Southborough Firm Kicks Super Bowl Program Into Online World
Hensel
It could be a sign of the times, but some say it's the wave of the future.
For the first time in Super Bowl history, the National Football League published the game's official program in a digital format.
And Southborough-based Texterity was the company that made it happen.
"It was really cool to work on this project," said Martin Hensel, founder and president of Texterity, a digital publishing company.
If you're wondering what each of the Super Bowl rings from the last 43 winners looks like, want to watch videos embedded directly into the program, or want to review a week-by-week recap of the NFL's 17-week regular season, the online program is the place to go.
Hensel said the program, which is linked directly from the NFL's Super Bowl 44 web site, has already received more than 1 million hits.
Virtual Keepsake
Adam Sharff is the associate publisher at H.O. Zimman, Inc. in Lynn, which published the Super Bowl program for the seventh straight year.
Placing the program online was a mutual decision between the publishing company and the NFL to expand the program's reach.
"We recognize and (the NFL) recognizes that online is part of the fabric of how people consume information, and therefore how advertisers and sponsors want to get their name out there," Sharff said.
H.O. Zimman produced the program, contracted writers for the articles and sold the advertisements for the program. They then sent the final product to Texterity, which converted the program into a digital format.
Texterity has already implemented the concept behind the Super Bowl project to dozens of magazine titles. The company created and manages the web site www.coverleaf.com, a consumer magazine portal with digital versions of more than 50 magazine titles.
When subscribers to the magazine get a print edition, they can get a free online edition too. Texterity will send e-mail reminders to subscribers of new issues and will custom-tailor advertisements to specific subscriber categories.
When reading the digital versions subscribers can clip out pages and forward them to friends or bookmark sites within the magazine.
"Digital publishing allows for an even larger consumer reach," Hensel said. "It's the ability to get anyone anywhere instantly to look at your title and target information specifically for that reader."
Hensel got into digital publishing in the early 1990s. He said he was "too early" for electronic books that have since been popularized with e-readers from Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and now Apple. Instead of focusing on books, Hensel targeted magazine publishers and created CoverLeaf.
Digital publishing will only grow in the future, Hensel predicts. As more and more consumers have handheld devices for consuming information - such as a smart phone, or e-reader - advertisers will want to reach those people.
Eventually a completely electronic publishing world would cut down on the physical cost of producing the newspaper, magazine or title in print, Hensel said.
But Sharff, the publisher of the Super Bowl program, said he doesn't think print editions of niche publications are dying anytime soon, especially for something like the Super Bowl program.
"The online portion is a good thing for exposure and as a way to brand the advertisers, but I don't think these titles could exist only online yet," he said.
Nonetheless, Hensel said he's always looking for the next big thing for his 55-person company. Plus, he's already planning for next year.
"Next year we'll have an iPhone App," Hensel said about the Super Bowl program with a laugh.
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