IFRA

WAN-IFRA 2nd European E-reading Conference
October 1–2, 2009, Hotel Hilton Paris La Défense, Paris
Chairman: Stig Nordqvist, WAN-IFRA

 2 October - Day 2

The New York Times Reader 2.0: a newspaper reading experience for
multiple platforms

presented by Gary Cosimini, Business Development Director Creative Business Solutions Unit, Adobe Systems Inc, USA

Cosimini began by describing the New York Times Reader, version 2.0, which is built on the Adobe AIR application. It was built in partnership with the newspaper over 12 months, with Adobe programming and the NYTimes advising. The goal was to create an experience for readers to read the New York Times on screen without having to use a browser.

Times Reader 2.0 was launched in May 2009, replacing the earlier Microsoft solution. Subscribers of the New York Times get the application for free; as a digital subscription it’s US $15.
Reader surveys have shown that readers spend on average 35 minutes per day with the Reader, compared to less than 5 minutes on the NY Times web edition. The application is small;only a 2 MB download.

The Boston Globe has implemented the same application, although under a different business model. Adobe will now start offering a similar solution to all publishers, a solution which will be shown at the upcoming IFRA Expo in Vienna.

So how does it work? It’s based on Adobe’s AIR platform for a cross platform, visually rich, online or offline experience. Content is stored for seven days in NY Times’ case, but it could be more. No manual layout is needed, there’s automated layout happening thanks to XML news feeds, which were already in place at the NY Times.

The Times Reader uses a new typographic engine in Flash, which gives a much more dynamic display of text using Flash – using real fonts rather than bitmaps. When you click to change type size, the page re-flows, including changing the number of columns if needed. It also has a built-in hyphenation algorithm, which allows automatic re-hyphenation when the text re-flows.

AIR has a web kit built into it. Ads are shown in mini browser windows, which means they don’t have to be reformatted to be used in the Reader. It supports statistical services, including Omniture and Google Analytics. The Reader also has a browse mode, through which the user can flip through the pages, and get an overview of the content similar to a paper experience. Crossword puzzles can be done in the application (in the previous Silverlight/Microsoft Reader you had to go out of the application and use a different one for the crossword puzzle).

Plans going forward with the AIR-based Reader, from Adobe’s point of view, includes creating a Software Development Kit with documentation for other publishers/partners to use. The business model also needs refining, particularly for smaller publishers. Adobe is also doing further developments to enable interactive advertising integration, social interactions and deeper content interactivity. Cosimini did a presentation of the white label Software Development Kit (white label means the publisher can brand it). He pointed out that the AIR application connects to the newspaper’s existing subscription database and service. For more info about the SDK, contact Benny Joseph, Business Development  Manager of Adobe News Reading Services, benjosep@adobe.com

Speaking about disruptive industry trends, Cosimini said consumers want to be able to move between platforms seamlessly, however with current technology this has not yet been possible; there is no consistent operating system. Adobe has created the Open Screen Project with the goal of creating an application which can run on any operating system.

Key features of the project include:
• Integrate device and desktop development
• Removing restrictions on SWF and FLV/F4V specifications
• Removing licensing fees for Open Screen Project participants
• Publishing porting layer APIs, protocols, and open frameworks
• Working with partners to update runtimes over the network and open
distribution

Project partners include device developers, content providers and communications partners. They have paid a small start-up fee, but then it’s free to be in it.

Cosimini concluded by talking about Adobe Digital Editions, and Epub, which is the standard format for re-flow centric publications. Impetus behind Digital Editions was to create an open format for e-books, the equivalent of PDF for computers. Epub is quickly gaining acceptance in the industry, with e-reader suppliers like Bookeen, Plastic Logic, Sony and iRex Technologies using the format.

 Evaluation of newspaper editions on E-reading devices: Key findings and perspectives

presented by Martin Kohls,
Innovation Manager, dpa-Infocom, Germany

Deutsche Press Agentur is the main German news agency, and through its subsidiary dpa-Infocom, it has over recent years has been heavily involved in the technical enabling of publishing to digital platforms. Kohls said that dpa-infocom has done tests with formats for e-readers to identify those which work the best. “We believe that different formats for different target groups and different user situations have to be treated separately, including e-readers, smart phones and media tablets.” He also pointed out that e-reading may well constitute the last chance for publishers to charge for digital content. Kohls advocates for publishers to set up a new diverse product portfolio, with new premium editions based on special interests, bundling of long-term content, personalisation, retrospectives or special events. Some of these editions could be sold as subscriptions, but also as single copies, similar to a book concept.

Dpa is planning to become a professional service partner for publishers within e-reading, covering technology, service and consulting, including:
• Production and delivery infrastructure
• APIs to relevant delivery platforms
• Partner management: Offering the complete value chain
• Product setup & development
• Aggregation

In October dpa will do an Epub test with two regional publishers on the Sony Reader, with the aim of getting insights into the publishing product, user experience and device. Kohls said that in the first instance dpa has decided to focus on E Ink as opposed to e.g. the iPhone, because they believe that with these types of devices you enable publishing with scope for premium services, i.e. charging for premium content – in-depth reading.

Dpa has also done a workshop for web developers about e-reading. The participants thought the user experience was bad with e-readers, especially compared to the iPhone. They said though, that it might be suitable for business information, but they saw a pure reading device as a very niche market.

Dpa will set up a commercial service in early 2010 providing full infrastructure for e-reading concept, production, multiplatform distribution and billing. This will be done in partnership with German book wholesaler Libri and www.libri.de, the benefit being that they have a central database, with central billing, and they run several e-shops. Also key is that their customers are in a mindset to pay for content online.

The MePaper project, an R&D venture in collaboration with four Dutch newspapers

presented by  Jan Bierhoff, Associate Professor Infonomics & New Media, Zuyd University in Maastricht, The Netherlands

The MePaper project was set up the Netherlands in order to try to understand the norms of new media. The aim was also to identify editorial formats for e-reading. The project partners are the university and four Dutch newspapers.

They decided to use two technologies, based on medium-sized displays:
• E-readers; Iliad (iRex)
• Netbooks; EEE (Asus)
The project looked at the paper of tomorrow as well as the newspaper of the future.

A prototype of tomorrow’s newspaper was created for the Iliad, based on the conventional newspaper experience. It included a section bar at the top, and on every page there’s an overview of what else is available in the section. The readers who evaluated the prototype said they wanted archiving abilities, so this feature was included, plus a sharing function based on e-mail.

Journalists from the four newspapers were brought together in a “design studio”. They were very enthusiastic, but not very useful at the beginning, because they were very stuck in traditional newspaper thinking. After some training this issue was resolved and the project moved into a process iterative design: Concept -> Mock-up -> Design, with consumer evaluations going on in each step.

Readers have also been involved in the test project:
• Writing diaries regarding their media use
• Taking part in focus groups: which mobile media do we want?
• Taking part in lab tests: “wrecking” the prototypes
• Providing eedback – recommendations on improved design.

Feedback on e-readers as devices from the readers included the following points:
• The device is static and black/white, not positive
• New media should be interactive; this is not
• There are few options for customisations
• It’s not versatile, it’s just for reading – again a point of hesitation
• It’s not sexy

Feedback on e-reader content from the readers included the following points:
• Older users were more satisfied with content than younger ones
• Preference for shopping around; don’t want to be tied to one content
source
• There’s a need for good overview of the entire content, scope and
length,
• There’s a need for visual impulses in addition to pure text, including
multimedia

This last point was the basis for a prototype based on a netbook, the newspaper of a very much further-away future. This prototype had horizontal orientation, which provided completely different opportunities for designers.

Bierhoff said that for this netbook based prototype, the project had identified four dimensions of personalisation:
• mood: type of newspaper
• interest: type of content
• location: place-specific information
• time: amount of reading appetite

Bierhoff concluded that from the feedback he has received from readers, itis clear that consumers have expectations on what their future e-paper should look like and how it should function, even though this is quite far removed from the traditional newspaper experience.

• Back to day 1