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Among magazines, Sports Illustrated has emerged as a leader in the digital age.

In addition to its print edition, the title has produced a tablet edition for the iPad every week since it debuted last June and more recently added to its roster weekly editions for Android and webOS tablets. Sports Illustrated also produces daily content for SI.com, highlights 10 sports photos every day on its Chrome web app, and offers more content on special cross-channel packages, including Swimsuit.

The numbers support the digital push. Sports Illustrated‘s digital revenue was up 22% between 2009 and 2010, and it is on track for double-digit growth again this year, says Scott Novak, VP of communications at Sports Illustrated Group.

Curious to know how and why the team could keep this pace, we visited editors, producers and operations managers as they put together a special double issue over a seven-day period.

It became clear that Sports Illustrated has alighted upon the best model for a print magazine in the digital age, not only in terms of content and design (i.e. the product itself), but also in the way the publication has organized its staff and workflow to produce consistently top-tier products across multiple platforms. Here’s why.

There Is No “Digital Department”

If you walk into the offices of almost any major print magazine, you’ll inevitably find a corner housing the so-called “digital department.” The staff there will be diligently putting together a website that is sometimes only loosely tied to the print title. These departments are byproducts of the early days of the Internet when publishers weren’t sure if a web edition had long-term potential. Magazine websites were treated like side projects rather than core parts of business and distribution strategies. The tablet edition usually ranks even lower on the priority scale.

Having a separate — and sometimes marginalized — digital department often leads to a discrepancy between the quality of the print product and the web product. Fewer resources are allotted to digital, in part because digital advertising revenues are far less than print.

This discrepancy is most apparent in women’s lifestyle magazines. Glamour and Lucky run thinly staffed, independent web operations that churn out upward of 50 pieces of original content per day. These are short, image-heavy pieces that have proven successful on the web. Both launched “blogger networks” earlier this year, an advertising play that allows the publications to sell ads across a network of content, namely pictures of the bloggers wearing different outfits.

Although the blogger partnerships enable the publications to bolster their advertising revenues in the short term and broaden their readership, there’s little sense that the content on these sites is curated. Rather, they feel like content farms licensed under the Glamour and Lucky banners.

At Sports Illustrated, by contrast, web and print are divided mainly by article length: the web is for shorter, newsier hits and print is a repository for long-form journalism. Quality is consistent largely because most of Sports Illustrated‘s staff touch every extension of the brand. Nearly all the writers (95%) produce content for both the web and print, filing short news pieces for the web while building out longer, weekly pieces for the print and tablet editions.

As a result, Sports Illustrated‘s brand and voice are consistently strong across platforms. But how do they do it and without substantially expanding or changing staff?

Producing More With the Same

It’s surprising how long most Sports Illustrated editors have been on board. Most digitally savvy media companies (The Huffington Post and Gawker Media, for example) are relatively young, or many of the older companies have brought in younger staff to turn things over (both The New York Observer and The Atlantic Wire are run by thirty-somethings who got their start at Gawker Media).

Take Assistant Managing Editor Chris Stone, for instance, who is tasked with overseeing the development of Sports Illustrated on multiple tablets each week. He has been with the magazine since 1992. The pace of the production was much different in the “pre-web” days,when he focused on the production of one to two stories per week as the baseball editor.

“Once upon a time you had a few ideas in the course of a week and they held up. If something happened six days before close, well, it was six days before close,” he recalls. “Now we deal with new ideas and three to four different ways to present a story every day.”

Stories are assigned for print, tablets and the web by the same vertical editors in conjunction with SI.com Managing Editor Paul Fichtenbaum and are then optimized for their respective platforms. When a large story breaks, for example, separate angles are developed for the web, for Sports Illustrated‘s social channels, as well as for print.

“Print is no longer separate,” Stone says. “We’re able to see the good idea that might just work better on the web because of the urgency of that story.” When stories are conceived, the editors think how to enhance them for the web and tablets, sometimes by including multimedia like audio interviews, galleries or video.

Social media is included in the ideation process. During a Monday morning run-through of the print edition set to close that evening, editors debated what to do with an extra Charlie Sheen interview that would not make the print edition before it closed later that night. Should they release it as a web exclusive, or perhaps as a bonus for tablet readers?

They elected to publish it on both, accompanied by a series of 10 tweets titled “10 Pieces of Wisdom from Charlie Sheen.” Although the print issue was the focus of the meeting, staff discussed the entire integrated publication: print, tablets, the web and social media.

Design is integrated as well. The design staff formats print and multiple tablet editions simultaneously, closing print Monday night, the iPad and HP TouchPad editions on Tuesday, and Android versions on Wednesday. The spacing in deadlines prevents designers from having to prioritize one version over another.

Editorial Workflow

“It became clear to us pretty early on that we needed to establish processes well beyond what we had in place for the print magazine,” says Bob Kanell, director of operations. Kanell has been working at Sports Illustrated for 17 years, long before it started to make its digital shift.

The week now starts Thursday morning. “That’s when we solidify what is going to be in the next particular issue. There are long-term stories that are in the works that we know we are going to run at some point, and our editors will decide when it is the right time to run that story,” he says.

The editorial team meets again Fridays and Sundays to discuss the issue, which evolves over the course of the week as major events occur. Saturday is the one day the entire editorial staff has off. Each editorial member works four full days each week and takes their remaining off-time on different days so that the issue doesn’t grind to a halt on weekends.

On Monday mornings and afternoons, the editorial team meets again to run through the print issue before it closes that same night. The issue is roughly 80% complete by the 9 a.m. meeting Monday, during which time Editor in Chief Terry McDonell runs through the entire issue on a large screen. He poses questions to Creative Director Chris Hercik about various design decisions and ensures that editorial layouts are properly differentiated from the ads.

The editorial team meets again Monday afternoon to review the edited copy and debate final photo selections. As articles are reviewed, McDonell inquires where add-ons for the tablet editions will appear.

At around noon on Tuesday, a mix of editors, designers and producers crowd around a single Mac in the production studio and walk through the nearly complete weekly editions for the iPad and HP TouchPad, both of which are formatted at a 16:9 ratio. Editors view the issues both on the devices themselves and using simulation software on the Mac, checking each button and function for potential bugs.

The same crew gathers again around 4 p.m. for the final review. The completed issue, once approved by Director of Imaging Geoffrey Michaud, is shipped to Apple’s and HP’s respective app stores around midnight.

At noon on Wednesday, the team runs through the weekly edition for two Android tablets, the Galaxy Tab and Motorola Xoom. Although the devices are different sizes, they run apps at the same 4:3 ratio, so there’s no need to format separate versions. The final run-through for Android occurs at 3 p.m. The completed issue hits the Android app store around midnight.

Design Workflow

Although Sports Illustrated‘s editorial team had to adjust to meet the magazine’s new digital demands, Kanell says the biggest adjustments occurred in the design department.

Designers must now reformat the issue in two different orientations — horizontal and vertical — for the iPad, plus a version for Android. (The iPad’s vertical layout is also used for the HP TouchPad.)

Sports Illustrated uses a software program called WoodWing, which allows designers to lay out the issue in multiple formats (both print and tablets) simultaneously. If a change to the copy is made in the print version, for instance, those changes will be automatically replicated in the different tablet versions.

Side by side: The same elements rendered for print (left), iPad (center) and Galaxy Tab (right).

“Everything still starts with print,” says Hercik, who has worked in the creative department of the Sports Illustrated Group for nearly a decade. “You work from scratch on every [layout] you do. There’s few layouts where it feels like you plug in images and text.”

Those problems are felt across the department. “Nothing that we do converts easily one from the next,” Senior Editor Stephen Cannella explains. “Even after the iPad, you have to tackle a whole different aspect ratio with the Galaxy and Xoom,” noting that tablet layouts also have to accommodate multimedia add-ons.

The design team is always conscious of file size when including additional images, videos and audio in the issue. Larger file sizes will take readers more time to download and will occupy a larger portion of their device’s storage space.

“If an add-on is really important to the experience, like a video cover, we’ll embed it,” says Hercik, but otherwise the team will opt to stream large files, like video, to minimize the issue size.

Hercik says the tablet versions are complete when they achieve a certain flow. “You want to interact on every page or every other page. If you go through a story and you haven’t had any interaction, you feel something is missing.”

Room for Improvement

Although Sports Illustrated‘s tablet editions are strong by design and engagement standards, the editors have not yet examined any reader usage data.

Examining usage statistics would enable them to understand, for the first time, which weekly sections and stories are most popular, how long readers spend reading certain articles compared to others, and what multimedia additions get the most attention. For now, editors have depended on a mix of feedback from focus groups and the comments left in various app stores to help them improve their tablet editions.

Going Forward

Sports Illustrated has emerged as a leader among magazine publications because it doesn’t think of itself as a magazine, but as a sports media company. “We don’t compete with magazines, we compete with networks,” says McDonell.

It’s sentiment shared by Mark Ford, president of Sports Illustrated Group. “We think of ourselves as a sports media company, number one,” he says. “We believe that we have got to reach our audiences and our fans wherever and whenever they’re consuming content on sports, and that means making content available on whatever device they use. Hopefully that extends to TV at some point.”

In fact, Sports Illustrated‘s video operation has already proved profitable, bringing in $3 million in incremental revenue in its first six months, says McDonell.

It’s a mindset that other magazines would do well do emulate. Any publication, whether its roots are in the web, on TV, in print or even on tablets, is truly a media company. Any platform their audience is using should be treated as a crucial distribution outlet.

And that means dissolving those sideline digital departments and refiguring digital — and every other medium — as a priority on par with print.

More About: android, galaxy tab, hearst, hp touchpad, iOS, ipad, magazines, media, motorola xoom, Sports illustrated, Tablet, terry mcdonell, webOS

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The social media landscape is changing quickly, but this change won’t be immediate, or for that matter, efficient. And that’s going to be a big problem for all of us.

I believe that Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn are fundamentally different, and thus, should not be in competition. However, I’m not sure the companies themselves see it this way. It’s likely they will continue dedicating resources to competition instead of differentiation.

And while the social media gods fight it out in the clouds above us, what will happen down here on Earth? What about all of us, the little people — the users?

We’re entering a new era of social network chaos, and this, in turn, is going to create new needs and opportunities for startups.

The Sharepocalypse

Welcome to he “Sharepocalypse,” a new era of social network insanity.

In the Sharepocalypse hundreds (if not thousands) of online friends share content with us across various social networks, culminating in massive information overload. Our lives will become more fragmented, we will lose productivity, and we’ll perpetually be playing catch up.

Granted, we’ve heard this song before. But I argue that the movement will reach a fundamentally new level of chaos — and the data from my portfolio of companies bears this out.

The Sharepocalypse causes (and is caused by) social overload — an evolution of information overload. Because the distinctions between each social network are not entirely clear, we feel obligated to maniacally juggle different apps and social networks just to keep up and be heard everywhere.

It would be one thing if all our social messages were part of a single, parsable, filtered stream. But instead, they come from all different directions. The Sharepocalypse is aggravated by social streams that originate in many competing silos. We spend nearly as much time hopping between networks as we do meaningfully digesting and engaging the content within.

Furthermore, the more we engage in cross-posting, the more noisy and redundant each network will become. Social overload begets more social overload. In a room where everyone is shouting to be heard, the mob shouts even louder.

And it’s not just one room full of people shouting — it’s many. Among the social networks of Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and other social outlets, which network is the most appropriate forum for any given post? But wait, it gets worse. Now we have to choose among Circles as well.

Google+ circles are mini virtual sharing networks, and they’re potentially infinite in number. What circle or list or group should you share with? But first, how well organized are your circles? Do they overlap? Are you sure that by only sharing with certain circles you can reach everyone you need to? No.

On top of all the social noise we experience, look forward to new noise from brands. Brands are becoming more lost and confused about how and where to communicate than ever before. Predictably, they will try to reach us redundantly, everywhere, all the time to make sure we see them. Social media consultants, on the other hand, will have a total field day, because ultimately they will benefit most from the chaos.

To make matters worse, it looks like Microsoft may now be on the verge of launching a new kind of social sharing service. And many other companies will follow, I’m sure. Why not every mobile company, for that matter? Why not every big brand? Even celebs may start their own social networks in which fans can share and compare their adorations.

And I’m not talking the micro-networks like Geni and Dogster. We’re moving toward a landscape in which social networks and sharing mechanisms will be built into the DNA of every site and service.

As Mark Zuckerberg has argued, everything that can be social will be social. I agree…and that’s the problem.

Choice Overload

Nobody is going to know where to share or where to look.

How will you know if you missed anything important? Which networks will you visit to get updates from friends, from brands, from publications you follow?

The sad truth is that you can’t get it all in one place.

In fact, choosing with whom to share is going to become harder and will require more thought. Ironically, by trying to solve this problem using “circles” and other gestures, Google+ may just be piling on more disparate channels. Therefore, many people will simply opt to quickly and easily share everything with the public, rather than denote a special group or circle with which to share.

The fact is, when people have to ponder a choice, they often opt for the easier alternative: don’t choose at all. This is classic choice overload theory. Many studies have shown that choice overload leads people to make fewer choices. People become stressed when they have to choose from too many options at once.

It’s a perfect storm: A massive expansion of networks on which to share and track information, but all the while, its users have less and less energy to make choices. The result will be a lot more confusion and noise.

Soon we will long for the days when we were unplugged, cut off from the global brain, and able to, at least once in a while, enjoy that rare feeling of being up-to-speed.

A New Category: Social Assistance

The Sharepocalypse will generate an expanse of new problems. However, this will generate a new opportunity for social assistance — a new category of software and services — and therefore, a ripe environment for startups.

Social assistance will be the next frontier spawned from social networking, and we’re all going to need it. We’ll require help managing our online relationships, tying our streams together, sifting through the noise, keeping up with what matters personally, finding who and what we need, and remaining productive.

Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Microsoft will all struggle to deliver acceptable signal-to-noise ratios to their users. But they will be focused on solving this problem within their silos, rather than across all platforms. I call this approach “vertical social assistance” because it focuses on assisting people only within particular networks. Because each service is biased toward its own social graph and content, it’s unlikely that any of them will help solve the horizontal overload. Understandably, it’s not in their interest to enable users to make better use of competing services.

This world of fragmented messaging systems is akin the early days of email in the 1980s, when users of one network were unable to communicate with another. It was a mess. Eventually, email gateways were created to link these disparate networks. But the problem wasn’t fully solved until everyone adopted a single set of standards, and all the email networks connected into one common fabric.

Unfortunately, the unification of email networks and standards immediately killed of a lot of the smaller email networks and client makers. But through simplification, the world became less complex and more connected.

The question is, will something like this ever happen for social media? Will we see the social networks connect into a common fabric anytime soon? Right now, the major social networks own the content — it’s captive on their platforms. If that were to change, and you could read any social media message anywhere, they would have to compete on features alone — and that’s another can of worms.

What I call “horizontal social assistance” is the opportunity to access and use social media messages in a unified way. This approach is different from the vertical social assistance approach because it would span across all networks. The users of social networks need this capability in the same way they needed email unification. However, until all the social networks agree on standard profiles, messages, contacts, groups and streams, it’s not going to happen. And to be frank, such an agreement is highly unlikely in the near future.

But it could happen if some neutral party takes the initiative.

In the meantime, many other social assistance resources will emerge that target a range of different needs and opportunities, including:

• Social Relationship Management (SRM): : Services that help people create, organize and manage sets of social network relationships — for example, sets of people to follow and/or share with on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc.
• Social Awareness: Services that help people keep up with their social networks, especially among a user’s friends.
• Social Curation: Services that help people organize and make sense of their streams and messages.
• Social Personalization: Services that help people sift through the network noise for information most relevant to their particular needs and interests.
• Social Analytics: Services that help to measure online social behavior and trends, optimize engagement, monitor activity and communicate more appropriately.
• Social Automation: Services that help to automate activity in social networks, like automatically updating your status, helping to increase your influence, suggesting what to share, matchmaking, alerting, and using bots to intelligently interact with and assist users.

Because social assistance will become so necessary, both vertical and horizontal social assistance could mean interesting opportunities for startups. Ventures that provide vertical social assistance for particular networks, like Google+ and Facebook are going to be early build versus buy acquisition targets. These are rapid innovation opportunities for individual developers or small teams.

Ventures that attempt to solve the harder problem of horizontal social assistance will have a chance at building longer-term independent value. Some may become strong stand-alone ventures, or larger exits, but they will also be more technologically challenging, requiring larger teams and more capital.

One thing is certain: The Sharepocalypse is here and, as a result, social assistance will soon be the cutting-edge of social media innovation.

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, Kileman, and Flickr, World Bank Photo Collection, zipckr

More About: facebook, Google Plus, information, Overload, social analytics, social media, social networking, twitter

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One of the big releases hitting theaters Friday is Cowboys & Aliens. Based on the 2006 graphic novel, the film was adapted for the screen by Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Studios.

Starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, it’s a science fiction Western film about a loner who wakes up in a strange city with no memory from his past, only to find that he is a wanted criminal. After the area is invaded by aliens, friends and foes have to work together to save the city — and the earth — from extraterrestrial enemies.

Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau directed the film and played a large role in helping to develop the social media and digital campaign for this unique title.

Let’s take a look at some of the digital and social parts of the campaign.

Facebook

The official Facebook Page for Cowboys & Aliens has more than 200,000 Likes thus far. Universal Pictures has employed a tactic we’ve seen with Captain America and Harry Potter (and most other major films) in creating a widget that functions as a cross-channel hub, linking to the film’s other social and digital channels in a single box.

In this way, the Facebook Page acts as a mini version of the official homepage for the film.

Online Games

In addition to a Facebook Page, Universal and DreamWorks have also launched two online games for the film:

Cowboys & Aliens Arcade is a Facebook game that includes scenes from the film along with puzzle and trivia challenges. Players can also enter to win official prizes.

Cowboys & Aliens Absolution Training Grounds is a more complex (both in terms of visuals and intensity) shoot-em-up-style game that can be enhanced with Facebook Connect, but doesn’t require it.

Twitter

Although the studios have set up an official @cowboysaliens Twitter account, it isn’t the primary driver of Twitter activity for the film. Instead, the marketing teams have leveraged the personal account of the film’s director, Jon Favreau, who already has a Twitter following of more than a million.

In the buildup to the film’s release, Favreau has tweeted links to articles, interviews, behind-the-scenes insights and more. The official Cowboys & Aliens account frequently retweets Favreau’s updates and, in turn, Favreau re-shares the best bits from the official account.

Even in official press statements, Universal points fans to Jon Favreau’s account in addition to its own — a smart move. After all, if you have a director with an engaged and active fanbase, why not use that person as the primary driver for your film?

Hipstamatic Lens Kit

One of our favorite iPhone apps, Hipstamatic, launched its own FreePak tie-in for Cowboys & Aliens.

Until August 8, Hipstamatic users can download the Cowboys & Aliens HipstaPak, which includes two new lenses and a camera case, for free. In typical Hipstamatic style, extreme detail went into the design of the lenses.

On its Facebook Page, Hipstamatic says that both the film’s cinematographer Matthew Libatique and director Jon Favreau contributed to its development.

“Cowboys & Aliens” Coca-Cola Round Up for iPhone, iPad and Android

We have to give the marketing team at Cowboys & Aliens credit because the Cowboys & Aliens Coca-Cola Round Up app for iOS and Android is one of the more intricate tie-in apps we’ve seen.

This is an augmented reality game in which Coca-Cola triggers are captured on specially marked cups and popcorn bags at AMC and Regal theaters in the U.S. Users can also download a print trigger to play the game. After that, it’s a bottle collection game.

This is an interesting use of augmented reality and QR-like functionality that encourage play while simultaneously cross-promoting two different properties: the film and Coca-Cola.

The Results

Cowboys & Aliens has been a trending topic on Twitter in the days leading up to the film, suggesting that the film already has strong awareness among targeted audiences.

We’ll have to wait for the weekend box office figures to see how the film performed against the competition.

What do you think of the mobile-centric approach Universal took when promoting Cowboys & Aliens? Let us know in the comments section below.

More About: Cowboys & Aliens, Film, jon favreau, Movies, Summer Blockbuster Series

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Many aspiring entrepreneurs foolishly believe that all they need to do is sign up for a Twitter account, blog about special offers, and hand out a flashy looking brochure, whereupon leads will come pouring in. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

These are unfortunate social media fantasies and free marketing delusions. The mere existence of a market for your product or service does not guarantee anyone will listen to or care about your brand. People are bombarded with thousands of messages every day, which makes it difficult for business owners to garner attention and convert that attention into income.

In order for your business to avoid getting lost among the glut of content already clogging direct marketing channels, your promotions and tactics must be highly creative, contain a quality message and fit the audience you are targeting.

I asked a panel of successful young entrepreneurs about the types of promotions they have used to build their companies’ buzz and sales.

1. Partner with Others in Your Space

At Blank Label, since we make custom dress shirts, we’ve done promotions with other custom product makers, everything from chocolate bars to jewelry, mattresses and even women’s shoes. We create promotional campaigns to spread the word about the industry and shed some light on cool companies in the space.

– Danny Wong, Blank Label Group, Inc.

2. What (Else) Does Your Customer Need?

With Career Coaching for Word Nerds, I provide one-on-one coaching to freelance writers and other publishing professionals. But I knew that my clients would also love the chance to connect with experts within the industry, so I organized a speed networking event that attracted 75 people. Now I host monthly virtual events and have plans for additional in-person events.

– Steph Auteri, Word Nerd Pro

3. Take Advantage of Currently Trending Topics

One of the best ways to build buzz for your business is to ride the coattails of a currently trending “hot topic.” For example, when GAP unveiled a logo designed by Laird & Partners to much criticism on the web, 99designs took advantage of the opportunity with a crowdsourcing competition [to show] that our community can deliver a much better design.

– Matt Mickiewicz, 99designs

4. The Power of Video

People tend to forget the power of video. I have learned that when talking pound-for-pound on engagement rates, YouTube stars have it on lockdown. Sevenly.org launched with a video drip campaign of 10 YouTube stars (100,000+ subscribers each) and it ended up generating a staggering 40,000 unique visitors in less than 30 days. When you need power, turn to video.

– Dale Partridge, Sevenly.org

5. Start Your Own “Top 10” List

At GiftCardRescue.com, we realized we had unique information about which gift cards are most popular among our customers. We therefore started an annual “Top 20 Gift Cards” list. Last year’s list was picked up by numerous news outlets and blogs, including Mashable. Walmart, which was number-one on the list, issued a press release bragging about it, which only legitimized the list even more.

– Kwame Kuadey, GiftCardRescue.com

6. Crowdsourcing

The marketing team at HootSuite is good at creating online buzz. Our crowdsourced international translation project has done an amazing job creating awareness. We try to work with our users as much as possible, and this was a great way for us to reach out to our global fans and engage them online.

– Ryan Holmes, HootSuite

7. Contests and Competitions

Use social media (especially Twitter) to hold a contest for your business. Ask trivia questions, play hangman or offer a phrase to unscramble. The winner gets a prize or discount off your services. This way, you have hundreds of people talking about your brand publicly, but you only need to reward one winner. Holding a contest weekly and/or monthly is a great way to build consistent buzz and conversation.

– Lucas Sommer, Audimated

8. Personalized Outreach

Find influencers in your market and reach out to them individually. Make your initial contact with them creative and jaw-dropping. For example, instead of an email, sit down and record a video addressing them directly. It speaks volumes when you show that you took the time to personalize all of your messages.

– Logan Lenz, Endagon

9. Take it Offline

You’d be surprised what things you can do offline to create online buzz, such as sending simple but creative thank you cards or gifts to your current clients that get them talking about you online and shouting your praise. Or, send your product to clients or brands you want to get in front of, but add a twist. For example, if you sell kitchen goods, send along a bread maker with a fresh hot loaf in it!

– Natalie Sisson, The Suitcase Entrepreneur

10. Be Your Own Advertising

Think about how much you drive during the week and how many people see your vehicle while out and about or at a stop light. Put something on your car that others can see, and makes them take a second look. Even if it’s just your web address, people will immediately have it in their mind.

– Ashley Bodi, Business Beware

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