Views from Adobe's Digital Publishing Forum

Across Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne on 19–21 October, Adobe gathered together influential customers and industry bodies for a series of special Digital Publishing Forums.

"Publishers everywhere are seeking innovative ways to design and deliver media–rich content to fragmented audiences on tablets, eBooks and other mobile devices," says Michael Stoddart, Adobe Product Manager. "The Adobe Digital Publishing Forum focused on best practices as well as to understand future trends."

Over the three days attendees heard from HarperCollins Australia, ACP Digital, Pacific Magazines and more. Views from the industry covered business models, devices, workflows and skills required for digital publishing.

Devices: iPad opens door for digital magazines; easy to develop for Android

Carl Hammerschmidt, Director, ACP Digital, said how the Apple iPad presented a tipping point for delivery of digital magazines.

"It is the first time a mobile device format has suited the print magazine reading experience. Content is king, but it requires the utility of devices."

Apple is expected to ship up to 40 million iPads by 2012 worldwide, with between five and ten other tablet devices to be launched in Australia before the end of 2011. Worldwide downloads from Apple's iTunes App store have gone from two to five billion in ten months, showing that "audiences are prepared to pay for the personal and frictionless environment," said Hammerschmidt.

ACP is the first major publisher in Australia to put four titles on the iPad, with standalone Apps for APC, Gourmet Traveller and Shop Til You Drop being produced monthly.

"All are available in the iTunes App Store. It is currently the fastest route to market, and where the eyeballs are. Each masthead's app is offered free, in which editions are then available for purchase, with all titles offered as close to subscription price as possible," said Hammerschmidt.

Also on devices, Anthony Petts, sales and marketing director, ANZ of device manufacturer HTC, spoke of the Android and Open Handset Alliance

"Google and the Open Handset Alliance looks to accelerate delivery of mobile data services, with the Android goal to provide open and extensible application architecture, on a portable and scalable mobile platform."

He shared that Android will command 17.7 percent of the global mobile device market by year's end, with both Gartner and IDC expecting Google to be neck–and–neck with Nokia for smartphone operating system market share by 2014. By 2015, Android is expected to take the lead, attracting more than half billion users, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.

For Petts, the attraction of Adobe's solutions lies in its flexibility in the thriving Android application market which currently has over 80,000 applications for enthusiastic users who download an average of eight apps per month.

"All devices using Android 2.2 support Flash 10.1, with some Android 2.1 devices supporting Flash 10.1," explained Petts. "Adobe AIR will let you publish ActionScript 3 projects to run as native applications (.apk) for the Android operating system, plus there is the ubiquity of Adobe Reader."

What makes a digital magazine?

ACP's Hammerschmidt also outlined production challenges, with design currently the most resource–intensive aspect of the process. "All versions must have two versions if catering to aspect choice. An enterprise software solution which allows for effective integration of iPad production into magazine workflow does not currently exist."

He described publishing as broadcasting, with various descriptors of a 'digital magazine'. The first description was to use PDF as a digital magazine which is seen as a "straight reproduction, no problem there". Then there are the digital magazines with linear page–turning, often referred to as 'Appazine' which have rich media and interactivity. There is also the non–linear 'Web to App' approach which has dynamic content feeds, although this is "where the concept of an 'edition' becomes blurred". Then there are 'Aggregation Apps' like 'Flipboard' which have a print design, linear metaphor, "but more akin to broadcast & cable TV, aligning different channels of content around genre and subject groupings."

One book, many outputs

Spiros Kotsialos, Head of Innovation at Harper Collins, revealed that the revenue gathered from eBook sales has been increasing at an average rate of 5 percent a week for the past year.

"The output process has changed. It is not just the printer, we have to take into account how and where people want to read, whether it is an eBook, an application, website or syndicated partner. For all these we face the challenge of outputting to multiple complex formats, and being confident of rights throughout the workflow," Kotsialos said.

Each requirement is slightly different. For the book printer, they need a high–resolution jacket image file, with separate text and pictures. The eBook vendor requires an ePub file with a vector based jacket image, text and pictures together. The application developer requires all pages in separate text files and images separate. The website developer requires HTML format with all images optimised and watermarked, and the Syndicated Partner requires XML tagged to customer specifications.

"For that we require a publishing solution that enables us to output to multiple complex formats in an automated fashion, whilst remaining confident of different rights and permissions the whole way through the publishing process."

Kotsialos also spoke about the challenge of keeping all output editions 'live' throughout the publishing process. "If something needs to be updated urgently - say Justin Bieber's autobiography - the update needs to be made and reflected on every output. The goal is an edit that can be reflected everywhere."

After the forum the Adobe Digital Publishing Workshop showcased how to publish to iPads, Kindle, other tablets and mobile devices through Adobe's advanced software for the digital publishing industry.

"Attendees learnt how to use their existing skills with Adobe Creative Suite to design for mobile and new tablet devices," said Stoddart. "Sessions covered offering a magazine experience in a browser format without compromising design fidelity and brand impact, plus creating an immersive onscreen experience combining the visual impact of print design, touch interaction, video and animated graphics all at once."

Also demonstrated was a session on ePUB – the end–to–end eBook publishing solution from Adobe that enables designers, developers, book publishers, distributors, and retailers to meet the complex challenges of a competitive publishing environment. Plus the Adobe Magazine Viewer, the Digital Publishing Suite being developed by Adobe that allows designers to create immersive onscreen experiences combining the visual impact of print design, the immediacy of touch interaction, and the engagement of interactive elements such as video, audio, animated infographics, 360° views, and more.

"The Adobe Digital Publishing Suite builds on the foundation of Creative Suite 5, and lets magazine design, editorial, and production teams use familiar tools and skills to efficiently create versions for print and a wide range of screens," says Stoddart.