TAKEAWAY: Are we experiencing a Golden Age for publishing?
If time spent with our media brands is an indication, the answer is yes PLUS: Some early SND winners
If publishing was a patient in a hospital, I am sure that there would be different expert opinions about the diagnosis and/or the level of gravity.
One recent piece made this quite obvious, pitting two publishing experts against each other with distinctly opposite views on the subject.
Mark Coker, founder of the self-published book distributor Smashwords, thinks that the patient is not doing well at all.
However, Michael Pietsch, soon-to-be CEO of Hachette Book Group, disagrees believes that we’re in a golden age for books — reading, writing and publishing, adding that “….the ways that publishers can work to connect readers with writers now are the kinds of things that publishers have dreamt of doing since Gutenberg first put down a line of type.”
I tend to favor Pietsch’s view and this is why:
As a person who has sat through focus groups with readers for four decades, I can tell that today’s media users are spending remarkably more time getting the information that we provide. I continue to be amazed when I hear that there are up to two hours of media consumption during the course of a day (albeit, not all in one seating).
-News/information travels fast and wide via social media and mobile devices, generating an appetite for more information.
-So we have heard about the story in a quick tweet, or maybe a Facebook reference, or, indeed, on a news alert on your mobile phone, but now that I know, I am curious, and so I will come to the more “traditional” way of getting information, and will have a journalist tell me the story as only he/she can.
Here is how Pietsch sees it, in terms of book publishing, but this applies fully to the dissemination of news and features:
“What has changed in a really exciting way is the ways you can get people’s attention. It used to be one book review at a time, a daily review, maybe you get into Time magazine. Now there’s, with the Internet, this giant echo chamber. Anything good that happens, any genuine excitement that a book elicits can be amplified and repeated and streamed and forwarded and linked in a way that excitement spreads more quickly and universally than ever before. And what I’m seeing is that really wonderful books — the books that people get genuinely excited about because they change their lives, they give them new ideas — those books can travel faster, go further, sell more copies sooner than ever before. It’s just energized the whole business in a thrilling way.”
Information today begins as a tapa, or appetizer, that makes us hungry for more, the start of a sumptuous meal. It is part of the ecosystems that generate interest, attract eyeballs to our titles and keep the media quartet playing, especially if our storytelling invites reader engagement.
“And the ways that publishers can work to connect readers with writers now are the kinds of things that publishers have dreamt of doing since Gutenberg first put down a line of type,” Michael Pietsch said.
Viewed this way, we are in a Golden Age for publishing, which is what I keep repeating that these are the best times to be a storyteller.
They like print in the UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2013/feb/06/newspapers-pressandpublishing
Highlight:
The self-selecting sample is also small, amounting in total to just 100 responses from “listed companies and financial PRs.” But its central finding, that 93% of them read at least one print newspaper on a regular basis, may give a spring to the step of print-lovers.
Congrats to Gulf News, The Washington Post
Gulf News winning James Bond coverage
The Washington Post won for its coverage of US Presidential Elections, as seen here
Our congratulatory salute to the talented editorial/design teams of Dubai’s Gulf News, and The WAshington Post for winning the first two Gold medals of the 34th Edition of the Society for News Design’s Best of News Design competition currently underway at Syracuse University.
Gulf News won for its Tabloid section coverage highlighting one of the several actors who has played the role of James Bond, Agent 007. We first discussed this great work when it appeared in 2012: with each profile of James Bond also comes information about the revenue generated by films in which the actor appeared, the cars and other high tech gadgets used, and, of course, those gorgeous and unforgettable Bond girls ,from Ursula Andress to Hally Berry, through the decades.
Miguel Gomez is Gulf News design director; the lead artist on this assignment,Dwynn Ronald V. Trazo
The Washington Post won its well deserved Gold for its year-long coverage of the U.S. Presidential Election.
As someone who has been involved with both teams , I know the hard work that has gone into the winning packages.
Kudos to all.
Of special interest today:
OC Register, investing heavily in print, also readies paywall
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/203015/oc-register-readies-paywall/
Datawatch: News accounts for less than four percent of time spent online
http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/2013-02-04/News-accounts-for-less-than-four-percent-time-spent-online
Switzerland: Tages-Anzeiger is most popular newspaper
http://www.publicitas.com/en/global/press-news/media-news/news-detail/?no_cache=1&rss=true?wsid=93426
Belgium: New layout for DS De Standaard
http://www.publicitas.com/en/global/press-news/media-news/news-detail/?no_cache=1&rss=true?wsid=93327
Newsosaur: Why Digital Natives Hate Newspapers
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/TopStories/Columns/Newsosaur—Why-Digital-Natives-Hate-Newspapers
Where’s Mario until March 2, 2013?
Mario’s upcoming speaking engagements
Take advantage of our iPad Design/Ad Lab workshops
Do you want to take your brand to the next level by creating a tablet edition? Garcia Media can help. We now offer one- to two-day iPad Design Lab workshops on demand to jumpstart your presence on this exciting new platform. We also offer iPad Ad Lab workshops to develop engaging advertising models for your app. Contact us for more information.
Purchase the book on the iBookstore
iPad Design Lab has been given the QED Seal
The QED (Quality–Excellence–Design) Seal is bestowed by the judges of the Publishing Innovation Awards after “a thorough, professional 13-point design review with an eye towards readability across multiple devices and in multiple formats.”
Learn more about the QED Seal here.
The EPUB version of book is HERE:
Now available: The EPUB version of  iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet, ready for download via Amazon.com for Kindle:
http://tinyurl.com/8u99txw
Here is how you can get iPad Design Lab book:
The original version of the book is the multitouch textbook version available on the iBookstore for iPad (iOS 5.0 and up):
https://itunes.apple.com/book/ipad-design-lab/id565672822
This version includes video walkthroughs, audio introductions to each chapter, swipeable slideshows, a glossary and a sophisticated look and feel.
Apple only sells multitouch textbooks in certain countries at this time, unfortunately. Copies are available in at least the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and the United States.
For those in other countries and without an iPad, we have made the book available in a basic edition for other platforms. This basic edition includes the full text of the original, along with the images and captions, but lacks the other features such as audio and video. It is available on the following platforms in many countries:
Amazon Kindle:
http://amzn.to/SlPzjZ
Google Books:
http://bit.ly/TYKcew
Take a video tour of iPad Design Lab
“iPad Design Lab” trailer on Vimeo.
Read the Society of Publication Designers’ review of The iPad Design Lab here:
http://www.spd.org/2012/10/must-read-ipad-design-lab.php
Keep up with Mario Garcia Jr.. via Garcia Interactive: helping transform online news since 1995.
www.garciainteractive.com