The award is granted to the best mobile application in the B2B and B2E segment. A focus is placed on acknowledging innovative communication tools that can increase productivity and optimize business processes.

Medzine is designed for the busy medical specialist. All major international scientific journals, societies and authoritative online sources in the realm of medicine are brought together in one app, enabling medical professionals to stay informed about the latest developments in their field.

The award ceremony will take place today at the Mobile Convention is Amsterdam. Follow MMMA on Twitter to find out who the lucky winner will be and visit medzineapp.com to learn more about the app.

Branded content is perceived to be one of the most effective branding tactics, says MailOnline. 72% of the brands say they have increased their spending on it in the past year, and 69% plan to pour more money into branded content in the coming year. Agencies similarly report increased spending by their clients: 71% say their clients have spent more on branded content in the past year, and 73% expect more spending in the next year.

For imgZine the rising importance of branded content seems a great opportunity. About 70% of the brands said they distribute branded content in digital media beyond their own website or emails.

The purpose of the trade mission is to promote collaboration and business opportunities between Canadian and Dutch entrepreneurs. During the trip, Dutch innovators will be able to showcase their apps and services at Canada’s leading digital innovation conference: Canada 3.0. Chosen participants will also be accompanied by Simon Smits, the Dutch Vice Minister of Foreign Economic Affairs.

In line with the innovative character of the conference, an app called hollandhub has been launched. The app was developed by imgZine and can be downloaded for free on both iOS and Android devices. Hollandhub offers a magazine-like user experience, while presenting relevant digital media articles and information about the delegates.

The app is not only an ideal marketing channel and travel companion for companies participating in the trade mission, it also celebrates the Dutch entrepreneurial spirit. The Dutch creative industry is recognized for its diversity and is a well-known innovation testbed for digital technologies. Having one of the highest internet penetrations globally – and a very well developed mobile infrastructure – The Netherlands is in many ways a nexus of global digital media behaviour and mobile technology development.

Joining in at Canada 3.0? Leave us a note in the comments if you want to meet and make sure to download hollandhub for your iOS or Android device.

EURapp is the ideal information source for Dutch journalists and citizens that want real-time access to the latest developments taking place at a European level. The app was developed for the European Parliament Information Office in The Netherlands in collaboration with Jacobs Media Concepts. The Information Office’s mission is to make policy-making within the EU more transparent. It also serves as a meeting point where people can host debates, ask questions and obtain information about EU policies and institutions from a variety of resources. With the app, The European Parliament aims to engage Dutch citizens in decision-making processes and make policy information more readily available.

Features

EURapp aggregates European news from a selection of media outlets. Users can customize their news feed by selecting categories that fit their interests. For instance, readers can choose to receive updates about financial and monetary matters, the expansion of the Eurozone, European entrepreneurship and more. A section devoted to policy is also included in the app, linking trending news bits to specific policies and related background information.

The app incorporates a Twitter feed and a calendar with an overview of relevant publications and events. In addition, users can integrate their Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts to share articles from the app on social media.

Download EURapp to receive the latest European news in Dutch and make sure to tell us about your reading experience in the comments!

SSA is known as the bustling meeting point for consultants, suppliers, system integrators, security managers, end users and officials working in public sector security. They come to SSA to share their learnings and experiences and hear about the latest innovations and market developments. SSA magazine offers attendees and security professionals the latest information about the tradeshow as well as news items from the field of security and (fire) safety. The magazine was released as a pilot project by Amsterdam RAI’s marketing team, who have worked with us before to release Horecava Magazine and the recently published HISWA magazine.

Fuctionalities

Like other imgZine magazine apps, SSA magazine is fully integrated with social media. It supports social sharing, offline reading and is equipped with a ‘read it later’ feature. The magazine app also features relevant ads, offering tradeshow exhibitors a unique and highly targeted marketing channel.

About the tradeshow

SSA will take place in Amsterdam RAI from June 4 to June 6 2013. With 200 exhibitors and a broad and informative program, the show promises to be a great networking event.

Follow SSA on Twitter or visit the tradeshow’s website for more information.

With different screen sizes and processing power, Android tablets have spelled trouble for publishers. As a recent Poynter article argues, some publishers choose to ignore Android tablets altogether and focus on publishing interactive issues on iPad apps only. Another option is to avoid interactivity and release static PDFs or print replicas on Android. Let’s delve deeper into why publishers have a hard time releasing Android products…

Recreating an iPad experience on Android

Most publishers start by developing an iPad or iPhone app and optimizing their content for iOS devices. As a result, they encounter hurdles when they try to recreate their iOS content experiences on Android tablets. Workflow issues, design and usability considerations make it virtually impossible to simply adjust the content for the Android platform and launch in a couple of hours.

A Different Newsstand

As Poynter’s Sam Kirkland points out, the Google Play magazine store is also significantly different from Apple’s Newsstand. While Newsstand serves as a “hub for apps,” Google Play acts more like an app itself, facilitating the reading and publishing of print replicas.

A Different Target Audience

As some reports argue, Android users are less likely than iOS users to spend money on apps, not only for downloads but also in-app purchases. Thinking that they will get less return on investment, publishers tend to spend lower amounts on Android publications. However, with Android devices and consumer demand for apps on the rise, publishers will be compelled to invest more on releasing engaging Android products.

So, how can publishers overcome these issues and reach audiences on Android? Here are some suggestions:

Build for Android

If you want to offer your content on Android, build for Android from scratch. Don’t take the one-size fits all approach. Think about user experience requirements and take advantage of the capabilities and features of a specific device. The differences may be subtle depending on your content. The examples below, taken from Rabobank’s Kennis App, illustrate how specific features and the overall presentation of your magazine’s content may vary on iOS and Android.

Embrace Diversity

A recent survey from the North American Alliance for Audited Media found that 73% of apps are still the exact replica of the print product. This speaks to the challenges publishers face while trying to create richer, more expensive content versus easily reproduced content. But magazines and periodicals have come a long way, from printed artifacts to PDFs, enhanced PDFs and real time content aggregation apps. Rather than sticking to old paradigms, publishers should look towards expanding their app libraries and optimize content for each device.

Know your readers

While most publishers are eager to expand their offering on mobile, many of them also recognize the need to justify their investments with better measurement and data standards. Engagement metrics, access rates and the amount of time spent on mobile apps are absolutely necessary for understanding your audience. Taking insights from your audience’s reading behavior across platforms is also paramount to build the ideal mobile magazine. Such metrics will not only provide accountability for advertisers, they will ultimately define your mobile strategy.

Topics like open journalism, native advertising and the evolution of the book business made for some interesting discussions. But perhaps the most compelling and relevant panel, in our opinion that is, revolved around the future of mobile content. In this panel, PaidContent’s Jeff Roberts, ESPN’s Ryan Spoon, Vimeo’s Nick Alt and Jason Pontin from MIT Technology Review debate if native apps or web apps are the future of mobile publishing. This debate has been going on for years now and the overarching conclusion always seems to be, it depends. Here’s what we learned from this and other discussions on the subject:

You can do some pretty awesome stuff with HTML5 and, of course, everyone will probably agree that it’s only a matter of time until it becomes a true standard. A clear advantage of opting for web is also that you get to keep that 30% of revenue that gets claimed from Apple’s App Store. If you’re an established publication like MIT Technology review with limited development power, HTML5 may also be your best bet to build a cross-platform experience on mobile.

However, as most people in the media space with a technical background will tell you, HTML5 is simply not there yet. In addition, while HTML5 is normally seen as one-size fits all approach, this is often far from the case – as parties like Facebook have experienced. Mimicking the UI of the local device on an HTML5 app rarely does the trick. For the end user, this experience just doesn’t feel right.

Making your HTML5 application “discoverable” is also a much bigger challenge on web that it would be on the App Store or Google Play, as ESPN’s Ryan Spoon pointed out. Many publishers, Vimeo’s Alt among them, have also pointed out that engagement rates are much higher on native apps. Moreover, HTML5 applications typically have slower and poorer performance, and features like offline reading are nearly impossible to support.

So, is the answer to go native and then “act global?” Perhaps it’s a combination of both. There’s no reason why your apps can’t be a healthy hybrid. Building apps for a specific platform always enables you to take advantage of each device’s capabilities and allows for a smoother user experience. But there are also “hybrid” technologies you can employ to optimize that experience, as our development team has discovered. Our apps, for instance, use HTML5 to present articles in a full-screen format on the device’s browser, allowing for a fluid and comfortable reading experience.

For more on this discussion check out this interesting slide deck on Business Insider or watch the PaidContent panel recording below.

The panel we participated in, moderated by Erwin Blom and Roeland Stekelenburg from Fast Moving Targets, brought us together with Dutch serial entrepreneur Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten (The Next Web) to discuss the future of magazines. Monetization models, best practices for iPad publishing and the importance of metrics were some of the topics we addressed in our discussion. Another emerging theme was the challenges publishers face when building content experiences for Android, a subject we will soon address in another blog post! Watch the video in Dutch below for more insights.

Rabo Kennis is intended as a mobile information source for Dutch entrepreneurs and business professionals. The magazine app provides the most up-to-date market research, global and local industry forecasts and reports. Besides featuring Rabobank publications and biweekly blog posts by the bank’s sector managers, the app aggregates content from various RSS feeds.

Like most imgZine magazines, Rabo Kennis is equipped with a real time Twitter feed, so readers can interact with each other and track responses to the app’s content. Users can also save articles for later reading and share them through a diversity of channels.

Rabo Kennis is also packed with custom features. One of these features is the “numbers and trends” tab, which serves as a quick link to a summary of industry-specific insights and data. Rabobank also wanted to provide a direct channel for users to contact their sector managers, so we built in a contact tab into the app. Readers can also use our new LinkedIn login feature to receive updated app content on their feeds and participate in associated Rabo Sector group discussions.

Download Rabobank’s Kennis App to stay in tune with the latest developments in your industry and tell us about your reading experience in the comments!

About four months ago we welcomed a new project manager: Ruud Kaaij. Ruud worked in the print industry for 23 years and has extensive experience in management and sales. He studied typography and print techniques in Amsterdam and has always been interested in editorial design. Besides bringing his graphics expertise into our team, Ruud is helping us streamline our project management processes and assisting us with internal communication.

In Ruud’s own words: “I find it really inspiring to be at the forefront of digital publishing and I really admire our team. We’ve evolved really quickly as an organization and are always thinking ahead. It’s incredible to part of such a young company that’s already working with large brands.”

And speaking of thinking ahead, we also recruited a new data specialist this February. His name is Sarunas Simaitis. Sarunas studied Econometrics at Vilnius University in Lithuania and is currently doing a Master in Stochastics and Financial Mathematics at the University of Amsterdam. His main task is assisting us in the development of new statistical models for our analytics dashboard. Sarunas’ work will help us give our clients more insight into their audience’s reading behaviour.

We asked Sarunas what he liked most about working at imgZine so far and this is what he said: “I really like the company’s flat structure and the diversity of the team in terms of nationalities, age groups and perspectives. I also love having family-like dinners with colleagues!”

Welcome to the team guys!

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