Well, there’s not much point producing loads of content unless you can get it out to readers. And with personalization the order of the day, Yahoo’s launched Livestand, a digital newsstand for the iPad and Android tabets.
The idea is to deliver personalized content, initially from Yahoo’s own content portfolio, divvied up into sections for Sports, News, Finance, Flickr, omg!, and the Yahoo Contributor Network.
The company hopes that other publishers will jump on board too – although it doesn’t appear to have signed any up as yet.
“Adoption of tablets and mobile phones is exploding, and digital media isn’t keeping up,” says Blake Irving, executive vice president and chief product officer for Yahoo.
“Consumers can’t find the publications they buy off the newsstand, and publishers and advertisers can’t reach the audiences they want to serve.”
With Livestand, users will be able to receive a personalized version of the news, based on their stated interests, location and time of day. Just think, you need never read something you disagree with ever again.
The company has high hopes that its approach will appeal to advertisers.
“With Livestand, we’re using ad formats that evoke the emotion of TV advertising with a highly-visual magazine-like experience,” says Irving. “And they’re combined with the effectiveness of an internet ad that’s data-rich, actionable, even location aware.”
The iPad and Android tablet applications should appear by midsummer, with mobile phone and browser versions to follow.
