A case study of the evolution of tablet magazines created by journalism graduate students at Syracuse University's Newhouse School. Presented at AEJMC's 2014 Annual Conference (Montreal) as part of a session on "Teaching the New Narrative."
2. Pitching Your Publication
2011 2013
Class
“Print” Journalism Grad Students
Grades
Prof + Student Selection
Classroom Skills
Competition
All Grad Students
Prize Money
Industry Evaluators
Entrepreneurial Skills
3. Structure
Print Legacy Digital First
Sections
Word count
Text
“Somebody tell Design”
Structured Navigation
Promotional Tweets
Verticals
S – M – L
Platform
Collaborative Planning
Multiple Entry Points
In-story Engagement Prompts
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18. Winner, AEJMC VisCom Best of the Web
Single-class App Projects, 2014
Honorable Mention, Start-up Magazine Project
(Team) AEJMC Magazine Division Contest, 2014
Editor's Notes
In 2011, the Newhouse MNO cohort made a tablet magazine for what was traditionally a print capstone experience. The magazine concept was developed within the context of a class and executed by applying mostly print constructs to the tablet platform. The process was altered in 2013 and now involves a competition for graduate students in every program at Newhouse. Students gain entrepreneurial experience throughout the process. The school brings in professionals to speak about all aspects of digital publishing including advertising, business models, product development, audience identification, digital editorial, etc. During a weekend workshop in early spring, industry professionals help students improve their pitches and then select three finalists to move forward. The final teams revise their ideas and create a pitch deck and short, Kickstarter-esque video that is reviewed by a panel of three industry professionals. The winning team gets $1,000 for their idea. The launch issue based on that idea will be produced during the summer Capstone.
Our first tablet magazine, 2011’s Barcode, resembled a print product with some interactivity added. We approached it like a print product, with ideas pitched for traditional magazine sections (FOB etc) as print-first stories. The reader’s experience was much like a traditional print product in terms of moving through the book in a structured, guided way. We relied on social media as a way to promote stories and our publication, but did little to engage our audience.
In 2013, we blew up the structure with Vertical Floor. Instead of traditional magazine sections, we created verticals that covered the half-dozen subject areas of interest to our readers, young men who participate in parkour and free runnning. We assigned stories based not on word count but on size (small, medium, and large) and platform/medium. We required multimedia components for every pitch and involved the art and interactive design teams in all aspects of story planning. Our social media campaign sought audience engagement on multiple platforms. Each vertical had its own hashtag, and most stories included a social media prompt to encourage the audience to drive the conversation.
Barcode, 2011
Cover
Barcode TOC
Traditional travel feature layout.
Barcode did include some interactivity. Here, a service piece on home barware allows users to tap each glass for information.
There’s some in-app video, too, but again the layout is too print-centric for the device. This page would like fine in print, but its too crowded and clunky for a tablet.
Vertical Floor, 2013
Six verticals replace the traditional TOC.
Tap on a vertical and you get this landing page with multiple entry points for all the content.
The travel vertical, “Scene,” includes a video trailer for that month’s destination on its landing page.
The social media prompts invite readers to lead the conversation on multiple platforms. Here, we urge women in parkour to discuss their community on Facebook.
The social media prompts were platform specific based on what kind of engagement we sought. Here, we asked readers to send in pictures about their favorite parkour training spots. Instagram was a perfect platform for that prompt, and one we knew our readers used regularly.
Each story lends itself to a particular kind of interactivity unique to the tablet platform. Here, in a service piece about shoes, users could touch and rotate the shoe for a 360-degree view. It’s a simple approach that makes sense for the content and gives the publication a nice wow-factor.
Some story ideas didn’t even include words when another medium was deemed more appropriate. The “Move of the Month” service feature is video only.
Most magazines have abandoned short fiction. We sought to bring it back, but in an updated format. Since our subject is so visual and our audience is constantly shooting and sharing video of themselves and others involved in parkour, we produced a short film as part of our culture vertical, “Viral.”
