iPad, Magazines, and Newspapers — An Open Letter To Steve Jobs

Dear Mr. Jobs,

First of all: Congratulations to you and your team on the announcement of iPad. It’s exciting to imagine the possibilities this new device will offer us in just a few weeks. As an early adopter of eBooks (Specifically on the Kindle) I am particularly enthusiastic about the iBooks application and the accompanying bookstore. Both look extremely promising. There’s something, however, that seemed oddly amiss in your announcement: An integrated solution for electronic periodicals.

While I understand that iPad is still under development and additional details may still be announced, it concerned me that the New York Times was asked to present a dedicated iPad application during last week’s keynote. Does this suggest that publishers should develop one application each for every newspaper and magazine subscription? While this is certainly a possibility I’d like to take this opportunity to outline a few weaknesses to this approach:

• Subscriptions will clutter the home screen.
  I already find myself shunning iPhone applications that do little more than displaying the content of one particular blog; dedicated RSS readers can pull all my favorite blogs into one place without cluttering up my home screen.
• Hassle to maintain.
  Users will need to monitor each application separately for new content. I’m concerned that they might simply forget about the applications; leaving them behind — unchecked for weeks at a time — on page five and six of their home screens. This is neither practical for us (the user) nor profitable for the publisher. Eventually subscriptions will expire or be canceled.
• Dilution.
  Each magazine/newspaper will create its own user interface, syncing mechanism, and bookmarking system; unnecessarily convoluting the experience.
• Steeper (than necessary) learning curve for publishers.
  Producing a magazine/newspaper within an application requires a set of complex programming skills that many independent publishers may not wish to acquire or even have the resources for; hence, artificially heightening the barrier of entry.
• Noise.
  Magazines and newspapers may get lost among the “real” applications in the iTunes store.

On the other hand, an integrated subscription service (or one integrated within iBooks) would offer the following advantages:

• Easy access.
  All subscriptions will be loaded in one place, at the same time, ready for instant consumption.
• Integration.
  Articles can be bookmarked, synched, shared, and searched, all within the same application. A unified interface will also help transition users from a physical to an electronic experience.
• Exposure.
  Periodicals will stand out from the noise of the iTunes ecosystem. This will be especially important for independent and self-publishers.

Since the ePub format seems far too limited for heavily formatted magazines with thoughtful layouts, multimedia content, and a specific set of font choices (and PDF’s seem too “inflexible” to make for a great periodical file format), I would like to suggest that Apple introduces a dedicated — open source — file format for magazines and newspapers.

“eMag” (for the sake of this argument) should support all technological enhancements of a modern day multimedia experience but under the constrains of the publisher’s formatting choices. A plug-in converter or dedicated authoring tool (think iLife) should be made available by Apple to publish content to the new format. (Companies such as Adobe can later extend the format to additional platforms.)

If any company could gather the necessary support to establish a new — modern day — file format it would most certainly be Apple. As a matter of fact, I would deem it borderline negligent if Apple didn’t at least take a chance on this narrow window of opportunity and try to hurtle the cluttered publishing industry into the 21st century.

Even if the big publishing houses were not quite ready for a tightly controlled distribution system via an electronic ecosystem such as iTunes, I argue that Apple should still go ahead and lay the foundations for a periodical subscription system within iBooks. As the established players continue to struggle in the old markets, new players may be ready to experiment with the future. With Apple’s implementation of eMag, easy to use authoring tools, and the iTunes ecosystem, the barrier of entry to become the publisher of a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly (or even daily) newspaper or magazine will vanish right in front of our eyes. A few talented writers with a strong business model, a unique subject matter, and a healthy helping of pioneer-spirit could be all that is required to launch exciting new magazines and newspapers onto the iPad platform for millions to discover.

With just a few success stories from independent publishers I’d be willing to bet that some of the larger publishing houses will quickly follow suit. And while I am not expecting for Apple to change the publishing industry overnight, I would love for you and your teams to at least provide the technological opportunity.

All said and done I truly believe, that the public is still yearning (and perhaps even willing to — gasp — pay) for well-researched content — presented in a visually stunning format. Even — or rather specifically — in the fast paced reality of HTML. The Internet didn’t kill the newspaper industry. Their stagnant business models — which were merely exposed by the Internet — did. And with newspapers going out of business all over the country, Apple now has the exhilarating opportunity to not only revive the existing publishing industry but also (or dare I say: even more so) open the doors for new and exciting players with the introduction of eMag on iPad.

A periodical subscription service could therefore be one of the most exciting opportunities the iPad might yet have to offer. All I can hope for is that Apple will seize this opportunity — with all the vigor of embracing a new frontier — and help re-ignite our love for newspapers and magazines. You’ve done it before; you can do it again!

Thank you for listening.

Sincerely,
Philipp Eierund

Questions or comments? Let me know: @eierund on twitter.