So what exactly is the new Next Media Tablet Newsstand? “iTunes for magazines? Maybe Hulu for periodicals?” asks Neiman Journalism Lab's Ken Doctor.
It feels like it. Next Issue Media is a joint venture formed by five leading U.S.-based publishers – Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp. and Time Inc. Yesterday it announced the launch of its all-new tablet newsstand featuring top titles designed specifically for Android tablets. “No other offering delivers the combination of a catalog of top-tier titles, a choice of unlimited access plans, a consistent magazine reading experience and a commitment to interactive content,” the venture enthused in a release.
“In short, the Next Issue kiosk idea is transformative,” said Doctor, “though we’ll have to see how quickly customers take to its unknown brand.”
“It’s unclear what benefit Next Issue’s newsstand will bring [publishers], not to mention how heavily the offering will be promoted with consumers,” wrote Adweek, given Next Issue’s plans to rely heavily on word-of-mouth over advertising—surprising for a consortium of heavyweight publishers. And Adweek is skeptical about how an Android-only slate will hold up in the iPad-friendly digital publishing industry.
Still, the value proposition is there. At the heart of the offering: Customers have unlimited access to as many magazines in the Next Issue newsstand as they want, starting at just $9.99 per month. “Now they can easily access and discover more great stories, writing and photography within the entire breadth of the catalog,” and presumably, see that many more ads along with content.
Thus for $9.99, readers can reach a digital catalog including Better Homes and Gardens, ELLE, Esquire, Fortune, Glamour, Parents, People, Real Simple, Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker, TIME, Vanity Fair and more. There are 32 titles available now, and the catalog is expected to expand later this year. However, the company's focus on new titles will remain on quality and mass appeal, not quantity.
A Consistent Reading Experience
“No need to navigate separate apps for each magazine,” claims Next Issue Media. Now customers can browse, manage and read all their favorite titles from a single app in one consistent and easy way. For example, customers can quickly flip through an entire magazine using the animated carousel. Once they choose what to read, they navigate using the same simple, intuitive commands across all titles. They can also access an entire library of magazines in the cloud any time they are connected, while easily managing what they choose to store on their tablet.
Enhanced Digital Editions
All Next Issue magazines are custom-designed for the Android tablet experience, so include enhancements such as videos, bonus photography, interactive features and links to more information online.
"This is a game changer for customers," said Morgan Guenther, CEO of Next Issue Media. "We're bringing it all together. The most popular magazines, a great reading experience, interactive content and unlimited access to our entire catalog – with lots more to come."
Price Points
- Unlimited Basic: Includes titles published monthly and bi-weekly for $9.99 per month
- Unlimited Premium: Includes all titles in the catalog, including weeklies such as Entertainment Weekly, People, Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker, TIME for $14.99 per month
- Individual magazine subscriptions range from $1.99 to $9.99 per month
- Individual magazine issues are available from $2.49 to $5.99 per issue
- 30-day free trials are available for all subscription plans and print subscribers can add digital editions of the same titles for free or a nominal cost.
IAB Unveils New Ad Unit Portfolio With Six “Rising Star” Formats
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) introduced the IAB Standard Ad Units in 1996 and updated them in 2003, and now over 80% of display ads follow the IAB standards. IAB has released a new Standard Ad Unit Portfolio, which it claims will “drive the industry forward and create new opportunities for dynamic brand advertising.” IAB unveiled the new portfolio over the weekend, at its fifth IAB Annual Leadership Meeting “Ecosystem 2.0: Beyond Time and Space.”
The portfolio includes a new range of formats designed to “meet marketers’ communications needs across the purchase funnel,” said IAB in a release. Among these formats are the IAB Rising Stars Display ad units, six new interactive ad units developed and tested in partnership with digital publishers and agencies.
As Adweek reported from the Leadership Meeting, IAB’s head of brand initiatives Peter Minnium told the crowd “This new [collection of ad units] varies not only in size but in functionality and, of course, in interactivity.” Without standardized units, advertisers had to handcraft creative ads as needed, whereas the new units “will enable them to craft [an ad] once and run it broadly.” Industry bodies including the Online Publisher's Association (OPA) have clamored for larger and more intrusive ad units that attract bigger brands and larger premiums.
Of the Rising Stars, the Portrait may be the most high profile, says Adweek. The Portrait was unveiled by AOL’s Pictela division in 2010, and enables advertisers to include interactive apps embedded in a 300-by-1050-pixel display. IAB has also added two full-page units to the portfolio, called the "Sidekick" and "Slider."
“The new IAB portfolio allows creatives to tell bigger, bolder brand stories,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “The new units offer more space, greater functionality, and a broader range of user experiences—providing a collection of next-generation interactive canvases designed to leverage the rich, immersive benefits of digital.”
Higher Engagement, Interactivity
To measure the new units’ ability to deliver at scale for brand advertisers, IAB partnered with IPG Media Lab to conduct proprietary research with Affectiva, GazeHawk and Moat that looked at attentiveness, emotive response and brand lift. Working with BBDO, BBH, Razorfish and SapientNitro, campaigns were tested from AT&T, Jeep and Westin Hotels & Resorts, leveraging all six Rising Stars units for each. The test creative, which was showcased on MSN.com, was built by AOL/Pictela, DoubleClick/Google, MediaMind and Microsoft Advertising.
The research findings revealed that consumers interact significantly more with Rising Stars ads than with incumbent standard ad units (such as the leaderboard and medium rectangle). Users were 2.5 times more likely to interact with a Rising Stars ad unit than a standard ad unit, spent twice as much time interacting with the ad and took less time to react to the ad (two times quicker than with standard ads). Along with increased interaction, eye-tracking showed that users viewed ads longer (31% more) with Rising Stars units versus standard formats.
In addition, study respondents found the Rising Stars ads to be more “enjoyable” and “engaging” when compared to regular displays ads, and they were more likely to say the Rising Stars ads “improved my impression of this web site” and their opinion of the brand.
"Being able to combine eye-tracking and facial-coding with more traditional behavioral analytics and brand lift survey data, and to do all of that in a respondent’s home using their webcam, gives us an amazing new view into the true impact of these cool new ad formats” said Tim McAtee, Research Director, IPG Media.
"As marketers we are all going to be more efficient in maximizing our production resources by having more structure around rich digital advertising units,” said Christi Gettinger, Senior Director Brand Management, Westin Hotels & Resorts. “To date, publishers have been fairly fragmented in their offerings to advertisers and this ultimately drives up production costs to effectively reach our target audience. We are thrilled the IAB team is taking the lead in creating more opportunities for marketers to be effective in connecting with consumers online.”
“The Rising Stars Display ad units have already proven themselves in the marketplace with exponentially higher interaction rates and interaction time—the core metrics that matter for brand advertisers” said Minnium. “They can only bring the interactive industry to new heights as part of the IAB Standard Ad Unit Portfolio.”
TV Leads as Political News Source, Newspapers Lag
When asked where Americans get their political news, fully 44% of Americans responded “Television,” reports Poll Position. Only one segment—adults 30-44—responded “From the Internet.” In that 30-44 segment, 35% chose the Internet, 32% said television was their source for most political news, 18% said somewhere else (e.g., radio, magazines), and 14% picked newspapers.
The overall results are grim for newspapers, at only 16% among all surveyed. 2011 was a tough year for newspapers, with ad revenues a mere $24 billion in comparison to the record high of $49.4 billion in 2005.
Poll Position surveyed 1,113 registered voters nationwide, and claims a margin of error of ±3%.
