Adobe Experience Manager Mobile, Google’s AMP, Time Inc.’s Yahoo Bid, Editorial Analytics, TFP’s Infographic Pick of the Week, America’s Test Kitchen Case Study
Welcome to Technology for Publishing’s roundup of news and tips for media industry pros! This week, we’re sharing stories about the launch of Adobe’s Experience Manager Mobile tool, publishers going “all in” on Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages, Time Inc.’s interest in merging with Yahoo, moving from generic analytics to a more editorial-focused strategy, and more.
- Adobe introduced Adobe Experience Manager Mobile, combining the functionality of its Digital Publishing Solution and Adobe Experience Manager Apps in a next-generation tool aimed at helping publishers more easily create, manage, and measure mobile apps. The idea, Adobe said, is to bring together all the pieces of the app-building process—design, coding, management, marketing, and other components—so publishers and other organizations can reduce the time it takes to get their mobile apps to market while better engaging audiences with “compelling, actionable content.” See a post on our blog and Adobe’s product announcement for more details, as well as a separate article on making the move from Digital Publishing Solution 2015 to Adobe Digital Experience Manager Mobile.
- There was also news on the much-anticipated launch of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), with Digiday reporting that publishers are “all in” on Google’s effort to speed page load times. It said while some questions arose leading up to this week’s rollout, many see AMP as the answer to “the walled garden of Facebook’s Instant Articles.” Google claims pages coded under its AMP offering load as much as 85% faster than traditional web pages. “We know faster pages are going to do better in mobile search; why would we not do everything we can do to make it faster?” said The Atlantic’s Kim Lau, adding that the magazine is putting “everything fully there.” Suggesting publishers in general find it easier to work with Google compared with Facebook and Apple News, the article said many participants “see Google AMP as replacing their existing traffic, rather than cannibalizing it.”
- Time Inc. threw its hat in the ring with other suitors looking to buy Yahoo’s core business, sources told Bloomberg News. An underdog against the likes of Verizon Communications and AT&T, the publisher is interested in a merger because it could “pursue a structure with Yahoo called a Reverse Morris Trust, a tax-free transaction in which one company merges with a spun-off subsidiary,” the report explained. Given the tax advantages, Time Inc. could potentially win out over the larger bidders, it said. The publisher, looking to move its print-focused business to digital, sees Yahoo’s 1 billion global online users as a way to accelerate that shift.
- Finally, Nieman Lab posted a great article on why publishers need to take the next step in using analytics to inform their long-term editorial direction, rather than just watching “a big screen with numbers that go up and down.” In interviews for a Reuters Institute Report, it found that few news outlets currently have strategies that go beyond generic optimization to focus on specific organizational objectives and priorities—meaning they’re losing out on the full potential of analytics. While not the answer to all the challenges in today’s hyper-competitive publishing business, the report argues that editorial analytics are key to accomplishing one of the top goals in newsrooms today: reaching readers where they are.
On the Technology for Publishing Blog
- Following on the release of Adobe Experience Manager Mobile, check out our updated DPSApply app and handbook to guide you through the process of building AEM Mobile apps effectively. See our products page for details.
- The rise of ad blocking technology—and what to do about it—has been a top concern industrywide this past year. See this week’s infographic pick to find out how publishers are approaching the challenge.
- America’s Test Kitchen Case Study: Learn how TFP guided big changes in content processes and technology at the popular magazine and cooking show.
- And in case you missed it, check out TFP CEO Margot Knorr Mancini’s latest article and our February Book Picks, focusing on the power of media and technology to educate and drive change.
Image: Adobe
Visit our blog for highlights of interesting and noteworthy stories from the publishing world every Friday, and sign up for TFP’s This Week in Publishing newsletter. Think we missed something great? Let us know! Leave a comment below or drop us a note.
Posted by: Monica Sambataro
