TAKEAWAY: My new digital book will be ready soon, hopefully on time for the start of classes at colleges and universities globally. One key feature of the book is that it includes a handout of Suggested Assignments at the end of each chapter. Here is a sample AND: Creating differentiation in the era of hubs PLUS: Lots of Monday odds and ends that are fun to follow up.
Here is a sample chapter opening (illustrations by Luis Vazquez) and table of contents navigator always available at bottom of screen
Each chapter includes a Suggested Assignments handout
Several of our academic friends are busy preparing their class syllabi for courses they will teach starting next week or the week after. Some of you have written me asking for information about my digital book, The iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet. It is in final stages of production with HOW, its publisher, at the moment, but we hope to have it ready for download in September, so hang in there.
For those who wish to know more about incorporating the book into your courses, my greatest appreciation for considering the book for adoption.
In fact, I know that a major audience for this book will be among students and their professors. Because of that, each chapter offers a handout on suggested assignments.
For example, in the illustration shown here, you see the opening of one of the key chapters in the book, Storytelling. At the end, you have a Storytelling Handout, which reads:
As you learned in this chapter, stories can gain longer legs and go beyond words when given that extra push for tablet publications. Using what you have learned:
Select two stories from today’s edition of your newspaper, in print or online, that you feel could have been taken to the next level via tablet edition. Identify the stories and develop a short paragraph explaining how the story would be developed for the tablet, what specific applications you would suggest and the type of staff expertise required to accomplish the task.
Select a story from a weekly newsmagazine and consider its pop up potential. Be prepared to explain your decision and how you would execute the idea.
Review the tablet edition of a daily newspaper of your choice and select the following: a) the best example of a story that was well developed for the tablet. What elements made it successful? b) The best example of a story that was not explored for its tablet potential, and suggest how it could have been improved.
The book and specific courses
A question that usually comes up is: what course(s) do you see your book best suitable for?
While I am sure the book will do well in such traditional journalism/mass comm courses as editing and design (at various levels), I can see how this would be a useful book for courses such as intro to mass media, advanced reporting, digital media, and even in such non-journalism classes as creative writing and, if applicable, to courses in marketing, advertising and media business.
It is also a book that will probably be of interest to people not in the media, but who are iPad users and media consumers.
When will the book be available?
We will let you know as soon as the book has completed the various hurdles required before it makes it into iBookstore. Consult this blog for updated information. And scroll down below for a short video clip that gives you a good idea about the book and its usability.
In case you missed it…..
Tyler’s Brulé‘s point, especially about magazines in the US: “…every sector of the newstand has its same-y cast of undiferentiated characters….”
Perhaps my most interesting weekend reading was the Tyler Briulé‘s column, Fast Lane, in the FT Weekend. As always, Tyler is right on the money and goes for the middle of the stomach when he writes “that the core issue that’s at the heart of print’s decline in many markets – yes, it’s a “d” word and no, it’s not “digital”.”
The “d” that he is talking about is the for for “differentiate”.
Spend a bit of time at a US newsstand and it’s clear that the crisis in the magazine industry isn’t so much about plastering covers with hash-tags, the problem is that everything feels and looks alarmingly the same – the cover stock is identical across a variety of magazines, the varnishes too.
While I agree with Tyler’s lament about sameness, I see that it will probably become more difficult to create differentiators among publications when the economic situation of many media houses is forcing the so called “hubs”, which are centralized and tend to emphasize a “one look, one size fits all”. Some of these hubs work better than others. From time to time I hear horror stories of how the process of page creation turns more into a mad rush towards page pushing.
When they DO NOT work, these design hubs become the equivalent of design sweat shops where nobody wins except perhaps the managers at the top saving a few bucks. Ironically, at a time when we know news app readers prefer “curated” apps, we are in some cases throwing the print product to the opposite side.
IF there can still be a product that feels like it’s done very specifically for us, that is the printed newspaper. Let’s not save it by subjecting it to a fate of sameness and boredom.
Read the Tyler Brulé column in the Financial Times:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/a7be5fdc-e61b-11e1-bece-00144feab49a.html#axzz23oyQIrGJ
Also, don’t miss a fun Q&A with Tyler in The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/magazine/the-case-against-purple.html?_r=1
Our blog post on newsmagazines last week:
Newsmagazines and survival in the era of Twitter
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/newsmagazines_and_survival_in_the_era_of_twitter
Pop up of the day
Bild today shows us how Germany Sweats, with temperatures as high as 40C in some cities!
Pages we like
The headline that makes the reader stop and want to read the story. Irreverent, yes.
Fun, also. It is the New York Post, what do you expect?
By the way, in case you have missed it, the story is about three members of a Russian female punk rock band , Pussy Riot, who were sentenced to two years in prison Friday after they were found guilty of hooliganism for performing a song critical of President Vladimir Putin in a church.
The iPad as hotel concierge
As seen in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hamburg
It’s happening ever more often now: the presence of an iPad by the concierge desks of many major hotels. This one is at the Intercontinental Hamburg, providing current weather information, or guiding the guests to a variety of hotel services and city highlights. Plus, there is an iPad ready for guests to use to evaluate the hotel’s services, just outside the main hotel restaurant. Can’t miss it on the way out of breakfast.
Of special interest
Apple’s NEW Technology
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/what-will-apple-do-with-this-new-technology.html/?ref=YF
Highlight:
With its most recent patent, filed for in April and published on Thursday, further develops user interfaces by increasing the importance of the sense of sight and touch in utilizing technology. Entitled “Illuminated Touchpad”, the new technology enables the surface of the touch pad to be illuminated by the simple movement of the user’s fingertips. The touch pad would both light up with different levels of brightness and color, and respond to varying pressure.
SPD: Speaker Series Begins with “News You Can Use”
(Joe Zeff Design Illustration, courtesy of SPD)
Tickets are now available for the Society of Publication Designers’ first Speaker Series event of the fall, “News You Can Use,” scheduled Sept. 10.
For more information:
http://www.spd.org/2012/08/speaker-series-begins-with-new.php
SND Scandinavia Space 2012 conference
Still time to get a spot to attend the SNDS conference in Copenhagen, Sept. 27-29;
For more information:
SNDS workshop ever. Read all about SPACE 2012 here:
The iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet
Video walkthrough of the iPad prototype of iPad Design Lab
Mario Garcia’s upcoming speaking engagements:
WAN-IFRA World Editors Forum, Kiev, Ukraine, Sept. 2-5
http://www.wan-ifra.org/events/64th-world-newspaper-congress-19th-world-editors-forum
Cumbre Mundial de Diseño en Prensa 2012: Mexico City; September 24-26
http://www.cmdprensa.com/mx2012/
SND (Society of News Design) Cleveland; Oct. 11-13
http://cle.snd.org/