Ryan C. Miller.com – Social Media, Business & Small Things -

03/16/12 – Resolutionary

Posted on March 16, 2012 by MillerNo Comments

Food and Wine – and Food&Wine

Posted on December 21, 2010 by MillerNo Comments

I need to start out by saying that I’m a big fan of food and wine. I’m also a big fan of Food & Wine (the magazine). The the past couple of years I’ve enjoyed just about every issue that gets flung on my doorstep and have loved trying my hand some awesome pairings (thought I wish they’d focus a touch more on the wine then they do now).

But with declining circulation, ad revenues, and eyeballs shifting online, publishers seem to have gone bat-shit crazy when it comes to the digitzation of their magazines. I love my iPad and I think that device presents such a unique format that is PERFECT for magazines to move towards as part of their overall digital strategies. I’ve tried GQ, Wired, and Food & Wine on the iPad and to a certain degree they are all missing the mark (especially when it comes to subscriptions and pricing – but another problem for another post).

I just want to highlight a couple pieces of low hanging fruit that could really separate Food & Wine from the rest of the pack (I’m picking on you beccause I love you, ok?).
First and foremost, the layout of the iPad app for Food and Wine is killer. I love the way that they have integrated video and other interactive content into their stories and features (step-by-step video guides with Mario Batali were a welcome addition).

A major opportunity that they are missing (as well as countless other publishers) in their iPad and AND their print edition would be the integration of a simple QR code on every recipe or article that allows me to scan it with my mobile phone to download the recipe, share the content with friends, or just let me save a shopping list of ingredients. I’ve seen it done with cover stories, but magazines should take the golden opportunity to extend their reach and conversations from a print edition to the web via engaged users. If it’s good, we’ll share it.

Food and Wine I think does a decent job with their Facebook community and I actually look forward to their posts with recipes in them. They obviously have a foot in social media – but I think that they could get exponentially more mileage if they just connected the different parts of the magazine into a seamless, sharable experience. The iPad app shouldn’t be a separate beast from the magazine or the Facebook page. Let readers showcase their recipes, rate the ones that were in the magazine and most importantly share everything!

The publishing house that gets this part of the strategy right (along with the pricing – god knows that’s important) should have no problem succeeding in this media environment. It’s not goign to be about having the flashiest app – because it’s not about an app – it’s about integration of great content across mediums and community. Period.

Notes on Flash – how Adobe can stop whining and take back the conversation

Posted on August 17, 2010 by MillerNo Comments

no Flash - get it?

I, like many other iPhone and iPad users am still disappointed that Flash still hasn’t made its way onto those devices. Yes, I’m aware of ‘Frash’ but the big thing that’s missing in that package is the ability to play Flash Video – which is really all I care about (#iwantowatchTheDailyShow).

But what I’m really sick of is the whining on both Apple and Adobe’s part. Apple complains that flash is a closed, antiquated system (see Jobs’ open letter – Thoughts on Flash), and Adobe complains that basically Apple is the one who is using a closed system and basically doesn’t support Flash out of a grudge – and they’re moving on.

Hey Adobe – have some faith in your users. It amazes me that Adobe has just thrown their arms up. If they believe so strongly in Flash’s need to be on iDevices – just build it. Build it as an app or a plugin. And let the market decide (I can’t believe I said that, being a bleeding heart liberal). As someone who helps develop websites and other web based solutions, the lack of even a public beta also makes me less likely to suggest anything Flash based to clients. I recognize how many flash-disabled devices there are out there and by giving up plans to develop a solution, Adobe also is not giving anyone an incentive to continue to use their technology.

Between the U.S. Copyright Office officially sanctioning jailbreaking your phone and the ease at which you can do so thanks to jailbreakme.com – there’s now nothing preventing you from (legally) getting your iPhone to run flash. Just Adobe (well, and a little bit of Apple).

There are also plenty of avenues for distribution via Cydia or Rock that could bring an official Adobe Flash plugin to millions of users, should they choose to install it. Hell, I (and I’m sure many others) would gladly fork over a few bucks for the privilage of having flash capability (especially on my iPad). For the first time, Adobe could actually make money by distributing what has traditionally been a free plugin.

So I guess this is my open letter to Adobe. Put your money and your devs where you mouth is. Don’t take your ball, whine and go home. Like any other business, if you build a product that kicks-ass people will download it – they’ll even tell their friends. Again, have faith in your community. If Adobe truly believes that they have a great product, they should stand behind it and let the community decide. Maybe if they build it, we will come….and download.

iBooks doesn’t have Sh*t but Amazon is full of it

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Miller4 Comments

Have you ever seen Shit My Dad Says on Twitter? Check it out. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Really funny stuff. Justin Hepburn, who set up the account as a place to share his father’s snippets of wisdom, currently has 1.4million followers, a TV deal, and a new book which is a collection of stories and essays (also called Sh*t My Dad Says).

I’ve checked out the preview on Amazon for the book and decided that it was something that would make for a quick and fun summer read.

I also picked up an iPad a few weeks ago and have been very impressed by how many things I use it for (full review coming next week). What I haven’t really spent a lot of time with is buying / reading full length books on it from the iBooks store. At the risk of not enjoying the experience, I figured Sh*t My Dad Says would be a good starter book.

However, the iBooks store currently doesn’t stock it. Not that big of a deal, right? I’ve heard that you can just grab a Kindle app and purchase / read any Kindle books on your iPad.

But here’s what I found when I went to Amazon to purchase the Kindle version:

Notice anything strange?

Here’s a quick observation on the difference between bytes and binding…

If you look hard, you’ll see that the new hardcover edition is priced at $8.79 and the Kindle edition (digital download) is $9.99. A brand new, hardcover book should NEVER cost more than an e-edition. Ever. Call me cheap, but the cost associated with moving a couple megabytes of text is infinitely smaller than the cost of printing and shipping a hardcover book. Never mind the antiquated royalty system between publishers and authors, I’m not going to touch that here. The whole purpose of e-readers is to (hopefully) do for reading what iTunes did for music (granted, there are some bad byproducts to this system as well) by making it convenient, instant, scalable, and cost effective.

But as the model stands right now, I think e-books in their current form and pricing structure are majorly flawed, no matter how cool the reading device is. Amazon is asking me to pay more for what is essentially the same experience as a paper book (without being able to share it with someone else when I’m done – another rant altogether).

Publishers need to either charge less because consumers recognize that there is substantially less cost involved with distribution and substantially more restrictions when it comes to sharing an e-book vs. a paper book – OR make the e-book a completely different experience than the paper book- one that is worth a premium price. How? I can think of a few ways:

• Ability to share chapters or the whole book with friends after completing it.
• The ability to annotate pages, add hyperlinks and share notes with everyone else who has bought that ebook.
• Enable book club style features where every reader can interact with other readers in real time through the book, commenting and suggesting other books.
• Allow for authors to have Q and As IN the book or allow users to peel back pages to see earlier drafts.

Things like this would differentiate the ebook experience, provide a kick ass way of interacting with other readers and essentially make each book come with its own built-in online community (not to mention sell a lot more Kindles, Nooks and iPads so more people could take part in that experience). Need more? Seth Godin has another awesome idea for  a paperback Kindle.

Am I asking for too much here? Do you think the problem is that the tech is in its infancy at the moment, or do you blame the publishers (or authors)? Do you have an e-reader device and has it made you read more – if so, how would you weigh in on the pricing, buying experience? Fire away in the comments, please.