Will HTML5 Get A Boost Today?

June 30 (Today) is the deadline for app makers to get in compliance with Apple's strict new rules for in-app payment and subscription links.

Everyone's still confused about how to interpret the rules -- and as written, the guidelines could get big-name apps like Amazon's Kindle booted from Apple's iTunes App Store. The new rules explicitly prohibit apps that include "external mechanisms for purchases ... such as a 'buy' button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book."

The issue is that Apple wants content sellers to use its own in-app payments system, which gives Apple a 30% cut of all sales. Many merchants consider that a dealbreaker.

Other developers are evading Apple's clutches by eschewing mobile apps altogether and building around an emerging Web standard called HTML5.

HTML5 supports video, offline reading, touch and gestural interaction -- all functions that, until recently, were only available for mobile devices on native apps. The Financial Times and ESPN each built new mobile apps in HTML5.

That lets them connect with customers directly through the mobile Web -- no app store required.

Most of the publishers we work with will be going the HTML5 route as part of their mobile content delivery strategies moving forward. Using existing development talent, controlling the revenue stream and making mobile app experiences on the fly without having to wait for in-store approvals seem like the perfect storm to make this inevitable for all publishers.

publishflow Keeps News Orgs In The Know

Publishing has certainly become a more competitive market over the last 10 years, with editorial budgets falling, print readership dropping, and the difficulty that news sites have had in securing paid memberships. This economic reality is driving many changes in the journalistic trade and the news media industry. One such change might be increased competition for readers and more varied news sources come onto the scene. Enter publishflow, a web service programmed to watch your editorial back. Read full story by Garrett Wilkin at programmableweb

publishflow at WAN-IFRA International Newsroom Summit

We are in Zurich for the WAN-IFRA International Newsroom Summit a two day gathering of news execs, editors and digital enthusiasts.

Up on the Agenda today are Tablet publishing and business models for the newsroom.

One of our Canadian clients Postmedia is presenting "New revenue models for the newsroom"... publishflow is one of the services they are using on a daily basis to monitor real time audience, competitor and topic trending metrics in their newsrooms across Canada.

Looking forward to the session to hear more about some of the emerging business models Postmedia is putting in place.

CTV News Selects publishflow™

Although we have a news section for our Press Releases at the bottom of the About Us page, I will keep posting them on the blog as well so our readers can easily grab them.

Most recent press release is our CTV News announcement.



Kontexto to Provide Real Time News Trending Information to CTV News Editorial Teams Across Canada

CTV News will be utilizing publishflow™ to provide real time news trending information to its editorial teams across Canada

(PRWEB) April 18, 2011

Kontexto™, a trusted provider of real time web services for media publishers, today announced that CTV News will be utilizing publishflow™ to provide real time news trending information to its editorial teams across Canada. publishflow™ uses a combination of live web dashboards, email notifications and mobile applications to help professional news organizations monitor critical news trends.

"CTV News is committed to delivering the highest quality online news experience to our audience in Canada and around the world. The more we understand about visitor, competitor and story trends as they are happening, the more we can shape our coverage to address the important news items of the moment," says Mark Sikstrom, Executive Producer News Syndication and CTVNews.ca. "publishflow™ lets our editors, reporters and senior executives monitor visitor, competitor and story trends in real time, we did not have this capability before."

Using services like publishflow™, professional news organizations can monitor real time visitor, competitor and story trends to better understand local, national and international news trends.

"It is rewarding for us to work with news organizations like CTV News. They are one of Canada's most trusted media brands and are leading the way in using real time news trending information as part of their online operations." says Tom St.John, CEO Kontexto Inc.

publishflow™ is offered as a software as a service and is activated in under 5 minutes.

For more information on publishflow™ please visit http://www.publishflow.com.

About Kontexto Inc.
Kontexto is a trusted provider of real time web services for media publishers including newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and portals. publishflow™ delivers live visitor, competitor and topic trending data to news publishers around the world. Find out more at http://www.publishflow.com.

publishflow goes mobile

We have had a number of requests from clients for a mobile application that would allow them to access the full publishflow service while on the go. Up until now, our customers have been able to receive service notifications on their smartphones via email or sms, but for those who have come to rely upon the service they required more.

So the dev team here at Kontexto got busy and developed a mobile app for the publishflow competitor headline monitoring service. There are two versions of the application. The first is a web app, available to customers now and accessible by any smartphone (i.e. iphone, android, palm pre, new blackberries) with an HTML5 compliant browser. The second version will be available in the Apple App Store in the next couple of weeks (we are waiting for approval).

New publishflow office in London, UK

We finally made the move to a new office in London, UK located in "Silicon Roundabout".

publishflow is located at Sophia House, 76/80 City Road, London, EC1Y 2EQ to be exact.

This area is quickly becoming the destination of choice for tech companies in London and all of the associated businesses that work with them.

I have to thank Angus Bankes for helping us find a home for publishflow at this location in London. Lots of great people and ideas floating around the building.

A few quick snaps of the building and Old Street...

Press Release Live Competitor Monitoring

I have had a few requests from our clients for our most recent press release so I thought I would put it online in our blog so you can access it easily if you wish.





Kontexto Launches the First Live Competitor Monitoring Service for News Publishers

Editorial teams around the world now have access to live competitor publishing data.

(PRWEB) March 21, 2011

Kontexto™, a trusted provider of real time web services for media publishers, has just announced the launch of publishflow™, a live competitor monitoring service for news publishers.

Based on data collected from over 25 professional news organizations, Kontexto discovered that a typical midsize news organization can spend over $1.5 million a year manually and repetitively looking for headline changes on competitor websites. On average, a mid size editorial team will spend upwards of 3000 collective hours every month manually monitoring competitor websites.

Although repetitive competitor monitoring is one of the most common daily activities carried out by editorial teams, it is often overlooked as a major cost point that can be dramatically reduced using software solutions like publishflow™.

"publishflow™ enables news organizations to realize significant cost savings and efficiencies by automating their daily competitor monitoring activities. Not only do editorial teams free up thousands of hours each month, but they also increase the number of competitor websites they can monitor," notes Tom St.John, CEO of Kontexto Inc.

Using a combination of live web dashboards and email notifications, publishflow™ is quickly becoming the service of choice for news publishers who are serious about implementing a competitor monitoring strategy. Managing editors, web editors, reporters and bloggers are now equipped with an efficient way to monitor the editorial moves of their competitors.

Some of the specific capabilities of publishflow™ include:

Live Headline Monitoring
publishflow monitors over 8000 home pages and section pages for lead story changes 24 hours a day.

Live Email Notifications
Editorial teams are notified of competitor headline changes via live web dashboards or email notifications.

Live Competitor Trends
Live publishing trends uncover the categories and stories receiving the most investment by your competitors.

Detailed Competitor Summaries
Intra day and end of day competitor publishing summaries for managing editors, section editors and executives.

"Our desire to build publishflow was born out of conversations with news publishers around the world over the past 2 years. The common thread from these conversations is their desire to know what competitors are publishing as soon as possible. publishflow™ solves this problem for them and makes live competitor monitoring a reality for news publishers of all sizes," says Tom St.John, CEO of Kontexto Inc.

publishflow™ is delivered as software as a service. It takes a few minutes to activate and requires no integration.

A publishflow™ overview video can be viewed here: http://www.publishflow.com/about/product_demo