Yesterday saw the launch of Timbuktu: the first iPad magazine for kids. The inaugural issue is now available for free through iTunes.

The magazine, which aims to present kids with news using colorful graphics, simple language, and sound, joins numerous apps targeted to children on the market. Indeed, since its launch, one of the iPad’s unforeseen positive surprises has been its use as a helpful interactive learning tool for kids. The device is even being used as a tool to educate children with autism.Continue reading...

Is there still room in the 21st century for Muffy and Chip?

True Prep, the sequel to The Official Preppy Handbook, is being readied for release, three decades after the first preppy primer successfully sold 1.3 million copies.

Again – we’ll be advised on where to shop, what to wear, and how to put the greens and pinks together in the right way. In fact, the original primer’s book jacket was plaid.

Back in the 1980’s, the original took a tongue-in-cheek attitude towards the class of alcohol buzzed, loafer-clad, polo-shirt prepsters. Greed was good and Wall Street thriving.Continue reading...

Newspapers have faced decades – and especially two intense years – of unrelenting bad headlines about their own industry. But a new report by McKinsey suggests reasons for optimism for the business, based largely on the possibilities for building on the trust level that the industry brand has established with consumers.

Nearly every week for the last few years, some major newspaper or chain has reported circulation declines, layoffs or other nasty developments. These have set off major structural changes which have laid low even the titans of the medium. Practically no brand has been able to escape the effects of a perfect storm in the newspaper marketplace: abysmal levels of advertising because of the economy, rising competition from Internet and TV news, and to some extent a greater level of suspicion by the American people in the very institution of newspapering.

But now in its McKinsey Quarterly magazine, the renowned consulting firm says that – based on its own research largely conducted in the UK – “newspapers have an important inherent advantage as they face the challenges of the digital age – trust.” Consumers trust newspapers more than any other medium, McKinsey says, and 66 percent actually trust newspaper advertising as “informative and confidence inspiring” versus just 44 percent who feel that way about TV and only 12 percent for the web.Continue reading...

The era of the anonymous reader is upon us.You can’t tell a book by its cover anymore as so many people are replacing old-fashioned books with electronic readers, Kindles, and the much anticipated Apple iPad available this coming Saturday.
 
The advent of the e-book brings a new chapter to powers of observation traditionally embraced by print book readers – at the beach, on the subway, on a plane – and on the proverbial coffee table: It’s no longer possible to see what others are reading, nor to publically display your own literary preferences.

The element of free advertising is gone – and the residual bump publishers achieved from book cover sales is a thing of the past. In bookstores, still the primary place of book sales, covers remain a crucial tool. “If you have already passed that hurdle of having a customer be attracted to the cover, and then they pick up the book, an enormous battle has been won,” according to Patricia Bostelman, VP, Marketing at Barnes & Noble.Continue reading...

Digital invitations take two steps forward and one step back – to a place and time in history where invitations were things of beauty and taste.

Paperless Post is taking on the veteran leader Evite, and others in the category, and returning the art of the invite to personalized stationery – ink and paper online.

Founded by a brother and sister team, both in their twenties, Paperless Post does not accept advertising. James and Alexa Hirschfeld, as though schooled in the Jane Austen era, believe that advertising, in the invitation business, is interference.  “An ad interposes itself in what should be a purely interpersonal communication,” says James.

Paperless Post’s business model is based on digital “stamps.” Twenty stamps are twenty cents apiece – 300 stamps and above, five cents each. One stamp for one invitation. Inserting an envelope liner or photograph requires extra postage.Continue reading...

It can be difficult to make waves in the venerable greeting-card business. The appearance of humor some decades ago might have been the biggest innovation. Not far behind in impact has been Hallmark’s far more recent move to put music clips on computer chips in cards.

Now, American Greetings – which has always played Avis to Hallmark’s Hertz in this industry – is hoping to create a new buzz for its brand with its “hi-definition lenticular” card line.

The Cleveland-based company isn’t exactly claiming that its lenticular cards will seem as sharply defined as a high-definition TV screen, nor that they’re three-dimensional per se, a popular trend now in movies with Avatar’s success.Continue reading...

In seeking out fresh revenue streams, Condé Nast may boldly explore a frontier where no Condé magazine has ventured before: the realm of licensing.

Apparently, licensing has long been considered at Condé Nast. The New York Observer reports rumors surrounding this issue have been circulating throughout the ranks of Condé Nast executives -- David Carey and Robert Sauerberg, in particular.

However, the idea was never seriously considered because Si Newhouse, CEO of Advance Publications, which owns Condé Nast, felt the move would cheapen the brand.

"Si has never bought into it," said a Condé source.Continue reading...

If the brands behind the Kindle, Nook, and Sony's Reader can agree on one thing, it’s that Prime View International makes the best screens for displaying e-reader text. Unfortunately for Prime View, that may soon change.

Though one rarely notices the paper a book is printed on, the market for “e-paper” is shaping up to be as competitive as the market for the e-readers that use it. Back in June, Taiwan-based Prime View announced its acquisition of E-Ink, whose technology displays that text, in order to corner the nascent e-reader universe.

“Taiwan Firm Positioned for E-Reader Takeoff” headlined the New York Times in a November article that suggested the company would “strengthen its leadership in the next year or two, before anyone else can catch up.”

Yet in a recent Wall Street Journal article, the president of Sony's digital reading division noted (ominously, if you work for Prime View) that “many different companies are approaching us to use their screen technology going forward.” So much for that leadership position.Continue reading...