By Lori Blachford, Drake University
Magazine • I have a bad case of the apps. Symptoms: shrinking wallet, trance-like episodes, thumb cramps. I’m not alone. Apple reports that iPhone and iPod Touch owners have downloaded more than 3 billion applications since the App Store launched July 2008.
And it’s not just Apple (although, iLovers by far rule the category with more than 100,000 options); apps are a growing business for all mobile devices. The Motorola Droid phone, which was introduced in November, already has surpassed 10,000 apps and is growing fast. Intel is working on apps for its netbooks.
There’s something for everyone. Apps can be fun (Lightsaber Unleashed; when you need the Force with you), practical (iHandy Level; no more crooked shelves), informative (DunkinDonutz Locator; name says it all), educational (NASA; great photos), and downright silly (iDragPaper; try to pull toilet paper off the roll in record time).
All those, and thousands more, including news junkie favorites like New York Times and NPR, are free. Other choices are available for a fee, starting at $1. For $29, you can even have the AP Stylebook on your phone. Can you say business expense?
Besides offering a new reason to put off grading, what significance do apps provide for journalism educators, especially those who specialize in magazines? Apps are an important evolutionary step in information delivery. They allow a publisher to reach readers in a whole new space, not just on the couch or the computer. Apps go where the phone goes: to the grocery store, on vacation, to the ballgame.
At a time when students must embrace an entrepreneurial attitude to survive in the rapidly changing media landscape, apps offer a great playground for new ideas. Stanford already offers a 10-week course in iPhone Application Development. But even without a course on the subject, we should all be talking about the role apps can play in service journalism and brand loyalty.
Good models already exist.
Some publications repackage information for mobile distribution. Wired has a product review app that includes video critiques and demos. Epicurious.com has an app with 27,000 recipes from Bon Appetit and Gourmet, including ingredient lists and user rankings.
Others offer services beyond their standard content. Parents.com has an app with interactive flashcards for toddlers. If you wonder whether that qualifies as service, you’ve never had to entertain a squirmy 2-year-old at a church service.
GQ tried a new approach, turning the January 2010 issue into an app. I mean the whole thing; even the masthead. For $2.99, you can thumb through (actually using your thumb) pdfs of every spread in the magazine, ads included. Of course, the 2 x 3-inch screen can’t compete with the look of the 8 x 10 7/8-inch glossy magazine. Where the app wins is in multimedia offerings: more photos, behind-the-scenes videos, audio interview excerpts, interactive links to advertisers and featured products.
For a subscriber, the app doesn’t make much sense, but for someone who has never read the magazine or who usually buys random copies on the newsstand (at $4.50 an issue), the app has value.
But is it the model for the way we’ll read magazines in the future? Not likely. The surge of e-readers that will hit the market this summer is going to be the next step toward digital distribution. E-readers (or tablets or whatever name they go by) are closer to magazine size so the graphics can be equally glorious, not to mention animated.
Still, apps are here to stay since cell phones rule our world. And the apps development race is well underway. Magazines need to move quickly to not only meet but also anticipate the needs of readers. Those apps will dictate the way journalists gather information and the way publications separate themselves from competitors.
Expect more emphasis on audio and video; the phone screen is too tiny for long-form articles. One of my favorite features of the GQ app was a collection of audio outtakes from an interview with William Shatner. We hear the interviewer laughing and stumbling over a question. Shatner eats while he answers questions. It’s raw. It’s real. It’s fun.
And what better way to spark innovation than by having a little fun? You can get students’ creative juices flowing with Creative Whack Pack. It’s called a “creative workshop in an app.” Cost: $1.99. Thumb massage not included.
Lori Blachford is an assistant professor at Drake University. She has made her living as a journalist for more than 20 years. Blachford worked for newspapers, including The Des Moines Register, for seven years before moving to magazines. She started as a copy editor for the Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications, then moved on to writing and editing for a variety of titles in that same group.