DIGITAL PUBLISHING AS A SERVICE – low cost and short time-to-markte for publishers
Posted by Kuno Jung
Based on its e5 technology, BlankPage will soon launch a full service solution for digital publishing on iOS and Android devices and the web - offered as an easy-to-use service.
The introduction of mobile applications for the sale and reading of digital publications such as newspapers, magazines and books has left traditional publishers with potentially high capital expenditure. An additional problem is the time it takes to develop a market-ready application. For these reasons, many smaller publishers have not yet made the move to digital platforms, despite the obvious urge to to do so.
The out-of-the-box rental solution from BlankPage for mobile publishing is targeted at solving this problem. Once registered as an e5 client, a shop for display and selling content to the readers as well as the corresponding iOS, Android and web apps are created for the publisher – automatically and under the publisher's own branding.
With the shop and the apps created, the publisher will now be able to directly upload content using the personalized and easy to use admin back-end. Here, the publisher can set prices, enter meta-data or categorize purchase items. Now, the publisher is ready to start selling his content. At the beginning, the solution will support standard payment solutions like Apple's iTunes (App Store) and PayPal. For enterprise customers, other payment solutions can be implemented by BlankPage's engineers.
Besides being a fast and low-cost way to market, the e5 solution offers additional value to publishers. It supports all sorts of multi-media content like video, sound, links and social networks. And with a special tool that is part of the solution, such rich content can be created with a few clicks.
For easy testing and adoption, the solution will be offered in a Software-as-a- Service business model with a free trial version. This way, the solution can be explored quickly and if liked, launched within a few days. There are no more investments for standalone applications for iPad and/or Android devices required and the product does not required special know-how or infrastructure at the publisher’s end. It is just made for monetizing content on mobile devices, quickly and easily.
Why HTML5 and CSS3 are so valuable for digital publishing
Posted by Tobias Buschor
eBooks and other digital content like electronic magazines and newspapers in most cases are some sort of HTML documents (e.g.XML, EPUB). This also means that the visual and interactive features are limited to the capabilities of current HTML, CSS and JavaScript standards. Over the last years, the community worked very intensely on adapting those standards to the current developments in the Internet and mobile technology. In parallel, the browser vendors have been very active in integrating those new standards into their products for improving rendering performance. And they improved the interaction between HTML and CSS technology. These improvements will deeply impact the future of content display and use on mobile devices. (more...)
Digital Content Monetization – User data really matters!
Posted by Kuno Jung
2010: X-mas online sales are already exploding and it seems that the Internet is finally taking control - even local retail sales are mediated by platforms like groupon which are starting to get a firm grasp on regional markets. The content industry though, whether local, national or international, still seems to struggle with the concept of content monetization through online retail channels.
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A look at the various mobile operating systems
Posted by Bernhard Rosenkränzer
BlankPage makes the e5 technology available on as many different platforms as possible - therefore we have to keep track of all the platforms out there and new developments. (more...)
News from the digital reading zone
Posted by Lukas Müller
The digital book market is growing as sales reports showed this week. The digital book sales rose in September over 150% in the last months and spans now - YES - already over 50% of the paperback mass market (eye popping…). These are interesting numbers… so where do all these books go to and where can you get them? (more...)
Tablets: The Next Big Thing
Posted by Matthew Herren
These days it seems that regardless of where one looks, one will see articles about tablets, statistics about tablets or predictions for what tablets will be in the coming years. It is generally held that it's going to be a big market: Todd Bradley, HP's Executive Vice (more...)
The Next Chapter in Textbooks
Posted by Matthew Herren
Electronic textbooks are something that we here at BlankPage have much experience with. Indeed, the roots of our company go back to developing e-textbook software that was deployed across Africa by the likes of OLPC and Intel. We also developed AkiliBook, the world's first reflowable XML format specifically for textbooks. It now forms a part of our e5 offering. (more...)
The Social Reading Revolution
Posted by Matthew Herren
Recently, I've been thinking a lot about the potential for social media tools to enhance reading.
I've long thought that this is one area where e-books do not reach their full potential. I think there are really two areas where tying in the reading experience to a larger social experience could have large positive impacts on the reading experience. (more...)
The Challenges of Subscription Models on iTunes
Posted by Matthew Herren
There is currently a lot of confusion regarding Apple's App Store policies on magazine and other news subscriptions. Both Apple and the publishers involved are rather secretive as to the core issues, and what steps they are taking to overcome this, however, some information is available. (more...)
To Page or Not To Page
Posted by Matthew Herren
In the world of electronic publishing, the concept of pagination is probably one of the more complex as well as contentious issues. It's a fascinating subject, because the challenges it raises -- from technological as well as usability angles -- are in many ways a microcosm for the challenges of electronic publishing as a whole. At BlankPage we're pretty mixed on the issue -- some of our team think electronic content shouldn't be delineated by pages, while others think that, especially with regards to certain types of content (such as magazines) having a fixed 'canvas' on which to layout and style content is an integral part of the reading experience. (more...)