It's for the cross-platform utility that magazine publisher Hearst Magazines has announced a plan to convert all of its websites into HTML5 sites, starting with Good Housekeeping.

The first Hearst website to undergo an HTML5 redesign was Good Housekeeping, the venerable women's magazine founded back in 1885 (you wouldn't get away with launching that brand name nowadays!).

I tapped into my inner 1950s American housewife and checked out the new site on 3 devices: PC, iPhone and iPad. It displayed very well on each device, including the drop down menus - often a good test of mobile website functionality.

PC version

Perhaps being overly boastful, Hearst claims that HTML5 is "more comprehensively used in this site [Good Housekeeping] than practically any other media site that we know of." I'm not sure if that's true, especially since Boston Globe just launched an HTML5 redesign.

Hearst plans to implement HTML5 redesigns for the rest of its network over the next 18 months.

This is a great initiative by Hearst and we expect to see many other media companies roll out HTML5 websites over the next couple of years.

iPhone version

iPad version

Ray-Ban, a company known for its stylish sunglasses, has been around the block with AR marketing in the past. Previously, customers could sample potential buys by using their webcams as a virtual mirror to try on different pairs of sunglasses. More recently, Ray-Ban and AR developers Total Immersion have returned with another round of interactive marketing, taking the experience to a new level with its "Rare Finds" campaign.

By holding up one of the company's Rare Finds print advertisements to a webcam while on the Ray-Ban website, users can view interactive 3D experiences which unlock special exclusive content. The content includes interviews with musicians and rare concert footage, and watching the content provides users with codes to win prizes. It's exciting to see a big brand like Ray-Ban return to AR as it is a testament to the company's belief in the platform.

Virtual Dressing Room from Hearst and JCPenny

As mentioned above with the Ray-Ban example, virtual mirrors are popular uses for AR, even on a large scale with full outfits. Over a year ago, Zugara launched the Webcam Social Shopper which allowed users to sample clothing and navigate with hand gestures.

A similar virtual dressing room experience recently launched from a partnership between publisher Hearst and clothing store JCPenny. The experience, which is found on the homepage of the magazine Seventeen, a Hearst property, allows visitors to sample styles and share them with friends using augmented reality.

The technology was built out by metaio who has also been working with publishers to bring mobile AR experiences to print advertising in magazines. If Hearst and JCPenny are happy with the success of the online virtual dressing room, it is likely they could return for some more experiments within magazines, catalogs and store displays.

Nike's AR Slot Machine

Shoe giant Nike has done some AR marketing in the past but it must feel pressured to step up its game since Adidas, one of its competitors, has been very active in the space. Just last week, Nike promoted its 6.0 running shoe with a virtual slot machine kiosk display at the Hurley U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, California. Attendees were able to hold a VIP ticket up to the display, which transformed the ticket into a 3D slot machine which they could then use to test their luck for a pair of 6.0 shoes.

Not only did Nike, an enormous international brand, put its name behind augmented reality again, but it helped promote the technology to massive audiences at the surfing event. The competition is the largest of its kind, drawing 400,000 live spectators and millions of TV views over nine days of competition. That kind of exposure for augmented reality is exactly the kind of brand boost that is helping push the technology along.

Who's next?

The list of big-name brands turning to AR for digital marketing continues to grow, but which brands are missing? If you know any other great examples of large brands that are using augmented reality or know of companies that should be marketing with the technology, please let us know with a comment below!

Format Dynamics takes a publisher's HTML code and reformats it into a multi-column layout. The service then adds advertising to these printouts based on criteria set by both the advertiser and the publisher. Advertisers are charged per printed ad.

Catering to Big Publishers for Now - Self-Serve Services Coming in the Future

For the time being, Format Dynamics is only working with larger publishers, but the company's CEO Ethan Holien told us that a self-serve product for small publishers is also on the company's roadmap.

Question: Do People Still Print?

We couldn't help but wonder how many people actually still print anything from a website. According to Holien, this number is higher than most people expect. He couldn't disclose the exact data - though the company does offer detailed statistics to its customers. The only statistic we were able to get was that for a typical news site, about 0.5% of all visitors print out news reports. According to Holien, for other types of content, this number can often be much higher and given the content on GoodHousekeeping.com, Hearst will likely see printout rates higher than 0.5%.]]> Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hearst_believes_that_there_is_money_to_be_made_fro.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hearst_believes_that_there_is_money_to_be_made_fro.php Product Reviews Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:07:55 -0800 Frederic Lardinois Hearst Magazines Digital Media Web sites, including Seventeen.com and PopularMechanics.com, are rolling out Instant Messaging functionality for their readers to communicate with. Can group chat keep fickle web readers on this publisher's web pages? We suspect that it could work well, but the first implementation we've seen left a lot to be desired.

Powered by fast-growing web IM platform Meebo, these new chat widgets can be accompanied by multimedia that chat users can view together. In a world where the magazine industry has to be feeling some pain from sites like MySpace and Facebook, maybe magazines have to put a little MySpace on their own websites.

We're very bullish on Meebo in general but this campaign, the Seventeen Magazine implementation in particular, is pretty uninspiring. We hope that when Meebo makes an appearance on PopularMechanics.com it will be a little more interesting. That wouldn't be hard.

Meebo tells a good story about huge increases in time on site for publishers that install their chat widgets, and that makes sense. Chat gives people a reason to stay on one page, if it's done well and there are a good number of people chatting then it's genuinely more interactive than anything a publisher can offer by themselves.

Meebo has a history of offering an interesting mix of aiming at the mainstream while still innovating in ways that are thought provoking for early adopters.

Bringing web IM to big mainstream websites is an interesting step in the evolution of publishing. We think it makes sense. We hope the big publishers can figure out what to do with it.

His story is an inspiration and it is our pleasure to connect you with Mike Dunn on ReadWriteWeb.

What is your background?

I'm an emerging media technologist. I've spent the latter half of my career as a chief technology officer for companies in media or technology.

I've always been an early adopter. I enjoy finding ways to adapt emerging media, trends, methodologies and technologies into a company. I've been attracted to change agent roles and opportunities.

I like the complexity of environments in the midst of change, where the need to implement innovation is necessary to grow or turn around anything from an entire company to an individual product opportunity.

I tend to be responsible for the technical assessment of Venture and M&A opportunities. I'm asked to manage strategic partnerships with technology companies, service providers and academic institutions.

I'm a director for a bank and an online ecommerce site, an advisor to a media marketplace startup, a b2b operating company, a major technology trade publication and an insurance industry information portal startup.

My portal glemak.com contains pointers to my bio and online activities.

You've been CTO of Dell Online, Time Warner and now Hearst. How did you evolve through these experiences?

My roles in each have been very different. My Dell role occurred just as ecommerce was striving for adoption, Time Warner occurred right in the middle of the bubble, and Hearst is occurring while the web is dynamically changing as it moves to massive online communities and the long tail of media.

Dell Online was an internal start-up championed by Michael Dell to lead the way for the entire enterprise, not only to build the online capability, but also to spread its adoption and utilization. We pointed the way for transitioning a company via ecommerce.

I was part of an excellent team tasked with designing and building a high availability transactional environment, and one which did it all with nascent ecommerce development tools.

I spent a great deal of time briefing customers and partners on the value of our approach to building the infrastructure and platform that represented the revolutionary change to selling securely via the web. This was early days of ecommerce and prior to the 'all-in, spare no expense' bubble. Employees and customers needed to be convinced Dell's online efforts were safe and provided value.

When Time Warner approached me to become the CTO, I accepted since the reason I was hired at Dell had been satisfied. The site and team were built and stable, and the ecommerce transition had started to happen.

At Dell I learned how to plan and build for scale, how to partner with diverse technology units driven by multiple motivating factors, how to lead via influence, and how to educate and socialize the value of a complex paradigm shifting technological change for a company.

Time Warner was a huge role and opportunity. I'd spent time earlier working in technology management for Hanna-Barbera and Turner. Both became Time Warner properties after I'd left Turner in the early '90s.

My role involved overseeing corporate technology assets and services such as the global WAN connecting diverse businesses, our messaging environment and corporate applications. I managed an IT team responsible for these functions, but that was only 20% of my job. The other 80% was strategic, seeking opportunities to leverage traditional and emerging technology initiatives across over 660 businesses.

I relied on virtual teams, groups of diverse experts loaned part-time from individual units so that Time Warner could leverage internal resources and expertise. We used consultants of course, but our SMEs were the leaders and guides.

Mid tenure the AOL acquisition occurred, causing us to realign our initiatives to deal with this massive merger event.

I learned a lot about strategic guidance via influence. It is better to spend time convincing folks about something you'd like to see change so that they adopt the idea as their own.

A valuable lesson I learned at Time Warner was never to get overwhelmed with the scope of responsibility an initiative or role entails.

My current role with Hearst is also about leading via influence. As emerging media technologist, I advise and work directly with the various divisions. I also oversee relationships with technology partners and academic institutes.

I provide technical due diligence for our enterprise level investments and acquisitions, and I provide guidance and oversight for our portfolio companies, and am responsible for the technology aspects of wholly owned entities.

At Hearst I've had to evolve my methods to align with a larger entity changing to meet a rapidly shifting media landscape.

How has the media landscape changed in the past 5 years?

Dramatically. I started at Hearst 5 years ago, so I've seen the changes inside my company and from the media landscape at large.

Five years ago blogging, social media / networking, user-generated content and ubiquitous online consumption of rich media were not pervasive, and were not leveraged in any substantial way by the traditional media industry.

Yes there were those of us blogging, utilizing RSS and generating media online who were both inside and outside the traditional media industry. These will continue to grow dramatically.

Today most media entities are exploring or immersed in emerging media capabilities, especially publishing online and direct community engagement. The connected aspect of the communities has been a constant evolution. Instead of talking 'at' their audience, they need to become an active peer participant in the conversation.

The desire to access media has changed dramatically. Traditional methods of producing and distributing media have been extended in dramatic ways via technologies such as flash video, mobile access and Podcasting.

What are the economics of the print v. online world for media companies?

Traditional and online media production and distribution are of equal importance in today's rapidly changing media landscape. It's all about transitional focus.

I'd broaden the question to: What are the economics of all forms of traditional media v. online?

Today the same product that is produced for traditional distribution needs also to be leveraged in as many other media as possible, and as many times as possible. For example, the concept for an article is published traditionally, yet there are numerous ways to extend the reach and life of that content online: by publishing an extended version to the web, syndicating it to other sites, maybe posting a Podcast of the original interviews. The original article can now be leveraged for a longer time and in many more venues.

What tangible revenue models do you see for online media today and on the horizon?

The revenue models for online are much the same as those available via traditional means: (e)commerce, affiliation, subscription, advertising, sponsorship (donation), pay to play, and product placement.

The biggest difference is in scale. Traditional media is larger yet narrower and today provides a greater percentage of revenue than the smaller yet much broader online revenue landscape. The barriers to entry into traditional media are costly and complex, while online they are much less expensive and simpler for new entrants.

Tangible revenue models being focused on today are advertising via CPM and PPC, with some seeing success via PPL and PPS.

What strategic changes are you implementing at Hearst to prepare for the future?

We're pursuing strategic investments and acquisitions in emerging and innovative media, and we're aggressively scaling or creating integrated digital media groups inside our business units.

On the enterprise technology side my group has been implementing program management and enterprise governance processes. Both are important structural changes.

On the strategic relationship side, I'm coordinating our relationship with the MIT Media Lab. The MIT sponsorship is a key research and development mechanism, from a 'what will media look like 3 to 10 years out' perspective.

You've been writing about technical due diligence on your blog. What are the top 5 things that must be in place?

1) The primary things I look for are a thorough understanding of a company's current technology state and a roadmap of their future. I then fill in the building blocks to paint a picture of the company and its structure via the next 4 areas.

2) Staffing: The company should have a proper ratio of dedicated to outsourced staff. The focus for in-house staff should be on owning and extending the company's value-add. The focus of the outsourced staff / service should be on areas where technology is available at a reasonable price.

3) Infrastructure and Architectural: I look for alignment between the infrastructure in place and their roadmap. I try to understand their architecture, i.e., have they designed something that will be stable, yet scale and grow as their business requires? Have they over or under built, are their investments proper for current state and extensible as their growth requires?

4) Workflow and Processes: This is usually the hardest part of my interviews with startups because while most have ways they do things, they often aren't comfortable expressing them. They also aren't normally done in a way that's repeatable to the point where they could be called a workflow. This is OK. As they mature, standardized workflows and processes will be established, normally out of a necessity to ensure they're providing a stable environment that doesn't get negatively affected as they introduce change.

5) Costs: This is the spreadsheet part of the conversations. What has been spent to get them to the point they're at, what do they need to spend near term, possibly with funding from my company, and what do they envision they'll need to spend? I look for a grounded approach to spending.

What is your secret for balancing personal and business life?

You work to live, not live to work. I've always had a passion for my career, but I've also made sure I spend priority time with my family. We spend time together snowboarding each winter in Vermont, and mountain biking the other months, along with our dogs.

Both my boys are athletes, so I make as many of their games as possible. I work hard and travel a lot, but I'm home for important family events.

What is one insight, business or technical that you want to share with our readers?

Try and develop the art of listening. Too often folks spend so much time trying to think about and express their own opinions that they miss the details of the conversation occurring around them.

Most of the successful folks I've been around in my career are excellent listeners.

What is the meaning of life according to Mike Dunn?

My geek answer is the same as Brad Feld's meaning of life = 42. But the serious one is that life is all about learning.

If you can learn something useful at every stage of your life and use that knowledge to improve your life as well as to teach it to others, whether its your kids or someone you mentor, then your life should be rewarding.