Adobe MAX, Twitter Announcements, Medium Updates, Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages, TFP’s Infographic Pick of the Week, DPS 2015 Tip: Migrating Content from DPS Folios, Adobe Digital Publishing Solution v2015.5 Release
Welcome to Technology for Publishing’s roundup of news and tips for media industry pros! This week, we’re sharing stories about highlights at Adobe MAX, Twitter’s appointment of Jack Dorsey and the launch of its Moments curation tool, Medium’s recent updates and publisher partnerships, how Google intends to help publishers speed load times, and more.
- Adobe MAX got underway, with thousands of attendees gathering to learn about key trends and Adobe’s product road map at the company’s largest creative event to date, according to the conference blog. TechCrunch, for one, covered highlights, including a new portfolio service based on Behance, an update to Adobe Stock that adds video support, and a bunch of Creative Cloud updates like CreativeSync, which makes it easier for users to sync assets between different apps. Mobile was also a big focus. For example, the company combined Adobe Color, Shape, Brush, and Hue mobile apps into a single app called Adobe Capture CC app. It also launched Photoshop Fix, a photo retouching app that lets users send images directly to the Photoshop desktop app, and announced that Photoshop and Lightroom mobile now feature Dehaze functionality. Get full coverage of all the updates on Adobe’s site.
- Twitter was in the headlines as well with the appointment of company co-founder Jack Dorsey as its permanent CEO, and the launch of its new curation tool. On the first announcement, news outlets including The New York Times, CNN, and Fortune reported Dorsey, interim chief since fomer CEO Dick Costolo stepped down July 1, will also maintain his role as head of payments startup Square, despite the board’s earlier reservations about the dual role. Following the appointment, the company rolled out Moments (formerly called Project Lightning), a feature that curates tweets tied to news and events, making it easier for new users to follow topics on the platform, according to a Nieman Lab article that looks at how the tool plays into the company’s plan to increase its audience base. News organizations partnering with Twitter will be able to “embed their collections on their own sites and have them fed into the Moments tab,” the report added, noting that the mini news digest format fits well with publishers’ efforts to optimize storytelling for mobile.
- So, is Medium a platform or a publisher? Answer: Yes. That’s the question posed—and answered— by Nieman in a post covering changes at the popular blogging site, including a new logo, updated apps, new publisher partnerships, and plans for advertising. For starters, the site rolled out an open API and updates to iOS and Android apps that make posting easier, as well as new text features and custom domains. For publishers like The Awl, Fusion, Mic, MSNBC, and others partnering with the site, new tools will help “drive discussion around exciting original and distributed content initiatives,” Medium said, though the article noted that it remains unclear what that will ultimately mean. On the advertising front, more native advertising is on the way, and users will be able to host ads on their content under a revenue-sharing model, according to the report.
- Part of the platform vs. publisher story is the issue of load times, a key factor for publishers as more and more of their traffic is driven by mobile. With the launch of its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) program this week, Google intends to significantly improve load times—between 15% and 85%—in a move to “cozy up to media brands as they look for new distribution models,” an Adweek article said. Participating publishers incorporate Google code into their sites, it explained, enabling readers to find content via Google’s mobile properties before clicking through to the publisher’s site, where the fast loading occurs. Load times will be slower if the reader goes directly to the publisher’s website for the same content, the report noted.
On the Technology for Publishing Blog
- As you know, the news business is quickly changing as more and more readers increasingly turn to social media to find the stories of the day. See our Infographic Pick of the Week to find out which publishers are taking the lead on social and which platforms they’re using the most.
- Content previously published in Adobe Digital Publishing Suite folios can be easily copied and added to Digital Publishing Solution (DPS) 2015 projects using the Folio Migration Tool. Monica Murphy explains how it works in this week’s DPS 2015 Tip.
- Also, we bring you all the new features, performance enhancements, and bug fixes in Adobe Digital Publishing Solution Version 2015.5.
Image: Adobe
Check out 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
