BA1 Research Report

Craig Mod, (2012) Subcompact Publishing [Internet] available at <http://craigmod.com/journal/subcompact_publishing/>. Accessed March 2011 EDGE (2014) EDGE 273 [Online image] Available at <http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/gaming/edge-magazine-subscription/#digital>Accessed November 18th 2014 Tschichold,J. (1927) Die Frau ohne Namen [Online image] Available at <http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=5754>Accessed November 18th 2014 INMA, (2013), Timing of print-to-digital transition is crucial to success for publishers [Internet] available at <http://www.inma.org/blogs/earl/post.cfm/timing-of-print-to-digital-transition-is-crucial-to-success-for-publishers> Accessed November 2014 Newsosaur (2011). Digital publishing metrics: What’s real? [Online] 11th June 2014.Available from <http://newsosaur.blogspot.co.uk/>Accessed 18th November 2014 Gaspard, B. et al. (2012) The Best of News Design: 33. Gloucester MA:Rockport Publishers The Media Briefing, (2014) UK newspaper readership falls twice as fast as circulation [Internet] available at <http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/newspaper-publishers-nrs-abc-circulation-readership-digital-june-2014>. Accessed November 2014 BBC, (2013) The book’s not finished yet [Internet] available at <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22366415>. Accessed November 2014 The Media Briefing (2014) Comparative changes in national readership and circulation Jul ’13 – Jun ’14 [Online image] Available at <http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/newspaper-publishers-nrs-abc-circulation-readership-digital-june-2014>Accessed November 18th 2014 Financial Post, (2014) La Presse to stop printing newspaper edition and focus on digital format, execs confirm [Internet] available at <http://business.financialpost.com/2014/05/15/la-presse-to-stop-printing-newspaper-edition-and-focus-on-digital-format-execs-confirm/?__lsa=cedf-7b04>. Accessed November 2014 NRS, (2014) Newsbrands [Internet] available at <http://www.nrs.co.uk/latest-results/facts-and-figures/newspapers-factsandfigures/>. Accessed November 2014 The Guardian, (2014) Paper vs digital reading is an exhausted debate [Internet] available at <http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/mar/31/paper-vs-digital-reading-debate-ebooks-tim-waterstone>. Accessed November 2014

I went into this Research Report with the intent of learning more about the state of physical vs. digital publishing. Ideally, it would give me more info on how the state of distribution was for publications; the rise of digital is so well documented, but the mainstream can lose out on news about physical triumphs. Being both a journalist for an online website and interested in publishing design means I am intrigued by how both sides of the spectrum perform and progress relative to one another. Seeing magazine closures from the likes of Future Publishing was why I chose to focus on how physical publishing can adapt to digital, instead of just the general “print vs. digital” debate. To carry out my Research Report, I used several techniques. The internet is a rich compilation of information, and so I did a large amount of research there. Finding texts like Subcompact Publishing by Craig Mod has really extended my knowledge of the digital publishing scene; the theories I read have opened up my thinking to how I would approach the digital publishing space as a designer. These are the kinds of texts I want to exploit more in future contextual work. Of course, the internet can only go so far in its usefulness, so using resources like the University library was invaluable. Given my research topic, using both digital and physical ways of researching was fitting. Even so, as aforementioned, I think I could increase the quality of some of my digital sources. Also, I will aspire to use a greater variety of source types in the future; for example, lectures and podcasts. Furthermore, having done my Report, I have more of an idea about the situation of physical publishing and its life alongside, or even converting to, digital. I am aware of the hybrid situation we are now in, as well as the possibility that print will continue its steady decline. Equally, I am under more of an impression that print isn’t going to die out. Even if it becomes more niche, the physicality of print is something that just can’t be matched by digital. Overall, I feel that my Research Report has been successful. I have considerably improved my insight into the state of physical and digital publishing, and how specific publications are adapting – La Presse’s anticipation of doing away with physical distribution completely (Financial Post, 2014) and EDGE’s design choices for digital (EDGE, 2014) are just two examples I found of this throughout my Research Report, and I am interested in seeing how this progresses in the future.

INMA, (2013), Timing of print-to-digital transition is crucial to success for publishers [Internet] available at <http://www.inma.org/blogs/earl/post.cfm/timing-of-print-to-digital-transition-is-crucial-to-success-for-publishers> Accessed November 2014 Newsosaur (2011). Digital publishing metrics: What’s real? [Online] 11th June 2014.Available from <http://newsosaur.blogspot.co.uk/>Accessed 18th November 2014 Gaspard, B. et al. (2012) The Best of News Design: 33. Gloucester MA:Rockport Publishers

The image I am analyzing here is Issue 273 of EDGE magazine, a publication that reports on the games industry. I have chosen to look at this image in detail because the large focus on the digital version is relevant to my Research Report topic. EDGE manages to create a natural and high quality conversion to digital formats in multiple ways. Also, the whole design is focused on looking sophisticated amongst the many examples of cluttered game magazine designs (e.g. GamesMaster and Official PlayStation Magazine). For starters, the size of the physical magazine – approximately 26x20cm, slightly smaller than A4 – fits the phone and especially tablet display effectively. Looking at just the cover, it’s simple, elegant, and communicates the messages clearly; this helps the magazine stand out on Newsstand and any other digital distribution platforms. For this issue in particular, the bridge in the chosen piece of art creates a nice divide in the page and the type is well spaced across said divide. This intelligent use of the game art stands out from the cluttered splashes of art on rival magazines. The rest of the type is well defined in its hierarchy, with the main title (in subtly contrasting orange), subtitles and small text in the bottom left forming a progressive composition once you are drawn into the cover design.

Subcompact Publishing by Craig Mod is the text I shall summarise in the following paragraphs. I have chosen a section of roughly 1000 words, which talks about the topics of Skeuomorphic business models and A Subcompact Manifesto. The text starts by touching on how we inject physicality into our digital publishing. Things like shutter sounds on smartphone cameras and paper flips on eBooks are all about replicating the physical experience in the digital space. Moving on, Craig Mod delves into the general structure of a print magazine nowadays. Monthly issues, with a set amount of articles, all distributed together. Mod suggests that this doesn’t need to be unchanged for digital; you can build ground-up, working from known trends. This is how A Subcompact Manifesto ends up being pitched. Subcompact Publishing is based on some core ideas. To begin with, being flexible, instantly understandable and needing no instructions are building blocks of the manifesto. In addition, everything is about building from the ground up for digital, rather than trying to move physical publishing across. 8 key ideas form the bulk of Subcompact Publishing: small issue and file sizes, for intuition and speed; fair subscription prices; a fluid publishing schedule, for more regular supply; scrolling pages for ease of use; clear navigation; HTML for more output methods; and open web to create a visible presence.

Mind Map for "Adapting Physical Publishing to a Digital Space" Research Report