Comments on: Daily online newspaper launches in Adelaide

By: Isaac

Isaac — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:53:23 +0000

There’s some merit in what they’ve done, but they’re still going about it in the wrong way. Such news sources shouldn’t be trying to replicate the “turn the page” and “two facing pages” parts of reading a physical newspaper or magazine – by default the text is too small and the zoom-to-read functions are a bit awkward. On top of that, unless I’m mistaken, they can’t really track attention to an individual article, but then again that might reduce the downward slide to the “Amazing photos of Miranda Kerr” tripe we get on News Ltd sites.

What is worth replicating though is the inclusion of multimedia and the variety of ad/promo placements which you don’t always get in a standard template-driven news site. But the reason things have evolved in the way they have is that it’s cheaper to paste content into an article template than it is to create a fairly custom layout per page.

The best solution IMO will be the one that combines the best of both approaches and it could be done economically through provision of maybe 10-15 layout templates, and some concept of reading through a publication rather than just scouring a list of headlines. Rather than facing-pages and page-turning mechanisms, there’d be a stronger previous/next navigation – more so than “Next page” which is all most multi-page articles have now.

By: mike

mike — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:17:48 +0000

Hang on Mumbrella is a media and marketing site isn’t it?

Did you see the way the display ads were working on indaily?

Eyecatching but not annoying, there for the viewing, both directly and subliminally.

I’ve never seen so many ads so well displayed on a site.

And since the content is categorised according to subject, advertisers can target their readers…

Everyone is pointing out how online sites don’t earn enough ad revenue to run a newspaper. This could be a way around it…

By: Rod

Rod — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:48:11 +0000

Hey Nic, hope they give you a pay rise over at the Indy for your post.

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:22:31 +0000

sportzilla – technically it works … for me as a reader it just feels awkward and doesn’t really make me want to read the content. maybe it lacks the skin articles and sensationalist content of the main digital mastheads that keeps my attention.

By: Nic

Nic — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:34:24 +0000

I love it. There is flash content but it’s good content, a daily, local editorial from a very articulate and engaging editor, and the journos are constantly updating stories both in the publication and on the Independent Weekly’s website. It leaves other online news offerings for dead in terms of feel, digestible reading and relevance. Check it out! http://www.indaily.com.au

By: sportzilla

sportzilla — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:04:25 +0000

Ben – . I’ve subscribed now because I am interested to see how the publisher evolves this and I want to keep track of which advertisers are using it. I work from a laptop and I haven’t had any issue with it – what was happening when you checked it out?

By: Lizza

Lizza — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:41:17 +0000

sportzilla – yeah the main difference does seem to be the CAB service. It’s a good extra.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:54:37 +0000

feels clunky – it might work on a portable device but doesn’t on a laptop

By: sportzilla

sportzilla — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:26:45 +0000

Lizza – I’ve been scouting around this this story came out and there are other companies that have flip book software. Looking at the article again and the sub story about the ABA’s Web Audit Service, I guess the main difference is the Independent Weekly will now be able to get official audit figures on the readership of its digital publications? I’m not sure any other digital publishing service out there has automated an auditing service through the CAB before?

By: Clydescope

Clydescope — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:35:21 +0000

Old style paper with an old style business model? I think what this is is new style paper with video and interactive ads with a new business model. I think when Murdoch states newspapers will be digital within 10 years maybe it will look something like this?

By: Malbino

Malbino — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:39:10 +0000

I dont get it either?

Old style paper online was available in 2001.

But maybe I’m missing something too.

By: Wozzmedia

Wozzmedia — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:26:06 +0000

NNRrrrrr…..dont think so!!

By: MediaChick

MediaChick — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:41 +0000

I’ve just been checking out this story, as a media buyer I know that more and more titles are going down this path. Some digital titles claim good numbers but I’m not prepared to buy as there is limited support to verify the publishers claim. I wouldn’t look at any print or digital publication that wasn’t audited. End of story.

By: Sportzilla

Sportzilla — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:45:44 +0000

Hi Lizza, looking at the website of the service provider it looks like they are publishing for a lot of different magazines but I am not sure how many of them are using it the same way that the Independent Weekly is – they seem to have taken it to a bit of a new level – check out some of the back issues, they have developed animations to support some of the news stories, it’s just eye catching but not in your face like some web ads can be, which is something I loathe.

Publishing models here have already changed – look at the business that emerged from iSUBSCRIBE. I wonder if using a format like this means publishers can pick up more online subscriptions and maybe keep the subs revenue in-house?

Carl – Depends on what basis you call it a fail – if advertisers are supporting it and readers are engaging with it and it paid for itself, it wouldnt be a failure would it?

By: Lizza

Lizza — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:43:33 +0000

Issuu has provided the same thing for publishers for years … and it’s free.