News Companies in the Movie Business, Pros and Cons of Responsive Design, Adobe Comp, Pew Study on Mobile Use, Exceptional Women in Publishing Conference, TFP’s Infographic Pick of the Week, InDesign CC Tip: Create a Table Without an Existing Text Frame
Welcome to TFP’s roundup of news and tips for media industry pros! This week, we’re sharing stories about news companies producing feature-length movies as part of their growth strategy, the pros and cons of responsive design, Adobe’s plan to “kill” the desktop with powerful multitasking tools for mobile devices, a recent Pew study highlighting how mobile is impacting today’s news organizations, and more.
- With an eye toward growth opportunities, news organizations like BuzzFeed, Vice, CNN, Condé Nast, and Newsweek are going Hollywood, either building their own film divisions or forming partnerships to produce long-form narrative and documentary films intended for theater release, according to The New York Times. While many of these ventures are still in start-up stages and approaches to production, promotion, and distribution differ, the overall goal is to “open cultural conversations, and to hold viewers who might otherwise be lost to a competitor with the next bold headline or two-minute video,” the report said.
- While publishers are increasingly using “responsive design” to optimize their sites for mobile, there are some drawbacks, Digiday pointed out. The idea is to avoid the more costly and time-consuming process of creating mobile sites from scratch and to make the user experience consistent across devices, but success depends on a number of factors, the report said, including user expectations, page performance, and business model.
- Adobe wants to “kill your desktop” with multitasking tools that could potentially enable users to work more efficiently on mobile devices. Centered on Adobe Comp, a just-released iPad app for mocking up typefaces, graphics, and user interfaces, Adobe’s plan is to turn its smartphone and tablet apps into powerful tools “with workflows that are on par or even faster than what you can do on your desktop,” Fast Company said. The article detailed the app’s interface, its connectivity, and how 360-Degree Workflow will pull it all together. You can download the app here.
- With smartphone use more than doubling in the past few years, mobile is indeed the focus for most everyone working in media these days—particularly news organizations. Poynter highlighted a recent Pew study on mobile device use that shows readers are increasingly using their smartphones to access and share information about news events, with a majority at least occasionally following breaking news (68%), learning about community news and activities (56%), and sharing photos, videos, and commentary about community events (67%). The article said the findings reflect trends news companies are seeing and trying to adapt to with strategies that emphasize continuous, mobile-focused news reporting and presentation over static, front-page-style news delivery.
- On the Technology for Publishing blog: TFP’s Margot Knorr Mancini attended the Exceptional Women in Publishing conference, where speakers such as EWIP Award recipient and National Geographic EIC Susan Goldberg shared insights on the roles and successes of women in media as well as their challenges. Also, event sessions covered a range of exciting developments like data-driven content and data visualization in storytelling. Check out Margot’s latest post for more highlights!
- Also see TFP’s Infographic Pick of the Week, which provides an overview of where social media is at today, along with 10 trends likely to contribute to its increasing impact over the next year.
- Finally, TFP’s Monica Murphy explains how to create a table without an existing text frame in this week’s InDesign CC Tip.
Image: Sam Manchester/The New York Times
This Week in Publishing appears every Friday on the TFP blog. Every week we compile interesting and noteworthy stories from the publishing world and put together a wrap-up to help our readers stay up-to-date. Think we missed something great? Leave a comment below and let us know!
Posted by: Monica Sambataro
