The Digital Gloss Files

...with Margaret Tran

Image courtesy of Kicker Studio

As magazines apps in the US struggle to retain audiences, so too the behaviour of magazines on the new platform is also called into question, not to mention how their increasingly digital-savvy audiences consume them.

Former design director for NYTimes.com and now blogger, Khoi Vinh, puts forth TweetMag and Flipboard to help remedy this conundrum. Both social media tools allow you to aggregate all your social streams into a slick content package for a truly interactive experience. In other news, it's a very promising example of what magazine apps could be doing on the iPad.

Video courtesy of TweetMag for iPad from Teehan+Lax on Vimeo

And just in case publishers needed more tips on how to ravish an iPad, Min Online has collated the top 5 things they ought to know about the iPad 2.

Ever wondered when the best time to Tweet is? According to social media researcher, Dan Zarilla, between 2pm and 5pm are prime hours to disperse your content and help drive traffic to your site. And weekends? Tweet your hearts out, because readers have more time to concentrate on what they're digesting. In short, the "trick is to reach people when the noise of the crowd has died down."

Murdoch's iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, is in decline, according to a grim analysis by Nieman Lab.

Is Twitter the new LinkedIn? Not just a home for hashtags, off-beat news and internet memes for procrastinators, Twitter is increasingly becoming the backdrop of the job hunt.

Of course, you could also get a job through your mates. New Facebook app In The Door collates all your friends' work places into one place ó and checks if said places are hiring. And with the ability to list your entire CV on your profile, is it any wonder why someone didn't think of this sooner.

Twitter is also apparently in talks to offer branded pages similar to Facebook, according to Read Write Web.

Dotti launched its online store this week, further expanding their Dotti Nation on the back of an already vibrant fashion community. The new e-commerce extension taps into the retailer's roots and offers shopping by lookbooks, which whittles down every element of the outfit into individual items. Rejoice! More things to add to le wardrobe.

And it looks like Google's new search engine for their e-commerce platform has rolled out to allow optimal browsing.

Are display advertisers too obsessed with click-thru rates? It's a conundrum that's formed a stale undercurrent of repetition with many advertisers over the past decade or so of the Internet age.

According to TechCrunh, there are not enough women of "color" in technology land, thus they need encouraging. The question I gather is whether this is purely a US-centric attitude or something that has filtered its way to Australia. Yay/nay? Discuss!

Is social media the answer to reaching those consumer blind spots? Museums in the US have begun to understand the growing role of Twitter and Facebook in boosting consumer engagement.

Ever wonder how photojournalism fares in the age of digital? Are those camera phone shot photographs and photos swiped off open Facebook profiles merely complementary to a news story? Could they ever be as iconic as all those award-winning journalists whose images remain in the minds of so many? Nathalie Applewhite, managing director of the Pulitzer Center doesn't think so. "We want images that stand the test of time... Snapshots and photos taken by camera phones are not things we can come back to learn from and understand something deeper."

Celebrity reputation trasher / blogger, Perez Hilton, is publishing a children's book. One hopes it will also includes his insightful commentary and MS Paint illustrations. Um, how about no?

Social media is the source of corporation woes, according The Sydney Morning Herald, as their services and reputations are laid bare across the internet landscape, the source of many a conversation and shortfused rants among consumers, but one might take the other baton and ask what does it mean for those participating in said conversational rant?

Newspaper conglomerates continue to expand their wings as The Guardian looking to expand into the US.

The Daily Mail is also opening up an Australian branch, according to mumbrella.

Taking command of your digital past is a lot harder than it seems as a recent article in The New York Times reveals. What will your online footprint look like in, oh say, ten years? All those old MySpace and Meebo accounts, ramblings keyed out in a moment of implosive teen angst: will they still be there when you're raising angsty teens of your own?

Fear not, there is a growing industry in online reputation management where businesses can help those whose reputations have been marred. Something to think about when you think about how active you are online every day with many of your activities attributed to your identity. A quick Google can divulge exactly the kind of first impression the average person wish they had control over.

Did Joss Whedon's (brilliant, wonderful, amazing, hilarious, delicious) web-series, Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, contribute to a growing world of webisodes? Despite the star-studded cast, star of the series Neil Patrick Harris described Dr. Horrible as merely "a passion play". Yet for many fans (myself included), it marked the first time a consuming audience discovered that original, brilliant content could indeed be found on the Internet.

Captain Mal + NPH, how I intensely adore you.

Felicia Day, can be you?

Video uploaded by leechaolan26 @ YouTube

Speaking of web series, grassroots reality TV show Generation L recently wrapped up its first season. Centred on the lives of a Sydney group of strong, individual women and their sexuality.

Margaret Tran is an digital producer and freelance writer often found eyeball-deep in the goodness of the internet and all things digital. She recently departed the glittering ranks of the digital crew at Pacific Magazines, where she had the privilege of working with that's life!, InStyle, K-Zone, Total Girl and Girlfriend magazine. Nowadays, she can be found freelancing, eating lots and swimming through her mutating piles of magazines in her home.

Margaret @ Girl With a Satchel