New Digital Innovators to Answer Publishing Challenges

LONDON, February 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Five up and coming technology companies have risen to the challenge of providing new solutions to the publishing industry and will present their innovations as part of The Digital Innovation Challenge, in association with Digital Shoreditch, at Publishing & Media Expo on Feb 27^th at Earls Court, London.

In organising this challenge, Digital Shoreditch consulted with a number of high level publishers all of whom were keen to hear about the next big technology set to revolutionise their industry.  The main themes emerging from this consultation were monetising content and generating communities.

Digital Shorditch put this challenge out to its community and were inundated with solutions from up and coming companies eager to get in front of a publishing audience. The top five were selected and will go through to the final showdown at Publishing & Media Expo within the Digital & Multi-Publishing Theatre programme.

The five finalists are:

• Bardowl has reinvented Audiobooks. We believe opening up audio as an access rather than an ownership model will attract new users to the format and significantly increase audio revenues for publishers and authors.
• Erudition™ is a specialist digital publishing start-up which partners with publishers and content owners to create purpose-built digital publications from new or existing content.  We enable publishers to generate new revenue streams and to transcend the print paradigm with immersive, engaging reader experiences.
• Flockler is a platform that enables brands and publishers to create, customize and publish Flipboard-like magazines combining their own editorial (e.g. blog posts) and social content such as tweets, videos and images.
• PaperRound (Acquity Design) is designed to allow people to find the news they want quickly and simply using a radically different thematic touch search system. Using a non-text based system allows us to break some of the problems visually impaired people have with much web-based and text-encoded information: the ability to skim quickly to specific information the ability to browse different opinions and news.
• Platter helps cooks share ideas in the simplest format - food photos.  But unlike Instagram, Platter reveals the creative process behind the picture.  This makes Platter a platform of discovery: new stars, new ideas... and new influences.  Possible influences range from cookbooks to columns, and cooks love tagging their favourites.  In this way, Platter extends publishers' influence from print to digital, from broadcast to social, breathing new life into old content.

Attendees to the session will be able to vote on the winner having heard all 5 of these companies pitch and be cross examined by the judging panel. The audience vote will then be combined with the judges' to decide an overall winner.

Steve Price, MD of Digital Innovation Solutions and representative of Digital Shoreditch said "I expect it to be a difficult decision for the panel and the audience as the five finalists will wow them in very different ways.  It just shows what you can achieve with a challenge led engagement of young ambitious digital companies."

Publishing & Media Expo is free to attend for all pre registered publishing and media professionals and takes place alongside Technology for Marketing & Advertising (TFM&A), Online Advertising & Affiliate Expo (OA&A) and International Direct Marketing Expo (IDMX).

About UBM Live (organiser of Publishing & Media Expo):

UBM Live connects people and creates opportunities for companies across five continents to develop new business, meet customers, launch new products, promote their brands and expand their markets.   Through premiere brands such as MD&M, CPhI, IFSEC, TFM&A, Cruise Shipping Miami, the Concrete Show and many others, UBM Live exhibitions, conferences, awards programs, publications, websites and training and certification programs are an integral part of the marketing plans of companies across more than 20 industry sectors.