IDEAlliance Announces nextPub™ Initiative

Alexandria, VA – January 5, 2011- IDEAlliance® today announces open enrollment for its new nextPub™ initiative. The goal of nextPub is to foster the development of next-generation publishing tools by embracing emerging technologies, developing best practices and establishing industry standards to make multi-channel publishing simple and efficient. Publishers participating in the launch of nextPub include Conde Nast, Hachette Filipacchi Media US, Hearst Corporation, Meredith Corporation, National Geographic, Readers Digest, Time Inc. and US News & World Report. Peter Meirs, Time, Inc. serves as chairman of the effort. Details and nextPub registration can be found at www.nextpub.org.

Why nextPub?

On April 3, 2010, the publishing ecosystem was changed forever. For magazines, the launch of the iPad signaled an exciting new era of interactive, innovative publications and almost unimagined new revenue opportunities. But forced to use today's workflows, tools and technologies, iPad editions translate into a doubling of production staff efforts without any accommodation to publication schedules. The current model is unsustainable and unprofitable, so our urgency to find solutions could not be greater!

nextPub™, the publishing industry's technology incubator, is a new and important initiative hosted by IDEAlliance and supported by many of the world's leading publishers. By enabling publishers to engage directly with their industry peers, nextPub brings together the industry’s best minds and provides the additional technical and support resources required to aggressively tackle today's challenges. IDEAlliance has adopted the Next Issue Media's mantra, "for publishers, by publishers!" The goal of nextPub is to foster the development of next-generation publishing tools by embracing emerging technologies, developing best practices and establishing industry standards to make multi-channel publishing simple and efficient. nextPub participation makes this possible.

About nextPub Participation
Participation in nextPub promotes innovation and enables the fast-track development of specifications and standards to advance publishing to eReaders, media tablets and emerging electronic display devices. This will encourage industry adoption and the implementation of nextPub technology standards. Participation in the nextPub initiative also provides direct benefits to organizations because it provides the opportunity to work alongside the industry's most influential experts and will help keep others within your organization informed on breaking technology advances. nextPub participation gives your organization strategic insight through exclusive access to information, available only to nextPub participants. nextPub participation enables members to stay informed on technology developments and emerging requirements of the digital publishing community.

nextPub participants include publishers, advertising agencies, brand owners and catalogers, who will be delivering content-based products to the media tablet channel as well as solutions and service providers. Registration forms for 2011 can be found at www.nextpub.org.

About IDEAlliance
IDEAlliance® (International Digital Enterprise Alliance) is a not-for-profit membership organization. IDEAlliance has a rich history of providing technology leadership for the publishing industry. In the early 1980’s IDEAlliance (then known as Graphic Communications Association, or GCA) served as the host organization for the development of ISO 8879, SGML. We educated publishers and fostered adoption of this ISO Specification. In 1997, the Internet and SGML Communities came together to develop XML, a version of SGML adapted for the Web. The first draft of XML was announced at the IDEAlliance SGML 97 Conference. In 1999, IDEAlliance launched the PRISM (Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata) initiative. PRISM released its initial specification in 2001. Today PRISM 2.1 supports cross platform content distribution and includes robust usage rights and digital image vocabularies. PRISM, widely adopted by publishers, provides the foundation for nextPub. Learn more about IDEAlliance at www.idealliance.org.