BtoB Media Business - October 2012 - (Page 16)

Production PRODUCTION Responsive design Publishers like idea, but challenges include CMS, legacy content, automated work flow BY CHARLOTTE WOOLARD PRESSING ISSUES F acebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg aired his frustration with Web apps and responsive design last month at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2012 conference, saying that the social network’s biggest mistake had been “betting too much on HTML5.” But the tech giant hasn’t completely written off the technology, and it’s a wager that many content providers are moving forward with. A mobile Web solution that recognizes a user’s device and adjusts content to fit its interface has an obvious upside—a create-once-and-deploy-everywhere advantage that would cut both development time and cost, while also pulling apps out of proprietary stores that skim revenue. Moreover, publishers would no longer need to try to predict which mobile devices an audience might use to access content, or release updated apps every time a screen is resized. “We’re not in the business of chasing after the iPhone, the iPad and the iPad Mini,” said Rizwan Ali, innovation director at Hanley Wood. At the same time, however, the company is waiting to invest in responsive design. The HTML5 tools that are making responsive design possible are still maturing, he said, and are not yet delivering a consistent user experience. “Everyone is hopeful. We’re waiting to see which way the wind blows.” Conversations with publishing executives reveal challenges regarding compatibility with content management systems, legacy content and automated work flows. Hanley Wood currently offers native apps for events and other feature-rich elements, while also developing magazine mobile sites that are optimized for smartphone, tablet and desktop screens. “We design for the three sets,” Ali said. “We are not developing for each phone type.” To move forward with responsive design, the company would need to overhaul its websites and invest in infrastructure. “Hanley Wood has grown through merg- ers and acquisitions,” he said. “Not all of our sites are on the same content management system.” Aaron Jones, CTO of IDG Consumer and SMB, just went through that process. The division of International Data Group developed a new CMS and then rolled out new websites in September. “We tried to enforce within our CMS that HTML5 is our core storage,” Jones said. “We can push it out to any device without heavy translation, and it will render well. We also separate the core data from how it presents. If the data is clean underneath, you can write it out as [feeds including] HTML, which is the feed to open Web, mobile and desktop.” The new CMS is flexible and shares content across all platforms, including the mobile Web, and an array of native apps that the company will continue to offer. The division has made other adjustments, for example, bundling images so the system can accommodate retina screens without overwhelming traditional devices. Cygnus Business Media is looking at releasing its first responsive design Web app before the end of the year, said Sharon Wright, VP-digital operations. The company currently uses HTML5 in conjunction with Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite to develop rich media content for native iPad apps that augment the print and Web offerings of brands like Firehouse and EMS World. The iPad apps, developed by an independent three-member team, do not duplicate content available through the other media and incorporate such features as interactive graphs, video and audio clips. “There is no templating at this point,” Wright said. “When we look at doing the digital version of our magazine in this manner, we are looking at moving production over to our print graphics folks so we can take InDesign files and automatically suck that into the application. That can be done in a matter of minutes rather than hours as we’re doing with this custom.” tephen Pinches serves as group product manager of emerging technologies at Financial Times, the first major news outlet to shift from a native to HTML5-based Web app. The app has hosted more than 3.1 million users since its June 2011 debut and currently is credited with originating 15% of new subscriptions, according to FT. Media Business: How did you establish your process? Stephen Pinches: We made a decision fairly early BIO on that all of our applicaSTEPHEN PINCHES tions would be predominantly automated. We don’t Group product manager, lay out an app for the emerging technologies, iPad—we have a team lay one out for the iPhone and Financial Times another one for Android. It’s all feed-based. We didn’t want to build another team just for our mobile products. The crucial element is an (application programming interface). We spent a lot of time building an API, which is effectively the kind of layer where any third party can get hold of our content. I can query the API and get stories about b-to-b. It’s very simple to integrate with third parties. A lot of publishers spend a lot of time worrying about what an app looks like, and they spend a lot less time worrying about what their content looks like to make it easier to put into an application. MB: How did you get corporate buy-in? Pinches: We’re run across multiple channels, and it has been primary to us to have a direct relationship with the customer. So it seemed like a logical extension of our strategy. In a way, the native strategy was an anomaly. The Web app was really something that seemed quite organic in terms of our strategy. If you have a native app, there is very little reason not to have a Web-based application as well, or certainly an advanced mobile website. The boundaries between a mobile website and an app are very fluid. We tend to define it as a mobile app mainly because it works offline. I struggle to understand why any media company wouldn’t have some kind of Web app. —C.W. ‘FT’ uses API, Web app to expand reach S 16 | Media Business | October 2012 | mediabusinessonline.com http://www.mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - October 2012

BtoB Media Business - October 2012
Table of Contents
Upfront
Cover Story
Special Report
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Production
People
Benchmarks
Endnote

BtoB Media Business - October 2012