Publisher puts CD tips on disc - Nowmedia 1 - Product Announcement

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, July 1, 1994 by Lorraine Calvacca

The medium is, in large part, the message of Nowmedia 1, a new CD-ROM designed as "a crash course" in how to create a CD-ROM, says Alison Johns, editor in chief of Penton Publishing's Millimeter, a 30,000-circulation monthly for motion picture and television producers, and a content producer of the disc. "There are lots of entries in the new-media print sweepstakes. We felt there was a real void in the how-to area for explaining skills sets [needed] to make a foray into a hybrid format. In the era of digital journalism, why publish another title about new media on paper?"

Six months in the making, the $59.95 disc was produced in partnership with SuperMac Interactive Systems, a Sunnyvale, Califoria-based subsidiary of Super-Mac Technology, and Marks Communications, a design firm located in Hollywood. The disc covers, via text and talking heads, production guidelines; resource directories of publishers, developers, distributors and teleproduction facilities; and interviews with a range of executives. These include Satjiv Chahil, vice president of new media/new markets at Apple Computer, Rich Robinson, executive producer/director of product development at Sony Imagesoft, and Vernon Church, Newsweek Interactive's assistant managing editor.

Although Nowmedia has thus far been marketed toward Millimeter's audience, Johns says the CD-ROM is well suited "for anyone, including publishers, who's looking to enter the medium." And the few with publishing interests who have viewed the disc seem to agree that it at least fulfills its "crash course" claim. "Nowmedia gives the big picture for beginners and wannabes. It takes a very complex and diverse field and makes it less intimidating by breaking it down into categories and subcategories," says Joe Evans, multimedia design director at Arthur Andersen & Co., who has purchased two discs and plans to use them internally for employees outside his division, as well as with publishing clients.

"The disc has value for someone just getting into CD-ROM who needs a general place for information," observes Cassandra Markham Nelson, interactive editor at Self, and a former CD-ROM developer at Apple. Especially useful, she notes, are the Q&As with industry players. "You get a sense of their visions, and how they would produce a disc."

Both Evans and Tim Tully, technology editor at NewMedia, a San Mateo, California-based title for multimedia professionals, also praise the content's look and organization. "The interface is downright elegant," says Tully. "The thing I liked was that they didn't succumb to techno-hysteria. Rather, they created a flat, navigable piece. "

"The navigational structure is easy, but limiting," concurs Jon Epstein, publisher of the San-Francisco-based Multimedia World. "It would have been nice to have software capabilities you could actually try, or show a spread sheet and allow people to plug in some numbers. Increased interactivity would enhance the value of the disc and make it more than a version of a magazine on disc, which it seems to be now."

Newsweek Interactive's Church, however, sees a lack of navigating cues as the disc's downside. "The interface is the biggest weakness. It's difficult to navigate. For example, under business models there are eight categories, such as distribution and publishing. These are broad categories. But what will publishing give me? I would Like to see more subheads. "

Despite the disc's shortcomings, the consensus seems to be that with modifications, additional volumes would be welcomed. "They are absolutely on to a good thing," says Epstein. "With the expansion of scenarios that people can try, they should have a nice product."

The frequency and content of future volumes, says Johns, has not been decided. "If the reaction is enthusiastic, we would do another disc in early 1995." Topics could include "any subject on the creative and technical sides" of new media or "an extensive exegesis" on the information superhighway.