Writing for Mobile Readers
Posted on Saturday, March 30, 2013 at 12:47 PM
How are other editors approaching mobile strategy?
By
William Dunkerley
With the rapid proliferation of smartphones
and tablets, we wondered what editors are doing about writing or
repurposing content for audiences on the go. So we surveyed a cross
section of editors to find out. We asked whether they are employing any
kind of different editorial approach, or if they have plans to do so in
the future.
Quite a few publications are already producing mobile
editions. They tend to be graphically simplified replicas of the
original content, be that for print or online. The existence of mobile
editions shows an acknowledgment that mobile reading is different from
more traditional forms. But what about the text? Are editors handling
that differently as well? Here's what we found:
As results
started to come in, the first thing that struck us is how many
publications don't even have mobile readers in their sights. Examples
include:
--We don't currently offer content for mobile users
and have no imminent plans to do so.
--I don't do anything
differently for mobile right now and have no plans to do so.
--We
don't really employ a different editorial approach for content written
or repurposed for mobile users.
--I use the same editorial
approach for all users.
Clearly, going mobile is not for
everyone. Some subject matter and some audiences may not be well suited
for mobile.
One editor explained,
--"We are a B2B magazine
that does not offer content for mobile users, and have no plans to do
so. My former colleague at another B2B publication told me the same
thing concerning his publication. A production manager I know at a major
consumer magazine informed me that that magazine used to have an app
(with, I believe, both re-purposed and original content), but it was
discontinued. He left that magazine to join another one with an app, as
he felt that not having an app was an unhealthy thing for a magazine." --Ava
Caridad, editor, Spray Technology & Marketing
Another
group of respondents expects to do something with mobile in the future:
--"At
present, we do not take a different approach to material for mobile
users. This is currently handled as an automated process by a third
party. We are keenly aware of this issue, however, and our company is
looking at other ways to provide mobile content. Nothing to report yet." --Steve
Minter, executive editor, IndustryWeek
--"While we don't
offer content exclusively for mobile users, we may in the
not-too-distant future." --Timothy Rhys, editor, MovieMaker
Magazine
--"At this point we don't offer content for mobile
users. We have recently launched a digital edition (May 2012) and do
plan to create an app for iPad and iPhone within the next 12 to 18
months." --Tricia Bisoux, co-editor, BizEd magazine
--"I
would like to produce mobile content, but we don't have the IT staff to
break our content into chunks for delivery. If we did, I would approach
the writing and editing differently, though I'm not sure how different
it would be." --Bryant Duhon, editor, AIIM Community
--"We
are launching an app in April, but it will be the same content as in
print and online -- just in a new format." --Sue Silver,
editor-in-chief, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
--"We
currently do not offer mobile-specific content for any of our 40-plus
B2B brands. Our newest sites are built to be mobile-friendly
(Apple/Android), and we are looking at abridged mobile content for a few
sites that get a high volume of mobile traffic. But the hurdle is
editorial workload. Currently we post news items or Web exclusives,
create e-newsletters weekly or semi-weekly, and use social media
(Facebook/Twitter). Add to that video and of course magazines, and the
odd event or special project, and our editors are busy folks." --Scott
Jamieson, editorial director, Annex Business Media
--"To be
honest, we're in the process of reworking our editorial workflows to
better serve digital readers, with mobile users at top of mind. We've
traditionally been a magazine publisher, so much of our content has been
created and designed for print delivery. We publish to the Web too, and
like most, we see our best opportunity for growth in that area.
"Along
the way, we've learned that the long-form articles we publish in print
just aren't a good size for digital readers. That means we've found it
necessary to reconfigure by starting our editorial process with digital
readers in mind and redesigning our print products to work with shorter,
more focused content that first appears online.
"What's in the
works for us is a focus on making our content usable on any screen from
a design perspective. From there, we can begin to address the specific
needs of mobile users, or the creation of content especially for mobile.
My take is that most people's Web use is now so colored by the use of
task-oriented mobile devices that desktop and mobile readers don't
really look that different in how they access and use content." --Matt
Neznanski, editor-in-chief, brass Media Inc.
So should you be
handling content for mobile use differently? The answer is probably yes.
But exactly what to do differently may not be so certain. We're in the
early stages of mobile content consumption. It is still uncertain what
and how much content mobile users are really interested in consuming.
Some
research has indicated that the small screens of mobile devices severely
limit reading comprehension. One finding asserts, "Users can see less at
any given time. Thus users must rely on their highly fallible memory
when they are trying to understand anything that's not fully explained
within the viewable space. Less context equals less understanding."
That's
something for editors to keep in mind. It's also worth keeping in mind
that there are no time-tested answers yet. We need to employ agility in
our evolving editorial approaches to mobile content.
William
Dunkerley is principal of William Dunkerley Publishing Consultants, www.publishinghelp.com.
Add
your comment.
Comment:
"I subscribe to a few weekly magazines on my iPad. It wasn't an easy task,
I must admit, to figure out initially how to operate each of the apps. They all
are organized differently, to say the least. Why on earth do I turn pages of
magazine A from left to right, and magazine B from top to bottom? Some have a
thesaurus, but not all. And zooming? Why does zoom sometimes work, and sometimes
doesn't? And if it does, I've got to know for each different app, how to zoom.
You'd think that zooming is zooming, wherever you want to do it. Think again!
"These are problems I encounter as a reader. It's even more complex when as publishers
we contemplate how to design apps for our publications. We've got to be sure they are
convenient and easy to use, and that they not just look flashy." --Sergey Panasenko, Moscow, Russia
Posted in (RSS)