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Feb. 22nd Dreaming about the iPadding of the newspaper

TAKEAWAY: As I read yesterday’s New York Times cover to cover while visiting New York City, I could not help but fantasize how certain stories would have appeared in the iPad edition.  Flights of fancy.  Multimedia dreams.

An iPad in my head

I don’t know about you, but I am iPadding my way through print, and it is an unconscious thing.  It happened again yesterday in New York City.  I waited to read the fat Sunday edition of The New York Times until I had settled comfortably in the Lufthansa lounge at JFK airport.  With two hours to kill before boarding my flight to Frankfurt, I figured that I would indulge in one of my favorite pastimes: the Sunday Times.  Yes, I usually read it online, or on my iPhone.  So what a special treat to hold the pages in my hand, see all those movie and theater full page ads in the flesh.

But then, suddenly, the iPad thoughts merge with my reading of the printed edition, and all I can think is : how would the Times present this story in the iPad?

Specifically, a page one story headlined For Professor, Fury Just Beneath the Surface about the professor arrested in the shooting of six faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville on Feb. 12 .  Would an iPad version of this story allows us to see video of the professor perhaps talking about her scientific creation of an automated cell incubator that was supposed to keep finicky cells, like nerve cells, alive longer and make experiments easier.  The Times did have a multimedia show included with this story, so I wondered how much more would be done for an iPad.

Tben there was the “easier” story to tabletize, about the great Meryl Streep and headlined That Unmistakable Streepness. The online edition offered a slide show, a gallery of photos of the actress in various roles.  However, the iPad could give us video clips perhaps as we read the lines about her incredible movie career. I can see us reading Kramer vs. Kramer, and the short clip coming on.  Question: what would that do for our attention span? Would we return to the story?

As I passed through those colorful full page ads in Travel, Arts & Leisure and Home & Style, I wondered what animated version of those would be.  For movie ads, would trailers be available?  For travel: would I be transported to exotic places through video clips?  If so, is there a danger that the incredibly beautiful, animated and colorful ads may compete with editorial content for our attention?

My iPad fantasies kept me busy going section by section. I am sure that the New York Times is already doing tryouts of how these stories will iPad themselves onto the screen.  Until the real thing is here, I think it is a good exercise for us to look at what we include in the printed edition and seriously consider the content’s iPad potential.

One question I took to my pillow as I decided to sleep during the Atlantic crossing: how will the iPad edition be different from the online edition?  Of course, the two media are different, the question is how different, and what modes of utilization will the new gadget dictate to differentiate it from reading on a laptop.

- iPad: Publishers look for the winning formula
http://www.mondaynote.com/2010/02/21/ipad-publishers-look-for-the-winning-formula/

Results of the SND contest, 31st edition

More than 10,000 entries, more than 1,000 winners: the results of SND’s 31st
Annual Creative Competition are now posted in a searchable database.

To search for winners by category, publication or other criteria, go to:
http://office.snd.org/competitions/contest31.lasso

TheMarioBlog post #489

 

Posted by Dr. Mario R. Garcia on February 22, 2010