As Sean Blanda points out in his blog post, community (small) newspapers maybe left out of coming the e-reader (iPad) revolution. I would like to lead a team of news innovators in creating a iPad strategy for community newspapers.
The following is Sean’s “very, very basic outline” I agree on all but the last point, for the foreseeable future I don’t expect newspapers to incur any costs in this endeavor. That’s right free, as in “free beer.” The way I see it getting publishers to ACT is the hard part, followed by coming up with compelling ideas. The technology is really quite trivial nowadays, so by committing the technical resources, I’m getting off easy.
Step One: Publishers band together based on common interest. For example, local Web sites likely have similar interests in the functionality of their iPad and mobile applications.
Step Two: The publishers come to agreement on a list of common feature sets and what they envision an app looking like.
Step Three:
Each publisher contributes a fraction of the total cost to hire a centralized development team (or just one developer) to maintain and focus exclusively on developing platforms with an emphasis on the Apple SDK.
So what are you waiting for, no time to loose right? Please leave a comment here with your intention to participate or email me at jboydston at gmail. Check back here often, I’ll update this page with additional info as we progress.
March 9th, 2010 at 4:35 pm Vote:
I will help with this. I’m already starting a Kindle version of our paper, working on getting listed on B&N and the Sony store too. I was tinkering with the thought of an iPhone/iPad app but working with someone besides myself would be wonderful.
April 7th, 2010 at 9:53 pm Vote:
A fine idea, Joe.
Two daily newspapers from north-central Idaho and south-eastern Washington would be interested in more conversation and assisting with the development.
Feel free to contact me at the reply e-mail.
April 10th, 2010 at 10:41 am Vote:
Joe,
At the Texas Center for Community Journalism, I think we’d be interested in this as well.
April 27th, 2010 at 7:07 am Vote:
I’ve got five or six small newspapers in Northwest Georgia and we’d love to help out with something like this. I’ve already been working on some ideas just like this, but the more brains the better.
April 27th, 2010 at 11:58 am Vote:
I am interested in a group as well. We have one site moved to Drupal and are having successes. With interest in the iPad I agree that it could be the convergence device of the future.
I can help with whatever you need. organization, ideas, etc. Please contact me.