"Rolling Stone" and "Playboy" Digital Histories from Bondi Publishing Offer Ideal Holiday Gifts to Consumers and Archive Value for Publishers

If you39re looking for the perfect gift for fans of either Playboy or Rolling Stone or both the new searchable DVD archive and coffee table book sets from Bondi Publishing priced at 125 for the Rolling Stone set and 100 for Playboy are ideal wwwcovertocovercom The complete digital history of 40 years of Rolling Stone and the 1950s issues of Playboy required transcribing every single word of text into a digital format quotOur biggest focus has been on creating something that has a good reading experience taking each issue and presenting it as originally published in a searchable databasequot Bondi cofounder Murat Aktar told Jack Myers Media Business Report in an exclusive interview quotA compete text conversion with tagging and indexing of each issue allows the software to have a full search componentquot he explainedAktar and his partner David Anthony founded Bondi in 2004 publishing The Complete New Yorker searchable electronic archive in 2005 quotIt39s a pretty complex projectquot Anthony comments quotWe scan and create a database out of digital photographs of every page Hundreds of thousands of pages are retyped by humans to create a digital archivequot I have seen both the Rolling Stone and Playboy box sets and they are not only visually beautiful but the DVD product is amazing Search any centerfold or any rock 39n roll legend and there they are quotPublishers are clearly thinking about what role the Internet will play in the future of magazinesquot says Aktar quotBondi has been thinking about the role of archives in the digital model Traditionally magazines have not been able to generate revenues from their back catalog What is the value of an archive If it39s not in the right digital format the value is zero With no digital archive assets there is no real income stream from the magazine We are working with publishers to create incremental new revenue streams from their existing and previous issuesquot List Your Job Openings at Jobs at JackMyerscom emPowered by mediabistrocomAnthony adds quotThere is a lot of talk about people migrating to the web but the magazine experience in digital form is what we are about We promote the magazine in a purely magazine format which is a big benefit to the publication It casts the magazine39s digital presence in the same light as the core product It tells a story the way a tipin card or single issue can39t When Bondi does a project we celebrate the history of the magazine Rolling Stone is celebrating its 40th anniversary We present this not in the context of one current anniversary issue but with every single issue and it helps people understand Rolling Stone39s rich and illustrious historyBondi says Anthony has a good opportunity to scale its business with the right properties Magazine publishers are quickly developing digital and online assets and expanding into a pay per download and advertiser sponsored model quotIt39s amazing how much archival value exists in magazines that are simply not available to consumersquot says Anthony For example if you want to read the famous Jimmy Carter quotlust in my heartquot interview in Playboy it has not been available previouslyAktar says Bondi is in active discussions with several publishers and plans to develop another seven or eight digital archives The magazines he suggests are fairly selfevident because they quothave to be collectible With Rolling Stone and Playboy the brands are widely recognized but there are also smaller more focused magazines with valuequot he points out The marketing for these archives he adds will require more focus on subscription lists Trade publications that offer a history of an industry he believes are also an opportunityThe Bondi process is significantly different than Google39s method of scanning book pages Scans are 25 percent of the process says Anthony quotThere is no way to turn a scan into an interface that has value to the userquot To create a strong enduser proposition and archive with full mapping search and browse capabilities Bondi39s archivists spend hours faithfully recreating the magazine content They incorporate in searchable format multiple spellings of names and other tags to enable a high degree of search success quotWe had to analyze each magazine individually because of format changes font changes layout differencesquot says Aktar quotIt takes enormous behindthescenes work to have an enjoyable mode for the end userquotPrior to Bondi Anthony and Aktar cofounded Metropolis DVD in 1998 The company developed a reputation for innovative programming by helping major media companiesamp8212including Viacom Paramount Universal Pictures Warner Music and Disney International Publishingamp8212develop and implement their DVD strategies Metropolis won numerous awards for interface design and produced groundbreaking music DVDs including the Rolling Stonesamp8217 Four Flicks the Beastie Boysamp8217 Anthology and Janet Jacksonamp8217s All for You Aktar is also a partner in and president of Sterling Sound the market leader in audio masteringDavid Anthony can be contacted at davidagiantinteractivecom and Murat Aktar can be contacted at MuratAktarsterlingsoundcom Read TiVoWorthyTV Everyday at JackMyerscom

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"Rolling Stone" and "Playboy" Digital Histories from Bondi Publishing Offer Ideal Holiday Gifts to Consumers and Archive Value for Publishers

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"Rolling Stone" and "Playboy" Digital Histories from Bondi Publishing Offer Ideal Holiday Gifts to Consumers and Archive Value for Publishers

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