July 27, 2011

Mashable
While some magazines are publishing on the iPad, or may be still forming tablet strategies, Sports Illustrated has committed to designing separate editions every week for nearly every type of tablet device. Mashable looks at the process:

“Sports Illustrated‘s design team, headed up by creative director Chris Hercik, must format the issue at a 4:3 ratio in both vertical and horizontal formats for the iPad, at a vertical 16:9 ratio for the HP TouchPad, and at a 16:9 ratio (horizontal only) for the Samsung Galaxy and Motorola Xoom.”

“Furthermore, unique functions must be built for each platform. In a recent music-themed double issue, Sports Illustrated was able to embed iTunes songs in the iPad edition, but other tablets had to link out to Amazon’s music player so that readers could listen to songs.”

SI says this is part of its “all-access” subscription strategy rolled out in March, which enables readers to get Sports Illustrated in any form at any time. That’s also significantly different from many other publications that charge separate fees for mobile apps.

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Jeff Sonderman (jsonderman@poynter.org) is the Digital Media Fellow at The Poynter Institute. He focuses on innovations and strategies for mobile platforms and social media in…
Jeff Sonderman

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