Ceros

Ceros is on location at Farnborough International Airshow as RBI's Flightglobal team create their daily interactive magazine. Packed with on-the-spot video interviews and interactive features, iFlight Daily continues throughout the week. Check back to here to see the editions as they appear!

Self-proclaimed Lord of Dance and Prince of Swimwear, Stephen Fry, a life-long Cricket fan, tweeted About the magazine All Out Cricket recently. As a well-known Apple evangelist with over 1.6M Twitter followers, Fy's tweet provides more evidence of the enthusiasm and interest with which people receive Ceros Interactive Communications.

Follow Stephen on Twitter at @stephenfry 

And Ceros at @cerosdotcom

As reported by the Association of Publishing Agencies

Over the last few year one British company has been at the forefront of creating page turning interactive magazine style experiences online - Ceros. It now has an extensive list of clients including Conde Naste, Haymarket and Dennis Publishing and some hit publications its name. You might then have assumed that the company would be hugely excited by the launch of Apple's tablet PC the iPad with its ability to ape turning magazine pages. In fact, as Ceros MD Dominic Duffy told me, his phone hasn't stopped ringing in the last two months with publishers anxious to produce content that can be showcased on the device. So it is very interesting to discover that Duffy is taking a long view on how the Apple product might change publishing . 'There's an awful lot of hysteria surrounding the iPad at the moment,' says Duffy, 'but with that hysteria there's a lot of nonsense too. I am not sure that publishers have fully grasped the implications of what producing iPad magazines really means.'

'Ultimately publishers will be selling apps, and people tend to buy apps once and not repeat purchase them. What the publishers need to do is work out ways in which they can keep people coming back to buy the apps, and I am not sure that many of them grasped what this actually means.' Duffy adds that this means developing complimentary content to the magazine not unlike the way in which publishers attached CD-ROMs to their titles in the 90s. 'The situation is further complicated by the fact that the business model for selling magazines on the device doesn't exist yet and that the iPad itself is unproven as a format. There is also the issue of magazines being sold via Apple's app store. The data that publishers collect is massively important to them and if Apple doesn't pass on data - it doesn't to music companies - then this will present huge problems to the publishers.' Duffy also thinks that there are also potential problems for publishers going outside the iPad orbit and producing titles for other formats such as Google's Android operating system. He thinks these may work but unless the publishing companies sort out a distribution system then it will be hard to connect with readers.

That isn't to say that Ceros hasn't worked on iPad titles- it developed a version of Marie Claire for IPC - but Duffy feels at the moment that publishers are 'producing iPad magazines because they feel they ought to and not for any sound financial reasons.' There is however one industry sector that Duffy feels could not just benefit from producing iPad-friendly content, but also may pioneer using the format in the UK and that is customer publishing. '

The biggest issue for publishers is the business model of selling content on the iPad. Customer publishers, who have already had their content funded, simply don't have to worry about that.' Duffy also feels that two of the iPad magazines' strongest features will work well for customer publishers, namely video and one click purchasing. He believes that video is a central part of the platform and is perfect for customer publishers as they seek to explain complex things like recipes. 'Video has always been a core feature of the Ceros platform and I think it could have enormous impact in customer publishing. I also think that one click purchasing will be less of a challenge for iPad apps. It doesn't work well on browsers as you have to log in and maybe input credit card details. But with apps the provider will have that information already so you'll just be able to click and buy. It is a real opportunity for customer publishers to drive new revenue streams.'

Yodl is a content delivery platform. A rich media content delivery platform. Comprising a desktop reader app and cms, the platform provides end-users with up-to-the-minute content - direct to their desktops. Content-owners are provided the tools to push rich content direct to consumer's desktops and crucially, gain real-time usage and subscription data.

Yodl is currently in beta and has been launched with Reed Business Information's Flightglobal brands. They seem pleased. So pleased they made a video about it. Take a look. 

Read the official press release from Reed Business Information below:

Cutting-edge app brings Flightglobal to your fingertips Flightglobal users can access breaking aviation news and content whether they’re at their desk, on the go, or 30,000ft in the air thanks to a pioneering desktop app called Yodl. Divided into three core channels - Airline Business, All about Flying and All about Aircraft - the Yodl app acts like a desktop PA, automatically alerting users to breaking news or recently updated content via a handy window on their desktop. Users can choose precisely what they want to receive (aviation news, blogs, jobs, videos, digital magazine editions, special reports) and once YODL has downloaded new content it’s stored and ready to read - online, offline, in the air, and all for free. “Increasingly our audiences are using different platforms to stay connected and we’ve been looking into new channels to help them do this,” said Flightglobal Marketing Director Snezana Petrovic. “Yodl conveniently brings all the selected content from Flightglobal to one place for the user, and stores it offline to view at leisure or when travelling. It is also very effective in bringing magazine content to life alongside online services. The user ultimately stays in control of what they want to receive and how they want to view it. Ceros has been a great partner and translated our requirements into effective functionality and an inspiring design.” The app - an aviation industry first - was developed in partnership with interactive publishing experts Ceros and comes hot on the heels of Flight's iPhone app which became available on iTunes last November. “YODL is slick and easy to use,” says Ceros Co-Founder Dominic Duffy. “Using Adobe’s Air technology we’ve created an efficient, non-intrusive way to keep users informed. The Flightglobal team update the content, which can include video and interactivity, and Flightglobal users are delivered the content instantaneously. Simple.” YODL is completely free to use, compatible with all computers and operating systems and takes minutes to download. Visit www.flightglobal.com/yodl find out more, watch a video demo and download the app to your desktop.

Ceros has won its place in the Top 100 smartest businesses in Britain. Awarded by an esteemed panel of judges including Dragon's Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden, placement in the Top 100 is a real achievement. Read their synopsis here.