A few years ago, I worked for a boutique publisher. The publisher offered a number of subscription-only journals, and the decision was made to create an iPad Newsstand version of the journal. I spent a good chunk of my time helping generate as interactive, measurable and enjoyable a magazine app as possible, and we were very proud of the results.
Key to us was the ability to have solid metrics on what types of topics our users were reading, who their favourite authors were, and how regularly they were accessing specific articles or sections.
So, today I’m reading through recaps of the first day of the WWDC and find out that Apple is replacing Newsstand with its own Flipboard competitor, News. Without knowing a huge amount of detail, I wonder what this bodes for these publishers, and the various platforms (such as Woodwing) and app analytics providers (Flurry, specifically) – especially given Apple made a point of noting user data will not be shared with third-parties.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when it launches.
[Engadget: Apple News app brings ‘beautiful’ personalized content to iOS]