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Creativity (@creativitymag) reports that The New York Times (@nytimes) has launched beta620 (@beta620), a site that highlights experimental and ongoing projects at NYTimes.com. It’ll also be a crowdsourced venture, where Times readers can offer feedback and ideas – taking, essentially, formerly live events and making them virtual. The "620" refers to the Times' street address on Eighth Avenue in New York.

It’s similar to Google Labs, Google's experimental playground that shuttered last month, where users could suggest projects and Googlers could share what they were working on. At the Times, just like Google, some ideas may be turned into real products.

Read the Creativity coverage in full.

Nat Ives (@natives), media editor at Advertising Age, describes the 7 projects beta620 has launched with for consumers to try out and comment on:

• The Buzz, which shows how much traction Times articles are getting on social media
• Times Companion, which lets you summon information on topics in the article you're reading without taking you away from the page
• TimesInstant, a search page that shows results as you type
• Smart Search Bar, which sorts results and displays them without taking you away from the page you're on
• NYTimes Crossword Web App, an HTML 5 version of the puzzle's aging digital versions
• Longitude, which plots the day's Times articles on an interactive Google map
• Community Hub, a dashboard featuring stats on your comment history, a feed of comments on Times articles and, soon, Facebook friends' comments.

Read the AdAge coverage in full.

Should your website host a crowdsource section to test new publishing ventures?

This article in The New York Times (@nytimes) says, “It used to be like clockwork in the book business: first the hardcover edition was released, then, about one year later, the paperback.”

But in an industry that has been upended by the growth of ebooks, publishers are moving against convention by pushing paperbacks into publication earlier than usual, sometimes less than six months after they appeared in hardcover....

Publishers say they have a new sense of urgency with the paperback, since the big, simultaneous release of hardcover and electronic editions now garners a book the bulk of the attention it is likely to receive, leaving the paperback relatively far behind. They may also be taking their cues from Hollywood, where movie studios have trimmed marketing costs by steadily closing the gap between the theatrical release of films and their arrival on DVD....

The entire publishing life cycle has sped up in recent years. Hardcovers have less time to prove themselves in bookstores, since retailers tend to move them off the shelves more quickly than they used to. Ebook sales are usually strong in the initial period after the publication date but do not spike again after the paperback comes out, said Terry Adams, the digital and paperback publisher for Little, Brown & Company (@littlebrown). 

Read this in full.

How have you had to adjust your publishing pipeline in this digital age?

An article in The Daily Beast / Newsweek (@thedailybeast) by Malcolm Jones profiles the fabulous new children’s ebook The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (@MorrisLessmore) by Moonbot Studios LA, LLC (@moonbotstudios). It says the ebook “embraces the potential of the iPad like nothing else.”

Dumped into a black-and-white landscape littered with wreckage, Morris Lessmore encounters a savior of sorts, who tosses him a flying book that leads him to a library set out in the countryside. Here he takes up residence, learns to care for the thousands of books he lives with and begins to write down his own story, an effort that takes him all his life.

In every scene, the viewer has to help move the action along — speeding up the wind that carries Morris away, spinning the house on which he flies through the storm, spelling out words in the cereal bowl with which Morris feeds the books (cereal like Alphabits, of course). But the interaction is not merely some computer form of a pop-up book. Besides spelling words, you can play a piano keyboard and make the books dance, and if you don’t want narration, you can mute it, and if you don’t want text, you can remove that, too. You can’t change the story, but the app designers have nevertheless found ways to make you feel very much a part of the story.

On the Morris Lessmore website it says

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation), award-winning author/illustrator William Joyce and co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a hybrid style of animation that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals.

Read this in full.

A one-paragraph summary of the article is here.

Is this a game-changer in the production of ebooks? How will your publishing plans change as a result? Let Somersault help.

This chart by AdAge (@adage) shows that the generation coming up after the millennials – the iGen – is quickly consuming content digitally. Technology isn't skipping this generation, it's being handed down from mother to child. The data come from an annual survey by Parenting Group, the publisher of Parenting, Babytalk, and Parenting.com (@parenting), and the BlogHer (@BlogHer) network.

The generational breakdown is striking. Across the board, younger moms are passing technology along to their kids at an early age. This might not seem too surprising, given the Gen-Y embrace of technology. But when you consider that many of the youngest Gen-X moms are still having their first kids, whereas many millennials are putting off having kids, the adoption rates of technology start to blur.

Digging deeper into the data we see that the percent of moms who haven't let their children use a smartphone corresponds roughly to the percent of moms who don't have a smartphone themselves. We suspect that moms who haven't let their 2-year-olds use a smartphone likely got a smartphone when their kids were already older than that. Crazy, eh? Looking at stats for more-established technologies would seem to confirm that. The Gen-Xers and Boomer moms -- who are more likely to have older kids -- do show a higher overall rate of having passed the laptop or non-smartphone to their children of all ages.

The sweet spots for majority-usage looks like this: Mobile phone, age 11; smartphones, age 16; laptop/PC, age 4; digital camera, age 5.

Overall, the study finds that nearly three-quarters of moms with Internet access can't go a day without it. One in four report letting their kids use a mobile phone by age 2. We wonder when the ability to hit the home button, swipe to unlock and find an app will become a recognized developmental milestone -- maybe somewhere between walking and multi-word sentences.

Read this in full.

See the complete survey results in a PowerPoint presentation by BlogHer.

Also read our previous blogposts, "Motherhood Sends Moms to Smartphones" and "CyberTots: Pre-teens Drive iPad Purchases, Join Social Networks."

How does this information influence your publishing strategy for the next 12 months? The next 5 years?

Tim Carmody (@tcarmody) of WIRED’s (@wired) Epicenter (@epicenterblog) in a commentary on CNN.com (@cnn) bemoans how ebook innovation is being stymied by big business. An example he sites is Push Pop Press (@pushpoppress), an e-publishing startup founded by ex-Apple engineers Mike Matas (@mike_matas) and Kimon Tsinteris (@kimon), being acquired by Facebook.

Push Pop published one multimedia book for the iPad, Al Gore's Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis [see Somersault’s blogpost about it, “A Next-generation Digital Book”]....

At that time, Push Pop...sought to create a ‘publishing platform for authors, publishers and artists to turn their books into interactive iPad or iPhone apps -- no programming skills required.’

Facebook has no interest in publishing interactive ebooks. According to Push Pop, ‘there are no plans to continue publishing new titles or building out our publishing platform that was in private beta.’ ....

We sorely need independent innovation in digital publishing. We need talented people who are willing to try things. Meanwhile, all of the money, attention, and technological skill is marching in the opposite direction.

Most big media companies with plenty of capital and deep technical talent see few if any reasons to innovate or invest in books....

The ideas are there; the talent is there; the readers are there. But when the three come together, inevitably someone else can figure out a way to use the technology for a different end. The better and more experimental it is, the more likely this is true.

Read this in full.

Do you agree or disagree?

A story on NPR (@npr) explains the importance of mannequins in the retail environment.

"As online shopping grows and grows, it seems that people coming into the stores are even more and more interested in a tactile experience," says Craig Childress of Envirosell (@Envirosell), a New York City-based firm that studies consumer behavior. He says a well-designed mannequin will invite shoppers to interact with the merchandise.

"It's really amazing to us how static retail environments are," Childress says. "So anything that actually has perception of moving, or is actually moving, really gets attention very quickly."

While it may start with action, a successful mannequin has to ultimately reflect something that customers want to see in themselves, according to Fusion Specialties' Peter Huston. "A well-designed mannequin will always be far more aspirational than it is realistic. And so you walk a fine line there," Huston says.

Read and listen to the story in full.

Here’s a crazy question: Should bookstores incorporate mannequins into the shopping experience they give their customers?

Chart Of The Day (@chartoftheday) says people are still subscribing to print newspapers for 2 reasons, according to a survey from AdAge (@adage): they want local news, and they want coupons.

How can that information influence your publishing and marketing decisions?

The American Magazine Study, conducted by Affinity Research, reports that, along with 84% of US adults owning at least one computer, distinct generational skews exist in the profiles of eReader, tablet PC, and smartphone owners. It says, “These findings are important for companies marketing mobile devices to Millennials, Gen-Xers, and Baby Boomers, as well as those creating content and advertising targeted at these unique generational segments.”

Boomers are the most likely buyers of eReaders

·         More than 8.2 million Boomers currently own an eReader, while more than 10 million plan to purchase the device in the next six months.

·         More than 9 out of 10 Boomers (92%) use the device at home, 13% at work, and 36% power up their eReaders while on the go.

·         Similar to the national trend, female Boomers are 11% more likely to own an eReader than their male counterparts.

Gen-Xers are the most likely buyers of Tablet PCs

·         More than 9% of Gen-Xers currently own a tablet PC, while 24% - or almost 21 million - have plans to purchase the device.

·         56% of Gen-X tablet owners actively share their devices with others.

·         Gen-Xers with a household income of $100,000 or more are 63% more likely to own a tablet PC than their generational peers.

Millennials are the most likely buyers of Smartphones

·         54% - or more than 25 million Millennials - currently own a smartphone, and 18% plan to purchase one within the next six months.

·         63% of Millennials use their smartphones at work, while 95% report that they are the sole users of the device.

·         Millennials who have graduated college are 23% more likely to own a smartphone than others in their generation.

Read the news release.

Read the study in full.

What does this study mean for your publishing strategy? Let Somersault help.

NASHVILLE, TN – The new Bible translation known for being “built on common ground” is receiving a popular reception among consumers and is exceeding the publisher’s first print-run expectations by 50 percent.

The complete Common English Bible (http://CommonEnglishBible.com / Twitter @CommonEngBible – http://twitter.com/CommonEngBible) debuted online and on 20 digital platforms in June, and in paperback format in mid-July. It’s already gone back to press once. With this, its third printing, the Common English Bible now totals 500,000 copies in print, including the New Testament-only editions released a year ago. Originally expected this fall, the entire Bible paperback edition already in stores is selling quickly. Six other editions, including one with the Apocrypha, are releasing in August.

“Bookstore customers are asking for the Common English Bible in part due to the media coverage the translation is getting,” says Paul Franklyn, associate publisher. “News media such as TIME magazine, USA TODAY, The Tennessean, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Toronto Star, Florida Today, Orlando Sentinel, The Christian Post, and others, along with reviews by bloggers, our own website, Twitter stream, and Facebook page, and our video are all driving people into stores.”

The Common English Bible is a platinum sponsor of the Christian retail association’s Christian Store Week (http://christianstoreweek.com/), scheduled for Oct. 1-10. As a sponsor, the Common English Bible will be helping stores celebrate the crossroads of faith and community nationwide, and raise awareness and support for continued relief for earthquake victims in Haiti.

“When we say “built on common ground,” we mean that the Common English Bible is the result of collaboration between opposites: scholars working with average readers; conservatives working with liberals; teens working with retirees; men working with women; many denominations and many ethnicities coming together around the common goal of creating a vibrant and clear translation for 21st century readers, with the ultimate objective of mutually accomplishing God’s overall work in the world,” says Franklyn.

Combining scholarly accuracy with vivid language, the Common English Bible is the work of 120 biblical scholars from 24 denominations in American, African, Asian, European, and Latino communities, representing such academic institutions as Asbury Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, Bethel Seminary, Denver Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Seattle Pacific University, Wheaton College, Yale University, and many others. They translated the Bible into English directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.

Additionally, more than 500 readers in 77 groups field-tested the translation. Every verse was read aloud in the reading groups, where potentially confusing passages were identified. The translators considered the groups' responses and, where necessary, reworked those passages to clarify in modern English their meaning from the original languages. In total, more than 700 people worked jointly to bring the Common English Bible to fruition; and because of the Internet and today’s technology it was completed in less than four years.

Visit CommonEnglishBible.com to see comparison translations, learn about the translators, get free downloads, and more.

The Common English Bible is a denomination-neutral Bible sponsored by the Common English Bible Committee, an alliance of five publishers that serve the general market, as well as the Disciples of Christ (Chalice Press), Presbyterian Church (Westminster John Knox Press), Episcopal Church (Church Publishing Inc.), United Church of Christ (Pilgrim Press), and United Methodist Church (Abingdon Press).

To schedule an interview with Paul Franklyn, please contact Diane Morrow, dmorrow@tbbmedia.com or 800.927.1517.

Celebrate with us! Alltop (@Alltop) has selected the Somersault (@smrsault) blog to be included in its category of top Publishing resources on the Web. We couldn’t be happier!

Alltop is a valuable service that, as it says, “collects the headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic.” Alltop is a “dashboard,” “table of contents,” or even a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. It groups collections of RSS news feeds into individual Web pages, displayed in hundreds of topical categories. Topics run from adoption to zoology with photography, food, science, religion, celebrities, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, Macintosh, and hundreds of other subjects along the way. It says it provides “aggregation without aggravation.”

ReadWriteWeb (@RWW) says Alltop is “a valuable resource for anyone wanting to research a certain subject or industry.”

The Somersault blog strives to be a voice for thought leadership in a variety of subjects that matter to publishing and marketing executives. We explore topics such as leadership, innovation, publicity best practices, and the future of publishing, as well as many others. It's an honor to be recognized by Alltop as a valuable resource for readers. 

Look for Somersault under Publishing, about half-way down in the right column. Also visit Somersault’s own personalized Alltop page of the RSS feeds we find interesting and useful. You may want to create your own Alltop page. If you do, be sure to add Somersault to it.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard that we built specifically for publishing and marketing executives.

You may also be interested in receiving any of our 10 paper.li newspapers -- daily source material comprised of Twitter-fed stories and information in the areas of audiobooks, ebooks, futurist news, innovation, literary agents, mobile, publishing, research, retail, and leadership.