Google thinks big with Think Quarterly magazine

Open publication

Think Quarterly highlights hotspots for data visualization and embeds links for convenienceGoogle's surprise launch in England of a digital magazine called Think Quarterly caused servers to grind under heavy traffic Thursday afternoon, and with good reason. 

Think Quarterly is elegantly designed by "The Church of England" and debuts with focus on a single topic: Data.

Google's UK arm positions Think Quarterly as a benefit for its customers -- it printed a small-run Even flowcharts look elegantbook version for British advertisers -- interested in squeezing more out of data.

Maybe, but I think the magazine is as much a test of Google creating content. Think Quarterly's contributors are an eclectic and illuminating bunch, but the magazine focus is as much on analyzing the power of data as handing a dazzling publication to the world. 

QR codes for each story make story sharing a snapThe embedded sample above is good for scanning, but Think Quarterly shines when expanded full screen on a big monitor. I'm viewing it on a 26-inch screen and it rocks.

Google is hosting the magazine on the free Issuu PDF reader platform (alternative versions are available on a companion Think Quarterly website) but I've never seen a publication in Issuu with this much pop and readability.

Perhaps it's because the designers started designing with the digital platform in mind, rather than creating a print version and shoveling a PDF online (guilty as charged). I haven't had time to bore deep into every article, but I'm looking forward to the adventure. 

Follow-up editions are scheduled for May, July and October. And there's a companion Twitter feed to appease a fan base that already has more than 6,000 followers after about a day of exposure. 

Google keeps telling us it's not a content company, but products like Think Quarterly fly in the face of that defense. And when those products are this polished one should sit up and take notice.  

The rippling effect of mobile content

I had more than a few thoughts after reading an advance copy of the Pew Research Center report, "How mobile devices are changing community information environments" released today. 

First was affirmation for some of the things we're doing to serve our mobile market in Bakersfield. Our mobile site is our fastest-growing digital product ever. 

Second thing was we need to consider changes to better serve our mobile audience and to continue to think long and hard about blanket charges for digital content.

Third thing was I have even more questions -- and a big headache.

And that's the dilemma with mobile news and whether anyone will pay for digital content, both of which were key topics in the survey conducted in mid January on behalf of Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, Pew Internet & American Life Project and the Knight Foundation. 

That's no fault of this survey of 2,251 people, which offers fresh insight into a growing market segment for local media (including several interesting layers on community engagement I won't address here). The surveyors did a great job of including a large sample of cell-phone users, who represent a growing portion of our populace (particularly younger and more diverse segments) but whom traditional researcher companies have a hard time surveying. After diving deep into the methodology and the questions, I feel confident in the findings. 

Pew reports that 47% of American adults get some local news or information on their mobile device, be it a cellphone or tablet. That's encouraging, and that number will continue to grow. 

But to me, the definition of mobile "news" is murky. 

For example, the Pew study didn't ask people about whether they wanted classified ads on their mobile devices. If I didn't know better, I wouldn't have asked that question either. But in Bakersfield, on our 661411 mobile site, classifieds are a huge traffic driver, representing roughly one-third of the site's monthly traffic. Equally important, we charge advertisers an extra fee to place those classifieds on our mobile site, making 661411 a profitable product in a mobile environment where revenue models for traditional newspaper content remain mostly unproven. 

Taking it a step further, I don't think a traditional interpretation of news should drive what newspaper companies publish on their mobile platforms. And to a further degree, priority content on a cell phone might not be the same on a tablet.  Print, desktop, tablet and smartphone are different animals. 

But I'm getting off track. 

Back to the survey, when taking a more traditional interpretation of newspaper content, Pew doesn't see much optimism for getting mobile customers to pay for news content beyond the print subscription they may or may not be buying. 

Respondents were asked, "If your local newspaper no longer existed, would that have a major impact, minor impact, or no impact on your ability to keep up with information and news about their community?" The responses are scary: 28% said the loss of the newspaper would have a major impact, while 30% said the loss would be minor and 39% said the loss of the newspaper would have no impact. So 67% don't really care whether the newspaper disappears, regardless of whether they're paying for the content. That's a major image problem (I'll write more on that in the future).

Pew does say "those who currently pay for news would miss the paper more." But even within that group of paying customers, 21% say "losing their local newspaper would have no impact on their ability to keep up on local news and information." 

It's even worse among mobile users. "Fully 42% said losing their local paper would have no impact," Pew said. 

So newspapers clearly have a challenge on their hands. 

Boring deeper into the mobile users, "just 13% of all mobile device owners report having an app that helps them get local information or news, which represents 11% of the total American adult population," a Pew news release said. "Thus, while almost half of adults get local news on mobile devices, just 1 in 10 use apps to do so. Call it the 'app gap.' "

The release continues, "According to the survey, just 10% of adults who use mobile apps to connect to local news and information pay for those apps. This amounts to just 1% of adults."

In Bakersfield, we charge for our iPhone, Android and Blackberry apps. We have had about 1,200 downloads of those apps (for 99 cents to $1.99 depending upon the platform, with the large majority being iPhone users). Those app users consumed about 18% of total 661411 page views over the last month, with the other 82% coming via our free WAP version of 661411. You could call it our own app gap. 

Pew did find an opening, in that a small but sizable segment expressed a willingness "to pay for an online subscription to their local newspaper if the paper otherwise could not survive."  The survey did not define what that content might be, other than it could be accessed via a "computer, cell phone or other device."

The survey found 23% of respondents would be willing to pay $5 per month for "your local newspaper online"; 18% would be willing to pay $10 a month. 

That's encouraging right? Maybe, or not really, depending upon the starting point. 

Who pays for local news? Click for detailed imageIt's encouraging it you're satisfied serving a smaller, but paid, market share. That'd be a niche audience, but a loyal and more affluent one. And civic minded: Pew found people who pay for content are more likely to be engaged in their community. 

You could try to chase market share by winning over the 30% of respondents who told Pew the closure of the newspaper would have a minor impact on their ability to get local news. But winning over people on the fence is expensive; those customers would need a big lure to open their wallets for the long haul.  

Or you could continue to do what most newspaper companies are doing: supplementing their paid print product with free or "freemium" digital editions. If you're wondering why more newspapers don't charge people to read most content on their websites, it's because you'd need to sign up a scary number of people to pay $5 or $10 per month just to offset existing revenue from banner ads, online classifieds, directory listings and other advertising services. If you do charge for access, it's hard to sell advertisers on a smaller, albeit more affluent, audience. For those who don't know, most newspaper print subscriptions don't come close to covering operating costs; advertising is what generates the profits. So simply charging for digital access won't work unless you're tapping a small, exclusive audience who can afford an expensive subscription. 

So, the debate over paid vs. free vs. freemium continues. And will continue for some time, with yet another variable tossed into the equation.

Zite raises bar on tablet news reading -- but where's the revenue?

I've been using a new iPad customized news app called Zite and I really like it.

Your personalizezd Zite homepage pulls in a mix of stories matching your preferencesZite blends Flipboard's dynamic feed-driving design and Pandora's thumbs-up/thumbs-down personalization. Zite says its app "is a free, personalized iPad magazine that understands what you like and gets smarter as you use it." That's a perfect description, and for me Zite has surged ahead of Flipboard, FLUD and Pulse as my tablet news reader of choice (although Flipboard's photo presentation is still a draw).

Like those other apps, Zite is simple to set up and use. You first choose any of several dozen top-level categories of interest, then let Zite draw your feeds from Twitter or Google Reader, or both, to seed those content categories. At that point, other sources are layered on as you rate content within those categories. Changing your categories is a snap: When I fired up the app Friday afternoon and saw zero info on the Japanese earthquake, I quickly added "World News" to my mix and, voila, I had intense tsunami coverage.

Each story page allows you to give it a thumbs up/down, ask for more content from that source, and share via email, Twitter and FacebookWhat makes Zite really excel is its diversity of content: Rather than giving extra weight to traditional news streams, it pulls from a wealth of rich, trusted and well-crafted content from tons of alternative sources.

And the content categories seem to fit iPad users: You are given the choice of Graphic Design & Typography and Web Design & User Experience, Journalism and publishing, Gadets and Technology. As anyone who cares about Graphic Design and Web Design knows, there are huge differences between the two, and thus should warrant separate categories. Traditional media, on teh other hand, would lump them together for convenience or ignorance.

The only real problems I had with Zite are:

• On launch day when the app's servers were smoking from an abundance of traffic (the downside of what appears to have been a great job of prelaunch outreach to ensure the tech journalContent comes from thousands of sources, a reminder there's lots of authoritative content outside of traditional medias had stories ready to go). But in the few days since, load times have been fast and clean, with zero crashes.
• A dearth of "local" content, at least for Bakersfield. I know Bakersfield isn't huge, but we learned last week we're the 9th largest city in California, with more than 350,000 people. But when I tried to add a custom feed by using the word "Bakersfield" and a few ZIPs, I got zero results. Terms like "San Francisco" will pull in some content, but it's clear Zite hasn't focused on geographically focused content. And that's OK. But at some point I think Zite nees that "local" flavor if it's going to differentiate itself in becoming a one-stop tablet news reader.

Big question, though, and the same one I have with Flipboard, Pulse and Flud: where's the revenue model? While these are really slick and sticky products, they're free and devoid of advertising.

As a user, I love Zite, Flipboard and Pulse, but as a businessman, each of these apps look like products aching for a sugar daddy like Google or Facebook. At some point, the servers can't pay for themselves.