To the point: something for everyone
When it comes to iPad apps for newspapers and magazines, development is currently heading in various directions. On the one hand, there are extremely elaborate apps packed with all kinds of bonus content, such as videos, photo galleries, interactive graphics, and whatever else the imagination of the respective developers and media designers can come up with.
A true paradise for tech freaks, one would think. Far from it, because the whole thing still doesn't go far enough for the effective Web 2.0 aficionados, as you can read in countless comments in various blogs. They actually want to have all the functions that they regularly use intensively on their PC or Mac: Linking articles, recommending them, uploading them to social web pages and making their countless followers happy via Twitter. And all of this is free of charge, of course. Unfortunately, that's what we're used to on the web. This is thanks to the initial mistake of the media companies, who in their Internet euphoria put the expensively produced content on the Internet free of charge and believed that the business model of primarily ad-financed content, which had been tried and tested for years, would also work on the Internet. Today, we all know that this is not the case.
But there are also classic apps like those from the NZZ or Die Zeit. The conventional newspaper layout is simply transformed onto the iPad. So to speak, the e-paper on the tablet. There is a table of contents. You can flip through the pages with a swipe of your finger, the font enlarges with a tap, or you switch to a text-only mode. There are no more pictures than in the original edition, nor are there videos or additional material. A solution that is outdated for many. Again, one only has to read certain biting comments in the industry blogs. But what these commentators ignore is the fact that many users appreciate precisely this simplicity of appearance and no longer want it.
Then there are hybrid forms. Spiegel's iPad app is one of these. It is based on the classic layout, but offers additional images and longer or shorter videos. Some of these are taken from Spiegel TV, while others are produced especially for the app. But everything is without frills and frippery. As a long-time Spiegel reader, I'm thrilled. I don't need more. But also not less.
Another aspect is interesting for me. Since I've been consuming Der Spiegel and Die Zeit on the iPad, I've been reading more articles than in the print edition. I also tend to read more articles in the NZZ. From time to time, however, I allow myself the luxury of reading the paper edition. Just because.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
But there are also classic apps like those from the NZZ or Die Zeit. The conventional newspaper layout is simply transformed onto the iPad. So to speak, the e-paper on the tablet. There is a table of contents. You can flip through the pages with a swipe of your finger, the font enlarges with a tap, or you switch to a text-only mode. There are no more pictures than in the original edition, nor are there videos or additional material. A solution that is outdated for many. Again, one only has to read certain biting comments in the industry blogs. But what these commentators ignore is the fact that many users appreciate precisely this simplicity of appearance and no longer want it.
Then there are hybrid forms. Spiegel's iPad app is one of these. It is based on the classic layout, but offers additional images and longer or shorter videos. Some of these are taken from Spiegel TV, while others are produced especially for the app. But everything is without frills and frippery. As a long-time Spiegel reader, I'm thrilled. I don't need more. But also not less.
Another aspect is interesting for me. Since I've been consuming Der Spiegel and Die Zeit on the iPad, I've been reading more articles than in the print edition. I also tend to read more articles in the NZZ. From time to time, however, I allow myself the luxury of reading the paper edition. Just because.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
