Libor Kubín This guy has been around computers and Apple for quite a few years. Word gave word, and so we interviewed Láda Janeček.
Hi Vlad, in the nineties in the Czech Republic, some computer publishers published specialized supplements focused on Apple. A Czech Apple fanzine was even published, but all these periodicals died after a while.
Yes, specialized magazines or supplements were published here in times when publishers were able to pay for the entire magazine from advertising revenue alone, and revenue from sales was not needed at all. This period ended at the end of the 1990s, and with it a lot of not only apple magazines - their publishers simply could not be paid anymore. There were few paying readers and advertising decreased significantly. And the big publishing houses now, quite understandably, publish only those magazines that generate profit. During my journalistic practice, I have experienced more than one magazine that was canceled by the publisher even though it was profitable. And he only did it because he wasn't earning enough.
What actually gave you the idea to publish such a narrowly specialized magazine as SuperApple Magazín?
It's a little different here. Everything we do, we do because we enjoy it and want to do it. We have always thought of a magazine that neither we nor the reader need be ashamed of. And printed magazines are definitely not at the end of their lives yet. We have to be aware of the differences between magazines - at a time when many of them basically just "recycle" news from the web and are printed on material close to the quality of toilet paper, I understand the reader's preference for the electronic version (the one on the iPad looks better than the overprinted corrugated paper ). But even a printed magazine can have its place if it is done honestly and with love. If I exaggerate, such a magazine can also be a "piece of furniture" in your interior and you will like to store it in the library and look at it afterwards. And that's what we're trying to do by the fact that the magazine contains original texts not taken from the web, and paper is basically the best thing to print a magazine on. And we are glad that the readers we meet have the same opinion on the matter.
And there is one more dimension of the printed magazine. And it is an area that serves to convey information. If you open a graphically well-designed two-page spread in any magazine, the entire A3-sized area will be breathed on you. And the entire two-page display works completely differently on you than the same displayed on the incomparably smaller surface of a ten-inch tablet. It looks nice on the iPad, but it won't put you on your ass. Paper has that ability.
But how do you want to compete with a website where information is published in a matter of minutes and in a magazine over a period of several weeks? Why should people buy a print magazine?
And why should we compete with them? We are dedicated to completely different areas than web servers. We don't primarily cover current news, but we bring tests and topics that you won't find on the website. We focus on topics with a long life - for example, the guide that comes with each issue is just as useful on the day of publication as it is six months from now. And the same applies to instructions in the Tips and tricks section or about tests. And for those, we even have a review, due to good relations with manufacturers and distributors, often the first with us. In short and well: while yesterday's website is often no longer interesting to read, even a half-year-old magazine has almost the same value as on the day it was published.
And why does a printed magazine make sense, I said in the previous answer, and if someone doesn't want a printed magazine after all, we have also had a purely electronic version available from the beginning.
How many electronic versions will be sold and how many will not be paid by the "readers"? Do you use any copy protection for the digital version?
Electronic sales make up approximately ten percent of all sales, and in absolute numbers they exceed our expectations. Of course, I'm only counting electronic versions sold, not the ones we give away for free as a bonus to print subscribers. Copy protection is handled for us by our publishing systems (we use Wooky and Publero), but actually only for the lifetime of the current issue. Once a new issue is released, anyone who has purchased it on Publero can download it in PDF format for their own use, such as archiving. We believe that if you pay for the magazine once, you should have it in your hand forever, regardless of what may happen in the future with the provider through whom you purchased it.
And if the magazine is also available outside these routes? I admit I prefer not to watch it. It's simple - if there are no paying readers, there will be no magazine. The days when the magazine could only be paid for from advertising revenue have been a thing of the past for quite a few years now.
Are you preparing any news for the readers?
The developer studio Touchart is preparing an alternative reader for those who do not want to use a universal solution like Publero or Wooky and who want to read the magazine only on their iPad using Kiosk. However, the primary distribution channel will continue to be the multi-platform Publero, which allows you to read the magazine on iOS, Android or desktop computers, regardless of the operating system used.
We are also preparing a project for a new monthly magazine that will be focused only on iOS devices with a slightly different focus than SuperApple Magazín. It will be an electronic interactive magazine intended only for iOS devices, which will be prepared by a new editorial office that we are currently building. Look forward.
And not to forget: under the name of SuperApple on the road, we are preparing a series of community informal gatherings of all users and fans of products with a bitten apple. We are thus continuing the tradition of the legendary Brno Apple meetings, which have always enjoyed great interest. We will be at every meeting, a great atmosphere and a display of interesting Apple products and accessories that we are currently testing in the editorial office. However, this time we will not focus only on Brno and Prague, but will regularly organize this meeting in one of the cities of our republic. And we start already on October 11 at 17 pm in the Goliáš restaurant in Olomouc. If you're in the area, come and chat about all things apple.
How often will the meetings be and where?
We will try to hold meetings at least once every two months, perhaps even more often if there are suitable constellations. And we want to focus primarily on the regional cities - the first is Olomouc, the second will be Ostrava, and the order of the other cities is decided directly by the people by voting on roadshow.superapple.cz.
You previously worked at Živa.cz. How did you, applist, take you there? Weren't you there for an exotic?
He wasn't. The generally widespread idea that there are only PC people on Živa.cz and Computer (which are such symbiotic editorial offices that they cannot even be separated) is actually far from the truth. Few editorial offices are as cosmopolitan as Živě or Computer, an editorial office with such a high concentration of various computer alternatives and experience with various computer oddities per square meter as here, you would also be hard pressed to find.
Maybe it was different from the beginning. You know, I joined what was then Computer Press as an editor after the war in 2000, and back then I was a bit of an exotic with my retired PowerBook with Mac OS 8.6. And for a very practical reason: Classic and its encoding of the Czech language was not very compatible with the rest of the world at the time, and if you forgot to do the conversion before publication, you had a problem. I survived with this dangerous configuration for the entire time I was editor-in-chief of MobilMania, and when I later moved to Computer and Živa, I already had a completely safe Panther from the point of view of the Czech language and the website.
Articles on superapple.cz are licensed under Creative Commons. What led you to this unusual decision?
Everything changes and it is natural that our website also goes through this development. From the beginning, our goal has been to make it primarily for the community, and we obey this wish even now. Until now, we have always dealt with requests for the provision of information published by us from SuperApple.cz individually and always to the satisfaction of both parties. Now everything will be easier, because the content published by us has gone under the Creative Commons license, namely its CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 variant, which is essentially great for anyone who creates content for people and not for the satisfaction of their own ego. And at the same time, it provides sufficient protection in case someone wants to use your work for their own enrichment.
After all, we are in the twenty-first century, so why not also modernize the view of copyright on the web. So far, the popular formulation "All rights reserved - distribution of content without written consent is prohibited" is perhaps already ringing the bell on other websites as well.
What's the difference between Apple fans now and say ten years ago?
So ten years ago you could count the fans on your fingers and you met a car with an apple stuck on it a few times a year at most. Today, almost every third person is covered with an apple. Previously, due to its focus and absolutely crazy prices, Apple was mainly the domain of professional graphic designers. When we gathered for the reunion, the average age of the group was ten years older than it is today.
Today, Apple is simply a mass affair, and so are a large part of the fans. They use Apple because it simply suits them and they don't make it a useless science. And at the same time, they are not as die-hard fans as they once were - if a product that suits them better comes out on the market, they will easily switch to it.
Isn't that a bit of a shame? Before, the community helped each other more... Isn't targeting new customers a bit counterproductive?
Not really either. The few shouters in discussions on various servers are such a small amount of the community that it doesn't affect it significantly. When you meet other apple growers in person, they are completely different people – open, willing to help and passionate about the cause.
I also don't think targeting new customers is counterproductive. Only thanks to it does Apple make money and therefore only thanks to it does it have enough funds to be able to develop new technologies and new products the way it wants to. And if the few loudmouths are taxed for that fact, so be it.
In the last three years or so, a lot has been written about Apple on the Czech internet as well. What do you think is the level and quality of published information?
It is probably not up to me to evaluate the quality of published information. If the given information has its audience and readers, then it is probably not useless. It is, I think, foolish to try to please all types of readers, and this is what I actually like about the Czech Apple scene: instead of competition, cooperation, instead of one article on five websites, the reader finds five different perspectives on the same topic.
What do you think of Apple's current direction? How do you perceive the personnel casts?
The current direction of Apple is actually understandable, although I liked the earlier focus more on the professional sphere. Even Apple is actually just a company that - if it wants to fulfill its goals - has to make money. And they know very well which segment of the market earns them the most and it is moving in this direction and will continue to move.
And personnel rolls? They are actually also understandable. There were many people in the company that Steve Jobs brought in directly, and it was Jobs who was able to keep them at Apple. And after his departure came the departures of these people who went to look for their happiness somewhere else.
What do you think Apple should improve?
In my opinion, Apple should listen more to what its customers think about it and, above all, fix the bugs that bother them. Or at least he should try to give the impression that he is listening to them. A great case in point for all of them is the new Maps app icon in iOS 6 that navigates the wrong exit from the freeway feeder. This icon has been the same throughout beta testing of this system and has been written about a lot. And to everyone's surprise, the same icon is untouched even in the final version of the system.
So what are these beta tests really for? Was it really such a problem to fix one small icon that even an average amateur can fix in Gimp in a few minutes? And this is exactly how Apple messes things up. A company that built its reputation on its attention to detail now ignores the details, even after knowing about them long enough. And that is wrong and should definitely change.
Thanks for the interview.
It's a shame that we only learn about that meeting in Olomouc with a cross after funus.
It's a shame - the interview came out a little later than intended...
However, the meeting was promoted for more than a month both in the magazine and on our website, on the FB account and on the community discussion forum MacForum.cz, where it also has its own thread...
Good, I want to ask when the meeting will be in Ostrava, I would hate to miss it. Thanks
It will be at the turn of November/December, the exact date has not yet been set (for now we are negotiating a suitable space), we will inform via the routes described above...
For the editors:
This website is a complete tragedy on iPhones and any contribution to the discussion is almost unthinkable lately. Don't you want to do that?
Regarding discussions, we are limited by the third-party service Disqus that our website uses. Due to some mistake on their part, we had to disable the mobile version of Disqus because it wasn't showing at all. We are not yet considering another service or our own solution, but work will be done on the mobile version of the site in general in the near future.
Hello, will it be, or is it possible to read your magazine with the Woiceover program? I am blind and I would also very much like to read your magazine. Of course, provided I buy it.
Unfortunately not in the current version, but we are considering this possibility very seriously...
I believe that what will soon be. I would also like to read this magazine. Can you please inform about this possibility of data on this website?
The magazine is really great, already the feeling to the touch, the quality of the paper, it's the way you write, it's a piece of the library. This is not thrown away. The manuals are second to none, keep it up. Even if I pick up an older issue, I always find something there that I overlooked. I'm a nerd and I bought it in iStyle, unfortunately the last issue was quite late, in the end the newsagent at Kika furniture had it, I would never have guessed that.
Thanks for the kind words…
Believe me, the sellers get the magazines to the central warehouse well in advance and the speed of distribution to the stores is already under their control, unfortunately we have nothing to do with it :(