store, and Sideways for the iPad, a general interest multimedia publication that will be released on June 1.
“The magazines will give everyone a sense of the capabilities of our technology,” Stack said. “Our goal is to give both publishers and authors the opportunity to make good stories even better.”
Sideways Launches New Digital Magazine
Sideways Launches New Digital MagazineBy John GaffneyBefore there was Amazon there was Books.com. Before there was Jeff Bezos there was Charles Stack. So when Stack takes on something new it just might be worth some attention. One of the Internet’s underrated entrepreneurs, who sold Books.com to Barnes & Noble, is developing interactive magazines and books for the iPad and iPhone. In fact he’s starting his own company and his own magazine to capture the possibilities of the new platforms.“We’re going for rapid integration of our new product,” Stack says. “These are new platforms with new rules. When iPads and other tablets grow up they want to be something. It’s our job to help them become what they want to be.”That input will come in the form of what Stack says is the first magazine designed around and written for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Tap Tilt is now available as a $1.99 app and will take advantage of the devices' capabilities to present stories that are immersive and engaging in ways that print alone is not. For example “Green Thumb” will include a national calendar of horticultural events and a video guide to what gardeners should plant now. Art and the iPhone is an in-depth look at a popular art app, Brushes, a highly-refined form of finger painting that has been used to produce covers of The New Yorker magazine.The iPad magazine will have even more interactive content and will be called Sideways. Stack wants his publishing approach to be as interactive and flexible as the format. He likes to think of his magazines and products as experiments, with constant optimization and what he calls “agile development.” He is not afraid to fail, he says, because the ability to gain constant reader feedback means constant change.Stack’s partner is Eliza Wing, former CEO of Cleveland.com and editor at Rolling Stone, Books.com, and New York Woman. Like Stack she is an avid reader and lover of print books. While she won’t speculate on the future of local bookstores, she does believe that the interactive publishing model will generate more titles, more versions and more revenue for the entire business, in time. Example: One of the projects in development at Sideways is a book called The Doors in New York City by James Henke, music writer and chief curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. What if the e-book contained music downloads? What if the reader could hit video interviews with the band members? What if photos could be stretched? Would consumers pay more for that?“Digital publishing can expand the revenue scope in so many different ways,” she says. “We can develop special content at special prices. Premium editions of books can have several different price pints and even compliment the print version. Done right, the publishing business can create a platform that exploded revenue opportunities rather than destroys them.”Evenutally, say Stack and Wing, publishers will need to evaluate projects based on their social and interactive potential. They will be working the Book Expo America in New York City next week, to see how Sideways flies.
Executive Moves: Jonathan Slavin, ad pepper media
By Maia BlumeAd Pepper Media: Jonathan Slavin, 38, was promoted to president of North America and managing director at the online advertising provider.
Media Motion: Adenyo, Burst Media, and Revision3
ad pepper media has opened a new office in Los Angeles. The company also added Evan Cowitt as VP Sales, West Region. Cowtitt will oversee efforts in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington.Adenyo has appointed Michael O'Connor to its board of directors. He had previously served at Orascom Telecom as a founding executive committee member.Michael Benedek has been appointed president of AlmondNet's online data division. He formerly served as vice president, business development.AudienceScience has promoted Scott Travis to the title of vice president sales East. He will be responsible for management and oversight of all Eastern and Midwest sales efforts.Burst Media has rolled out its Burst Moms Spotlight Sites, which will link advertisers with a select group of content rich websites that deliver to "CEO Moms."Context Optional announced that customers of its Social Marketing Suite will be now be able to publish posts to specific geographic regions and publish applications into the stream via Stream Apps. Stream Apps allow brands to launch functional and interactive coupons, polls, and product catalogs directly in its stream.Centro has hired Beau LeMire and Jenny Nargi as its West Coast account executives. LeMire will be working on the Entertainment vertical from Los Angeles, while Nargi is responsible for covering Southern California, Nevada, and Utah.e-Dialog has acquired MBS, a database marketing solutions provider, from World Marketing Inc. MBS will give e-Dialog clients a powerful database engine that reveals consumer trends.B2B Magazine has ranked Geary Interactive as one of its top marketing agencies for the B2B industry, and the San Diego Business Journal has included Geary on its list of top web development firms for the second year in a row. Just prior to this, the agency had received two Interactive Advertising Competition awards and two Addy Awards.GSD&M Idea City announced the return of Jerry Courtney to the agency. Courtney will now hold the position of executive media director, which will see him leading a 105-person media department.The Interactive Advertising Bureau has opened the doors to its new San Francisco office. It has also named Steve Sullivan as vice president, supply chain and revenue solutions, a new position in the organization.iMarketing LTD announced that it has acquired TrackingSoft LLC, developers of a tracking and optimization solution called ROIAdvantage.iStockphoto, a provider of royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, and audio, has selected SiteSpect as its web optimization solution.Mirian Arias has been named vice president of communications for iVillage. Arias will handle press outreach, media relations strategy and employee communications.Marketing Management Analytics announced that Robert Gannon has joined the company as senior vice president, business development and account management. Gannon had recently worked at WPP's Red Dot Square Solutions business, where he served as senior vice president, business and customer development.Mpire announced three new partnerships for its AdXpose campaign solution. Joining Mpire's list of partners are Digital Broadcasting Group Video Network, Dedicated Media, and XA.net.Pat Stern has returned to R/GA to serve as executive creative director on the Walmart account. Stern has worked at companies such as 10x, WORKSHOP, and Euro RSCG Worldwide. Meanwhile, at the Sao Paulo offices, Fabiano Coura has been appointed as head of planning.Revision3 has forged a new partnership with Miso, a new iPhone/iTouch app. Miso has been regarded as the "Foursquare of television," and will allow users to check-in and share what they're watching with their friends.Room 214 has seen a flurry of changes recently. It has hired Lauren Maynard as its research director, and Jeremy Tanneras marketing director. The agency has also launched a redesign of its site, which now includes the "Capture the Conversation" blog.SlideRocket has appointed Heidi Jackman to its executive management team as chief marketing officer. Jackman was a former executive at Intuit Marketing and brings 20 years of experience in high-tech marketing, e-commerce, and product management.T3 has promoted Jennifer Mollo to the role of senior vice president, director of client services. Mollo joined T3 in 2006 and had previously worked for companies such as MasterCard International and Atari. She will be reporting to COO Lee Gaddis.
REVIEW: TapTilt: An iPhone magazine you read on your iPhone
REVIEW: TapTilt: An iPhone magazine you read on your iPhoneBy Rick BroidaI love magazines. I subscribe to around a dozen of them and even started one of my own many years ago. (PalmPilot users may remember it: Tap, which later became Handheld Computing.)Unfortunately, most of the magazine content I've seen on my iPhone has been mediocre at best. Usually it's poorly formatted, incomplete, out of date, and/or not of particular interest.So imagine my delight upon discovering TapTilt, a monthly magazine about the iPhone you read on your iPhone. It's smartly designed, stocked with original content, and decidedly interesting reading for the everyday iPhone user.The May, 2010, debut issue kicks off with three features, one each on baseball apps, gardening apps, and iPhone-created art. They're formatted not only to fit the screen, but also to resemble traditional magazine spreads. Thus you see unique headline fonts, topic-specific artwork and color schemes, screenshots, and overall attention to design detail.Unlike a typical print rag, however, TapTilt adds multimedia to the mix: links, videos, Facebook/Twitter integration, and even some interactive goodies. The baseball-app feature, for example, includes extras like a baseball calendar and a nationwide map of stadiums.After the features, TapTilt serves up weekly game and music reviews--both in video format. I'm not sure why the editors insist on doling these out one week at a time; it's a bit frustrating to know that there's a review of the game Drift Sumi available, but I have to wait until the fourth week of May to get it.At least what's there is good. The video review of All-in-1 Gamebox, for instance, is one of the most polished and entertaining app reviews I've ever seen. The Diner Dash review seemed a bit amateurish by comparison, but I still found it preferable to reading a static all-text review.TapTilt also serves up a variety of expected-to-be-recurring columns, including iPhoneography (the art of taking photos on your iPhone), Travel, Tips and Tricks, Wallpaper of the Week, and iMazing (stories of "amazing uses and strange apps"). It's all good stuff.Just one problem: there's not enough of it. I breezed through the entire first issue in about 15 minutes. Much as I liked what was there, I didn't quite feel like I got my $1.99's worth. Granted, a single newsstand issue of iPhone Life costs $7.99, but that magazine delivers considerably more content.I have two other small gripes. First, to adjust font size, you have to exit the app and venture into your iPhone's settings. Second, each issue of TapTilt arrives as its own app and must be purchased individually. There's no subscription option that I can see (yet), and no way to access back issues (once there are some) from within the current one. Until I'm able to purchase a few more issues, I'm not sure if that's going to bug me or not.
Publisher Sideways Software describes TapTilt as an "experimental" magazine, and judging from the first issue, I'd say the experiment is a success. Though a bit thin on content, everything else is just about right. Note to publishers: If you're planning digital versions of your magazines, they should look a lot like TapTilt.
Mother's Day photo books - So many choices, even with so little time
One of the nicest things anyone can do for me on Mother's Day is to devise gift made especially for me. And while there is no denying the sweetness of macaroni art, I will admittedly spend a lot more time pouring over a custom photo book.Whether you fill it with photos of the family, or assemble all of the kids' favorite recipes into a family cookbook, or have the kids make a "Why We Love Mommy" book, this is definitely one gift where the thought behind it counts. And don't worry that custom is really code for a lot of work: It's not.Here's a round-up of some of the great photo book sites we've featured on Cool Mom Picks.I've been a fan of Blurb (photo above) every since it helped me create a photo book for my impossible-to-shop-for father-in-law. The software is incredibly easy to use and the prices, quality and options are great. Whether you create a coffee table-worthy tome or a booklet of smiling baby faces, it'll be an instant classic to me.If you love the looks of a perfectly designed scrapbook but are lacking the time, patience and $500 in supplies, Pixtorie has just what you need. With real photos layered onto perfectly designed pages by their own artists, Pixtorie's designer scrapbooks, or the smaller, more affordable "simplebooks", are a great way to chronicle life in pictures.There's no beating the ease of Shutterfly photo books, especially for those of us who already upload our photos here. Choose from many sizes and design templates, or make things a bit easier with the "Celebrate Her" photobook which comes ready-made with writing prompts. If you are looking for inspiration, check out some of these amazingly creative ideas from our readers like this one, from reader Elizabeth.FujiFilm is in the photo gift game now through their site SeeHere.com. The Pages in Stages Keyhole Scrapbook is particularly interesting - a photobook-scrapbook-photo album hybrid that you can customize on the site, then add to later using traditional photo pages. The interface isn't quite as intuitive as some other sites and the font printing could be a little sharper, but the prices are terrific and the cloth hardcover makes quite the elegant presentation.If you believe that less is more, check ZoomAlbums which we called an "itty bitty brag books of awesome. These are actually kits that allow you to arrange and print your own photos, then follow the easy instructions make three of your own mini photo books. It makes a sweet gift to accompany The Gift.This week we discovered the new minibooks from self-publishing site, Lulu and they're terrific. It's hard to beat the wallet-friendly price for the wallet sized books - just $16 for four, so you'll have one for every mom on your Mother's Day list, and maybe one leftover for yourself.When the story behind the photo is as precious as the image itself, check out Heritage Makers' professional-bound story books. I love how there is plenty of room for narrative so that you'll always remember that the reason she's shyly smiling is because she just hid the peas from dinner under the dog's bed. -ChristinaCongratulations to lucky winner Hyon-hee G, who'll receive an 8-page scrapbook from See Here!
NAB '10: Critical Media Intros Mobile TV Solution
By Staff at TVNewsCheckCritical Media has enhanced its Syndicaster service to empower broadcasters with one-click publishing to all platforms, which now includes the latest Apple and mobile devices. Journal Broadcast Group is the first Syndicaster client to use the new feature to ensure that video content will be available to their audience wherever and however they get their news.The Syndicaster platform lets users edit and create video clips remotely from over-the-air video content, Web feeds and uploaded video — from any browser — and distribute video clips online within moments of air-time or on-location recording. Integrating HTML5 into the platform allows viewers to access video from their local Journal Broadcast Group TV station on any mobile device intact."We are constantly working to ensure that we keep pace with the various ways in which people consume media," said Journal's Jim Thomas, VP marketing, programming and interactive media. "iPad and mobile device compatibility are necessary for our audience to use our products. Journal's addition of this capability makes Syndicaster's powerful distribution engine an important component in our video services.""Syndicaster changes the way online video is produced and distributed by local TV stations. Now we're augmenting the service by providing access to more distribution platforms such as the iPad," said Sean Morgan, CEO of Critical Media. "This not only helps our clients remain competitive in a fast-paced video economy, but also allows them to deliver quality content to their audiences no matter where they are. As a result, our clients experience a significant increase in the number of monthly produced assets and video consumption on their sites."Critical Media is exhibiting at the NAB Show in booth SU9506LL in the Destination Broadband area.
Logging In: The Ad Placement Tightrope by Sacha Carton
By Sacha CartonWho's looking out for brands?When you build a company, blood, sweat and tears are invested into building brand equity. You work to protect your brand from competitors and predators, and yet on the game of chance on the roulette table that is online advertising, you compromise that value every time you place an advertising campaign.Until recently, all the partners in the online advertising chain thought the other would take care of brand protection or maintaining brand equity. The agency thought the network would only place the campaign on "premium" sites; the network thought the publisher would take care of it; and the publisher attempted to maximize the ROI through extensive placements, incorrectly believing that the advertiser would be aware of the type of content that was selected in the media plan.In reality, none of the parties involved were responsible for protecting the brand, and thus we have too many examples of misplaced ads damaging the collateral that can exist within a brand. Examples include an airline advertisement appearing alongside the story of an air disaster; a hotel chain ad next to coverage of a hurricane; an ad for a car manufacturer appearing by coverage of a freeway pile-up. These misplacements have even spawned a YouTube video.So who's to blame?Does the client blame the agency, the agency the network, the network the publisher? The blame game is counterproductive, as the damage is done. What is more important is the overall damage to the brand equity. A UK study pinned the blame directly on the advertiser, with more than 70 percent of those surveyed indicating that they think less of a brand that allows itself to be misplaced!There are two schools of thought in this area: One says that viewers see the ads across entire sites, and any misplacements average themselves out, and it's the audience that counts; the second, and growing, sector suggests that as we move deeper into a hyper-targeted, brand-focused display market, the positioning of ads in wholly positive light is all-important.To this end, there are many brand-protection solutions entering the market with various approaches and results, but all with the same purpose. Some solutions rely on blocking the domains or sites that are known to contain controversial content. So do you block entire news sites because they report on negative subjects? Or do you simply use a known domain list gathered over time and rely upon a fenced stable of "clean" inventory upon which you may deliver your ad campaigns? Or do you crawl extensive portions of the Web only to fail, due to the plethora of user-generated content that is appended to articles on most popular Web sites?Such solutions are fundamentally flawed in that they cannot take advantage of the content explosion that has occurred. We live in a dynamic content-rich environment and advertisers require effective solutions to meet expanding needs.In the early days of brand-protection solutions, the collective response was "we do not have brand safety issues." In 2010, the complete opposite is the case, with the vast majority of leading display media agencies requesting that brand-protection functionality be added to campaigns' targeting capabilities.This will be the year that brand protection enables advertisers to reap the rewards of the open market, but with peace of mind knowing campaign objectives will not be compromised by ad misplacements.Sacha Carton is a founding partner of Ad Pepper Media.
Brand Aid for Online Lead Generation by Catalyst Investors
NYC-based growth private equity firm Catalyst Investors released a research report on online lead generation (OLG). Some of the key takeaways:• Online advertisers are favoring performance marketing over brand marketing.• No more easy money. Out-sized profits from pure arbitrage are short-lived and that content-driven value-add will be required as the OLG market matures.• The decline of traditional media is about more than just changes in media consumption. OLG is an attractive way to monetize traditional media brands in business-to-business and business-to-consumer verticals.• Brand-based companies present private equity opportunities.
The Basics of Brand Protection by Sacha Carton
By Sacha CartonYou can’t help but notice the rapidly increasing number of brand protection vendors, but why do we need these companies? We didn’t have them before so why do we need them now?Writing on behalf of the pioneer in this space (we delivered the first brand-safe network impressions in 2006), I hope to shed some light on this technology and explain why it is vital for every company that advertises online.The idea of negative side effects of branded ads appearing next to controversial content — such as an airline ad running alongside news of a plane crash — are obvious. In recent years we have seen truly horrendous examples of ad misplacements. The market has moved from relative ignorance to greater adoption.Demand comes from all sectors of the industry as a gap is plugged in the service offering of these organizations. There are, however, misconceptions about what brand protection actually means.There have been many different approaches for brand protection. Companies have experimented, for instance, with developing lists of “clean sites” only to find that the problems exist at page level. But which pages? The same is also true of using site tags whereby publishers classify their content at site or section level. But what sites or sections?Problems also exist with a human site vetting approach, which is both time-consuming and also hugely subjective, as it depends on who is doing the vetting and is subject to that person’s bias and opinion. Some have developed a list of “bad” keywords to solve the problem only to find that, because words have different senses or meanings, this method is useless.Another approach is to fence off content into a “brand safe network” of pre-crawled sites. Sounds pretty idyllic but as market dynamics dictate, the costs would be above market average prices. It also brings back the issue of subjectivity. A network of content without any campaign variations is not a totally brand-safe proposition.So if not these methods, how can we make brand protection actually work?Most effective brand protection technologies involve some form of semantics — analysis of the words on the page to identify key concepts that could potentially be considered controversial by an advertiser and, more important, a potential customer. The semantic analysis identifies key concepts of a page and upon detection of controversial content, either reports the misplacement and enables the user to take action, or compares the page content to a predetermined approved/banned list of controversial content and blocks the ad impression from being delivered.Brand protection technology also brings the marketer so much more actionable information. Full URL level transparency is a key element enhanced by such technology; as we move to a more automated future with the growth of ad exchanges, demand-side platforms and real-time bidding, transparency will be among the biggest weapons in the arsenal.Visibility into where each and every impression has been delivered — right down to the individual page URL –- will be a prerequisite of any solution. Totally blind delivery will soon be passé.Different brand protection solutions approach the problem in different ways thus they arrive at different, and in some cases incorrect, conclusions. Some pre-crawl the data or conduct near or real-time analysis, extracting page content and identifying its brand protection criteria.It is vital, however, that the content upon which the analysis is based is the same as that seen by the reader at the time of loading the page which is not possible with pre-crawling. User-generated content can also change a previously “clean” page into one that an advertiser needs to avoid.Dynamic content is a game changer and while its benefits for the publisher (e.g. interaction with the users, increased content lifecycle, SEO, etc.) are tangible, the potential pitfalls for the advertiser are serious. Because of this, an effective brand protection solution must use a blend of real-time analysis supported by historic crawled data.The concept that brand protection is “one size fits all” with providers determining what content is “controversial” is faulty; what is “safe” for one advertiser is not necessarily the case for another, even within the same sector. Needs change from client to client and campaign to campaign so any preordained idea of brand protection simply does not work.To put it bluntly, brand protection is not media verification and media verification is not brand protection. There is a lot of confusion about these two points as well as a lot of smoke and mirrors.The idea that brand protection is there to audit the placement and position of ads within the confines of a media plan is a misnomer. Brand protection is a preemptive technology and is designed to block ads from appearing next to controversial content. The technology, by definition, removes the need to audit — there are no questionable placements to assess, no screenshots to be taken and no axe to grind with publishers, networks or distribution partners.Brand protection is about preventing ad misplacements, hence protecting brands from potentially damaging negative associations resulting out of negative content adjacencies.The industry is about to enter one of its most exciting times. An explosion of content on the web and new industry technologies such as real-time bidding will free brands to explore the richness and diversity available.Brand protection technologies will encourage more top advertisers to enter the online advertising sector while simultaneously allowing other more established online brands to expand beyond the “safe” path of leading portals and sites into a whole new but equally relevant portfolio. With brand protection technologies in place, brands will be free to explore and enjoy the economies of scale.The importance of a brand protection strategy for all future display media campaigns cannot be underestimated. Not having such a strategy in place is like adding more bullets into a game of Russian Roulette.Written by Sacha Carton, founding partner of Ad Pepper Media, an international online marketing services group offering semantic advertising, lead generation, email marketing, affiliate marketing and adserving solutions.He currently holds several positions - President ofiSense, leading the company’s semantic targeting initiatives, Director Product and Technology Development overseeing all product development activities and Director of the Board.Over his 10-year tenure at ad pepper media he has also held the positions of Director Western Europe and Director Corporate Development helping to establish the company as a leading international online advertising network with 16 offices in ten countries.Prior to ad pepper media, Mr. Carton was co-founder and COO of Fountains – a U.S. based online beverage retailing business and co-founder and COO of Count Zero – a Venezuela based direct marketing service agency.
InSite Group Gets Funding from Catalyst
By Monica AllevenTower and distributed antenna systems (DAS) firm InSite Wireless Group received an undisclosed amount of funding from private equity firm Catalyst Investors.InSite, which owns about 350-plus tower and DAS sites, will use the funds to acquire and build additional towers and DAS facilities.The current and future demand for wireless, driven in particular by smartphones, is one reason the sector is so appealing, according to Catalyst partner Todd Clapp. Clapp, as well as Catalyst partner Chris Shipman, will join InSite's board."It's a business we've followed for many years and we like the key fundamentals," Clapp says. Besides industry trends pointing to more growth, Catalyst is familiar with the management team at InSite, going back 15 years or so. Members of the same management team, which includes President and CEO David Weisman, sold Mountain Union Telecom to Crown Castle back in 2006 for more than $300 million.Catalyst is an investor in Advantage Business Media, parent company of Wireless Week. Past investments include Alaska Native Wireless, Aloha Partners and Clearwire.Investment in the tower/DAS space appears to be picking up. A couple weeks ago, ExteNet Systems announced the closing of a $128.4 million investment round.
Sean Morgan on Beet.TV with Andy Plesser
Syndicastor Creating 30,000 Online Video Clips a Month for 80 Broadcasters -- Wins UnivisionSyndicastor is helping some 80 broadcast news operations create some 30,000 online clips per month. Clips are made available to the station's sites and various video sites including AOL, YouTube and Brightcove.Syndicastor's most recent client win is Univision, we have learned. Monday, YouTube announced the launch of a Univision channel.The integration of Syndicastor and YouTube and Brightcove was reported last April in TechCrunch.I interviewed Sean Morgan today at the AlwaysOn OnMedia conference in Manhattan.
Syndicaster Beta Launches Conference Videos Instantly
By Troy DreierThe new version of Critical Media's Syndicaster targets the conference space, and gets its first public use during a Mark Cuban keynote at the AlwaysOn NYC event in New York City Tuesday morning.A new version of Critical Media's Syndicaster launches in beta today at OnMedia NYC 2010, and conference organizers might want to pay close attention to the results. The product, Syndicaster beta for Web feeds and conferences, does a remarkable job of breaking live video into useful sound bites and then syndicating those clips in minutes to interested Web sites.[This is the second version of Syndicaster to launch. The first was targeted at broadcasters and debuted in October, 2008. It's now used on four continents, says Critical Media CEO Sean Morgan, generating more than 17 hours of television every 60 seconds. It's been used by 65 broadcasters, including LIN TV, Bloomberg Television, Hearst TV, Journal Broadcast Group, and NPG cable to create over 30,000 clips since launch, he says.The reason it's so much in demand is that Syndicaster drastically shortens the time and energy needed to break video into clips, create a transcript, and upload the results. As you ingest video with Syndicaster, the feeds go to a Syndicaster stack, which creates a transcript of the material on-the-fly. You then edit the video simply by highlighting text in the transcript. No video editing skills are needed. Give your clips a title, metadata, and geotag information and you're done. Editing doesn't even need to be done on-site, since editors can log into the system from anywhere.Syndicaster will also take care of the upload process for you. When you publish your clip, it gets posted to your own site, as well as to any video hosting sites (like YouTube) that you select. You can choose to embargo material, so that it's on your site first. The clips also go to ClipSyndicate.com, a video syndication platform owned by Critical Media. Clips then appear on partner sites based on the keywords assigned. ClipSyndicate.com works on a revenue share model, so the system also monetizes your content. If partner sites don't want to create a set of filters, then can elect to simply show video channel, such as all business videos or all news videos.The appeal of Syndicaster is that it works live, so you can create and post sound bite clips from a conference while the event is still going on. You can also edit conference video down, so that viewers don't have to watch an hour-long conference to find breaking news."News is being broken at these events, and now it can be made into sound bites in real time," says Morgan.With Syndicaster, conferences can build a video brand around themselves, Morgan points out, spotlighting material from their events. "It's an untapped market; it's some of the highest value content out there," he adds.Mark Cuban will deliver the keynote address at the AlwaysOn NYC 2010 conference tomorrow morning, and the organizers should have clips posted by the time he's finished speaking."The feedback we've been getting has been tremendous, because there's this wealth of content at conferences that never gets in front of people's eyeballs," says Morgan.While pricing varies for Syndicaster, Morgan says it starts as low as $200 per month. Extras include private white label players, ad servers, and CDN servers.