TAKEAWAY: Gossip and celebrity fanatics, the app you have been dreaming about is coming your way next month: The National Enquirer will premiere its tablet edition next month.
If you have been waiting for the day when gossip——American style——gets three dimensional, pops up, and keeps your fingers on hyper activity mode, then your wishes may be about to be fulfilled and funfilled, courtesy of, who else, but The National Enquirer.
Indeed, that 70-year-old icon of over the top and in your face “news” is now headed for a tablet near you. Tablet journalism may be redefined. Pop up moments may have found their perfect match with the likes of The Kardashians (just doing pop up with these girls’ lustrous eyelashes should be interesting), Paris Hilton (is there anything three dimensional here?) and Kirstie Alley ( I can only imagine the weight fluctuation images at the touch of a finger).
According to a New York Times piece, The National Enquirer will introduce an iPad app next month to “reinvent gossip.” The app, called Enquirer Plus, will have separate content from the print publication and video aimed at younger readers.
And then the supermarket tabloid that we all love to peek at while paying for our groceries—-but that nobody admits he buys—-will have to attract readers shopping in a different type of store, as in the iTunes store. Of course, the print edition will continue to titillate at the cashier’s station, but the tablet edition’s use of the word Plus in the name probably invites readers to at least check the new platform, and see what has been added, particularly in the way of videos and interactivity.
I got a chuckle from this observation in the Times’ piece: The company hopes that the digital format will provide some anonymity for gossip lovers.
“It’s for anyone who’s ever been self-conscious about buying The Enquirer in the checkout line,” said Kevin Hyson, American Media’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer. With an app, he said: “you don’t have to hide it under the Oreos and slide it through.”
Indeed, you don’t. The National Enquirer travels to the “lean back” zone of the iPad, where everything you read is between you and your couch—-and, of course, the iTunes store tracking your subscriptions and downloads.
In addition, David Perel, who will serve as the top editor at Enquirer Plus, is quoted in the Times’ story explaining that “ the app would emphasize breaking news stories and prearranged videos that differ from TMZ’s tactics of pursuing celebrities at public places like airports and restaurants.”
We may see a transformation from paparazzi to tabletazzi.
For those of us who study apps for “academic” purposes (I have a great excuse as I constantly look at apps as I write my new digital book, Storytelling for the times of the iPad), here is a chance to analyze what may be a curated edition of The Enquirer. According to the Times’ story, “the app will avoid some of the human-interest stories found in the print publication and will instead stick to juicier fare written in an irreverent, youth-oriented tone. “Gayle King: Cougar Queen” read one headline in the digital version.”
Researching a new book may never have proved to be more fun.
Of special interest today
-Magazines and Newspapers Need to Build Better Apps
http://adage.com/article/mediaworks/viewpoint-magazines-newspapers-build-apps/232085/
First paragraph: Though it is still early in the migration process, Apple’s iPad and other tablets appear to be a very good thing for the publishing industry, allowing publishers to monetize their content while avoiding the printing and distribution costs associated with traditional print vehicles. And they’ve proved to be very good for consumers, offering improved convenience and portability, not to mention the ability to read in the dark.