We’re excited to announce that The Chronicle has launched on Publish2’s HTML5 Tablet App. Check it out on an iPad:
Open app.chronline.com in the Safari browser on an iPad, then follow the prompt to “Add to Home Screen” and open from the home screen icon. Login with username: demo and password: publish2
The app is powered by Publish2’s platform for integrated digital-first publishing, not by The Chronicle’s web CMS, so it is a distinct product from their website. The app features a curated homepage and content from The Chronicle’s Publish2 network — the Northwest News Exchange regional cooperative and national sources like ProPublica, GlobalPost, The Doctors HealthSmart column from USA WEEKEND, Credit.com, and TechCrunch.
The app’s sections and subsection are all easily set up and managed through Publish2’s web interface. Sections can combine multiple sources, including blogs, be defined by keyword filters and other metadata, be automated, hand curated, or both. The Chronicle can add, change, or remove sections with a few clicks.
That’s what distinguishes Publish2’s app — we’ve got a powerful back end, not just the front end. Publish2 enables The Chronicle to be truly digital-first, creating content for the app and web first, and then flowing the content to InDesign for print.
The app is integrated with The Chronicle’s subscriber database, and is now part of their subscription bundle. With an HTML5 app delivered over the web, The Chronicle does not have to share a dime of revenue with Apple. Ads are served by The Chronicle’s ad server and usage is tracked with their analytics software.
With our simple annual license fee, The Chronicle does not have to share any revenue with Publish2 either — they have total control over the app’s business model, with unlimited upside.
The app also features:
- Integration with Facebook and Twitter, for seamless sharing right from within the app
- Saved stories and offline reading mode
- Reader levels based on number of stories read — a “gamification” layer that encourages users to read more (much more to come with this feature)
- Remembers the story or section you had open last time you opened the app
Publish2’s app is software-as-a-service, which means The Chronicle and their readers will always have the most updated version, with all of the new features we are constantly adding. Opened from the home screen icon, the app is indistinguishable from a native code iPad app. But it’s unlike a print replica app because our app has a deeply engaging user experience that is intuitively designed for the tablet platform, not shoehorned onto the tablet from the print platform.
The app is currently iPad only, but we’ll be introducing Android support very soon. Unlike native code apps, our Android version won’t be a new app, but simply this app optimized for loading on Android devices.
Here’s what The Chronicle’s publisher, Christine Fossett, had to say:
“Frequent change is inevitable in our work and personal lives. If business is going to keep pace with the desire of customers they must embrace that change.
We have been very happy to have partnered with Publish2 to facilitate change at The Chronicle. Their staff has created a content management service to assist our internal staff and more importantly they have developed an iPad app for us.
This enables our subscribers to access the local news, our cornerstone, in the traditional print format, on our constantly updated website chronline.com and now in a new platform for the iPad.
Their innovation and ability to take our ideas and create an app that is intuitively easy to use and navigate will serve us and our customers well.
We look forward to our continued partnership as they move our paper onto the iPhone, and then Android platforms in the future.”
The Chronicle app is just the first of many more to come, so stay tuned.
Ready to drive new subscription and advertising revenue on the fast growing tablet platform? In a matter of weeks, we can launch a dynamic tablet app that will delight your subscribers. Let us be your innovation and technology partner.
Drop us a line at getapp@publish2.com. More about the app here.