Travel + Leisure has redeployed its mobile app content as a utility; plus, Facebook Live and pay-per-article pointers
Digital magazines can go in a million different directions with mobile app content to create apps people want, but it’s no big secret that a shortcut to more downloads and usage is actually providing useful stuff to consume.
One major legacy magazine is doing just that, and MinOnline.com has the scoop.
Travel + Leisure’s New-Look Mobile App Content
Travel + Leisure is leveraging its mobile app content as a utility, MinOnline.com reports. Great interview with Editor Nathan Lump.
“The app itself took about four months to make, though it’s been in the works for much longer than that. It was very much a collaborative process involving our product and technology teams, along with T+L’s editors and myself. The content in the app builds on our relaunched travel guides at TravelandLeisure.com, and the content creation process for that has been underway for well over a year. I worked with the edit team to determine the rollout of destinations and to ensure the mix of recommendations and level of curation was spot on; our art and photo teams were instrumental in creating a stylish and modern look and feel; and then we worked closely with the product and development teams on the UX and feature set,” Lump told Caysey Welton.
“We’re happy to provide the app as a free resource for now. Our publisher, Joe Messer, and his team have created sponsorship and advertising opportunities within the app for brands to reach this passionate audience. … We have launched with guides to 46 destinations and plan to roll out many more within the app this year, and of course we will be updating the existing guides with noteworthy new recommendations to ensure they are delivering the up-to-the-minute intelligence that our audience expects from Travel + Leisure.”
Figuring Out Publisher Video on Facebook Live
Wondering where to start with Facebook Live? MinOnline.com has a nice primer, with a handful of pointers.
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“Live is an experimental platform and, because it’s, well, live, mistakes are bound to happen. Both Hoch and Miller suggest that mistakes are par for the course, but you can’t let them throw you off your game. Power through your mistakes while you’re streaming live, and then learn from them so you can avoid it happening again, whether it’s tech glitches, a botched line or an unexpected circumstance. Miller compares the platform to radio, which requires you to think on your feet and be adaptive to unexpected situations,” MinOnline.com staff writes.
A Perspective on the Pay-Per-Article Approach
Blendle Managing Editor Michael Jarjour has some thoughts on the pay-per-article model, MinOnline.com reports.
“We’ve found that readers are perfectly happy to pay for high quality journalism online if it’s a seamless, easy and beautiful experience. Uniquely, Blendle offers an instant refund to anyone who isn’t happy with the article they’ve read. This removes most of the mental transaction cost a lot of other providers have suffered from,” Jarjour told Allison Johns.
“Early on we changed to an automated discovery feature with human journalists who create a short daily email to readers on Blendle containing the smartest, most unique and most compelling new articles. This has been a game changer for us. Currently we’re doubling down by employing not only human curators, but a team of data scientists that matches the most powerful stories with the people most interested in them.”
Does your mobile app content go beyond a good read? Tell us about it in the comments!
To read more about mobile app content and other news, visit MinOnline.com.
