I write to you today not just as Your Friendly Neighborhood Blogger, but also partially wearing one of my other hats—that of the assistant editor at STC, with Intercom as one of my duties.
You hopefully have noticed that Intercom is in the process of changing. We’ve seen some blogs and tweets that displayed a bit of confusion about the changes, so I wanted to address a few things to clarify and, in the words of the legendary Barney Fife, “Nip it.” “It” being the confusion.
To start, let me assure you that the flipdoc debuted with the January issue of Intercom is just Step One of the new and improved “yummy goodness.” (And if “yummy goodness” is not a technical term, it should be.) Over the next few months, we'll roll out a completely redesigned magazine and starting in April will have four online versions available for our members:
- the standard PDF, as we've had for the recent past, with a new design
- the flipbook PDF, which was debuted with the January issue
- a text-only PDF, for mobile devices
- a web-based version
STC is currently working with EEI Communications on the magazine's redesign. A task force is discussing the print, PDF, and online design of the magazine, with the STC Board of Directors involved as well.
Some may ask why the flipbook PDF was the first to be rolled out. Simple answer: It was the easiest. There was very little extra work necessary to debut the flipbook. The technology and design already exists, so we simply needed to personalize it slightly and put the “skin” on the already-existing PDF. The redesign of the magazine and the design of the online home, however, are more detailed, more in-depth, and taking more time. So those will come a little later.
We’ve already received some positive feedback from those who enjoy the flipbook. Our editor, Liz Pohland, received an email from one member who wrote, “I just love Intercom being online! I think I just read more in one issue in ten minutes than I have ever in a paper copy. . . . It was so easy to flick through, zoom in, and move around the page. Really great work.” Another member asked to use the flip doc version as a positive example in an upcoming talk he's giving to publishers. And yes, there are some who are eagerly awaiting the web-based version instead. Chalk it up to different strokes.
There are a few things that can be better with the flipbook, and we're working with our vendor to improve. If you have specific suggestions/comments on how we can make the flipbook better, please email me at kevin.cuddihy@stc.org. For example, we’ve already changed the video ad on page three from an auto-start to a click-to-start.
The January Letter from the Editor states that HTML will be the primary format of Intercom. The PDFs are to provide more options for everyone. And we're confident that—with the four options listed above that we'll be offering—there will be a version that just about every STC member will enjoy and be able to use. That's our goal. We realize that not every member will enjoy or use every version, but we hope that there's at least one version that each member can use.
Thanks again, and I look forward to your feedback!
What I like:
*It is certainly very “Flash-y.” It is nice to see STC pushing the cutting edge!
*Lots and lots of potential. I can foresee future articles (not just the ads) making use of embedded movies, demos, and the like.
* The ability to create a PDF of only the articles I select
What I don’t like:
*I can’t download the SWF to my local PC — I’m forced to read the magazine online.
*The “pages” aren’t well-formatted for online reading. For example:
-The Outside Back Cover appears as the first page.
-The pages are portrait (but my monitor is landscape)
-Columns mean a *lot* of mouse work for me to read an article.
* There’s no way (I found) to reference or link to a specific article, or to “send a link.” There’s a “Share” function, but that’s for the entire magazine.
* I can’t copy text or images.
Where I need clarification:
*Is this meant to be read online? Or is it simply a different electronic delivery mechanism for the PDF? Since the pages are formatted for the printed page, is the assumption that end-users will be printing from the flipbook?
*I understand that the (coming soon) HTML version will be designed for online use. I understand that the “regular” PDF is designed to be printed. I don’t fully understand the planned usage for the flipbook.
I can’t wait to see how this evolves over time!
OK, I’m going to be direct here.
First, I agree with everything Rick commented on, pretty much. Now, …
If you want to supply a PDF for those who want to print the magazine, fine. I personally would not use the flipbook. It’s just lipstick on a pig. The bells and whistles add nothing to what I want or need in an online publication. I want RSS. I want to retweet articles. I want to cite them in my blogs when necessary. I don’t want to link to a single file and say “page 34, second column, third paragraph, next to the Authorware ad”. Online audiences hate that stuff.
So PDF = ok for those who want print, Flipbook = meh, and Online = not there yet.
Look at what Plano can do for an online publication. I’ve used it successfully to publish online multi-article newsletters. A format like that (a micro CMS with all the right web tools) is light and extendable.
Don’t go for flashiness. Go for usability and reusability. THAT would be cutting edge.
That should be Plone and not Plano.
I’m delighted to hear the “web-based” version is in the works, and not too far off!
I trust that implementation will provide easy links to individual articles in HTML form.
Also glad to hear about the change to the video-ad auto-start in the flip-book…that little surprise was definitely on my annoyances list.
Personally, I can’t imagine ever reading the magazine in the flipbook form. HTML for online, PDF for if I want to print the whole thing – those are what interest me.
I guess one advantage to providing the flipbook is that it showed some progress toward providing options other than PDF 🙂
From the communication standpoint…it would have been nice to have the roll-out of the flipbook smack-dab in the middle of an announcement describing planned improvements over the coming months. There’s a good spot for that, right on the issue page: https://www.stc.org/intercom/index.asp
Linda
I’d love it if the online version of Intercom had features like the Carolina Chapter’s newsletter, which allows you to select which articles you want to print:
http://www.stc-carolina.org/newsletter/tiki-print_pages.php
Thanks all for the comments. Rick, we’ve been talking about the issue of columns in the redesign with EEI. We likely won’t have one-column in the PDF, but we’ve discussed the “fewer is better” aspect of columns in PDF reading. The web version, of course, is a different animal completely.
techcommdood, you’re right, it’s not possible to link to specific articles in the flipbook. Once the web version is online, though, that should make it much easier for you to cite, link, tweet, etc., about all the wonderful articles Intercom has each month. At current time, we still have the article-by-article flat PDFs to let you do that. I know I need that as well for the Intercom Q&As on the blog. And we’re aware some will consider it, as you do, “lipstick on a pig.” Others seem to be more of the Charlotte’s Web opinion: it’s “some pig.”
Andrea, we don’t have the exact capability that newsletter has right now, but it’s an interesting idea. I’ll forward that along to EEI to see if it’s something we can easily incorporate. Thanks!
One other comment (and I’ll avoid an “ooh shiny” snark at Charlotte’s Web – oops, too late *g*)… The truly online version must be mobile-friendly. That’s a hard requirement I’d like to suggest. Many people are on the go these days, and rely heavily on their smartphones and other mobile technogizmos. Whether sitting on a commuter train, waiting at a doctor’s office, at a kid’s soccer game or dance class, or what have you, more and more people are using that “down” time to catch up on their online communications and reading via mobile devices.
I love that this blog is mobile-friendly. 🙂
This format will simplify distribution of InterCom to chapters near and far, at a significant savings (mailing and publishing) to the Society and members. Yahoo!