The brief on this project was to design and develop a digital edition of the Bristol Post. It began as an iPad edition but developed to Android tablets, then iPhone and Android phones. I needed to be something that offered more than the print product but contained all of its content in order to qualify for ABC circulation rules. It also had to involve as little manual work to put together as possible. So, working with Virtualcom, I designed this app...
It has a two-fold approach. You can read the pages just like the normal paper or you can read the individual articles in a Flip mode enhanced with galleries and video. You can also tap on the adverts to visit the advertiser's website.
Each night when the newspaper goes to press, an XML file is generated which takes all the content of the paper and feeds them into different channels in the app. A CMS helps the publisher organise the articles in those channels to have as much, or as little, manual involvement as desired.
Although it began life as an iPad edition, the phone version has proved incredibly handy to use.
Plus there's a desktop website that comes with it, where you can view all the pages of the paper and its supplement.
