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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
Top 5 Magazine Brand iPhone Apps You Could Have MissedFriday, May 13, 2011 An app is not a magazine, especially on a smartphone. As ever more print brands look towards the larger canvas of tablets to show off digitized versions of their monthlies, there seems to be less enthusiasm about trying to squeeze full issue content onto iPhone or Android screens. Which is not to say that print brands don’t have a place on the handheld display. They just need to think harder about how a magazine’s authority, expertise and style can be of service to people on the go. In fact, even as so many of us look to the glitzier tablet, publishers continue to churn out some innovative apps that move the ball forward. Here are some of the more recent, more intriguing un-magazine apps from magazines. 1. Brides Wedding Genius 2.0  Call it an idea book for brides…waiting in line at the bank. The well-crafted trove of gowns, jewelry, travel, etc is all organized neatly by types, material, price, style and more. Built into the app is real functionality as well. you can assign tasks to people, get reminders and of course save all of your favorites for later reference. The design is very stylish, especially with the 2.0 upgrade, and it makes browsing a pleasure. Brides has blended nicely the aspirational tone and elegance of a bridal magazine with the practical needs of the real-world bride rushing to vendors. 2. 1000 Exercises by Men’s Health and Women’s Health Sometimes more is more. Rodale has an extensive line of workout apps from its major print brands. This compendium, however, is a great value at $5.99 because it  collects just about every possible exercise you ever did or didn’t consider. As much as most workout apps offer a trainer-type guided path, this one lets the experienced reader build their own and then track and graph out progress. It is another example of a publisher slicing, dicing, aggregating and reimagining content it already has into new formats that match a range of different audiences and use cases. 3. Woman’s Day Faith and Action So much publishing effort is focused on everyday practical tools for workouts, recipes, and news, servicing the spiritual side of readers’ lives tends to be overlooked.  This cool little daily uplift feeds the reader inspiring Bible verses and thoughts but also converts them into daily action. The tools are all here to save and share these insights, but the daily shot of content is what makes it all work. This is mobile “utility” writ large and writ deep. It demonstrates how a publisher can use apps to target specific segments of their audience with a specialized function that may take the form of a regular column in a monthly but becomes a tool for living in a different context. Mobile is all about mapping content to the right context.4. LMK LMK is a mobile brand created by Hearst Entertainment and Syndication that lets the user build their own news aggregator. You pick or name topics and the app  curates relevant news from the best sources. Major media are being aggregated by others on smartphones and tablets by the likes of Pulse and Flipbook. Maybe it is time they themselves got into the game and made their mark as curators. LMk has a good interface that lets you see at a glance what is new in across the range of topics you follow. Again, it anticipates the ways in which mobile users themselves scan for information on a handset. This a handy app that doesn’t seem to get the visibility it deserves.5. LIFE Mobile The news through images. Life’s Web site has helped revive the legendary brand for another generation of readers. The app in some ways is better than the site, in that  the less cluttered, directed view gives the user immediate access to news-related images, topical slide shows and wonderful historical retrospectives. This is an exceptionally addictive time killer. The layout fills the screen with thumbnails to tap into or swipe across. The rich captions pop up elegantly and offer a different take on current events that ties the now into the then. On the Retina display of an iPhone 4, the end result is luscious and serves to advance the Time Inc. brand image as the photographer of record for the last century. To be sure, publishers are effectively re-imagining their print brands as useful and entertaining apps, but the real challenge in the App Store and Android Marketplace is discovery. How can you find the right users and how can the users find you? In this month’s min Webinar we bring together some of the sharpest minds in mobile from Kargo, Future US and Bottle Rocket to help you “Find My App!: Winning the Mobile Discovery, Distribution and Audience Development Challenge.” If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com
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