Flipboard “iPadifies” Shared Content from Leading Publishers

TEST CREATES NEW WAY TO BROWSE STORIES FROM ABC NEWS, ALL THINGS DIGITAL, BON APPETIT, LONELY PLANET, SB NATION, SF CHRONICLE/GATE, UNCRATE AND THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE
December 2nd, 2010  •  Palo Alto, CA

Today Flipboard™ announced a framework for publishers to give readers a beautiful, “iPadified” experience when browsing their web content with Flipboard’s app for the iPad. Starting today eight leading media brands are testing this new way to browse their shared content. Now, when selected stories from ABC News, All Things Digital, Bon Appetit, Lonely Planet, SB Nation, SF Chronicle/Gate, Uncrate or The Washington Post Magazine is shared on Twitter or Facebook, a Flipboard user can simply double-tap the excerpt to get a beautiful magazine-style reading experience.

“We believe that the timeless principles of print can enhance the social media experience, not only to make content more discoverable but also to make it easier to read,” said Mike McCue, Flipboard CEO. “Now, working with publishers, we can re-imagine Web pages as magazine articles, connecting readers more deeply with the publisher’s brand while opening up entirely new advertising possibilities.” “The technology of gathering and presenting news and public information has been subject to constant revolution. Today social networks are on the cutting edge of finding relevance for consumers and advertisers. Flipboard has developed an amazingly simple and powerful tool – easily integrated with existing networks like Facebook and Twitter – to leverage this social dimension for online magazines, newspapers, broadcasters and websites. The power comes from building on top of traditional editorial skills, and seamlessly delivering the power of tablet era technology for organizing stories, visual impact and targeted ads.” commented William R. Hearst, a media industry veteran and currently an Affiliated Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Today Flipboard is also proud to announce that Mr. Hearst has officially joined the company as an advisor. In addition to partnering with leading publishers, Flipboard is working with OMD, one of the world’s foremost media communication specialists, to test high impact brand advertising in a digital environment with beautiful, full-page ads from OMD’s clients. Advertisers participating in this test include Pepsi, Gatorade, Infiniti, The CW Television Network, Showtime, Levi’s, Dockers, Hilton Worldwide, GE, Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, Project (RED), Standup2cancer.org and Charity Water. In addition, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams is the sponsor for The Washington Post Magazine during this test. Readers will see these magazine-style placements while flipping through stories from publishers participating in the trial.

“The tablet explosion has inspired new thinking both in the world of publishing, as well as advertising,” said Jonathan Haber, U.S. director of OMD’s innovation unit, Ignition Factory. “We are excited about our unique partnership with Flipboard to help our clients explore tablet based advertising that extends their existing campaigns and expands our ability to integrate high impact brand advertising into a platform that is, at its core, a social media experience.”

A NEW APPROACH TO BROWSING CONTENT: FLIPBOARD PAGES

To create these magazine-style views of web pages, Flipboard has worked with individual publishers to design layouts that make reading their existing online stories more visually attractive and immersive. To expand this capability to the broader community of publishers, the company has developed Flipboard Pages, an HTML5-based framework that automatically converts web content into full-page, paginated reading experiences when browsing content with Flipboard. In the future, Flipboard intends to make Flipboard Pages available to other publishers and content creators so any socially shared web story can be optionally read in a magazine format.

The Flipboard App for iPad is available for free at www.flipboard.com or from the App Store on iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

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*Note: This is a free trial where all parties are testing the experience. There are no financial relationships between or commitments from publishers, advertisers or Flipboard.