Facebook acquires Push Pop Press: bad news for publishers?
What鈥檚 good for Facebook isn鈥檛 necessarily good for books. That鈥檚 the reaction of folks in the media and tech worlds regarding Facebook鈥檚 latest acquisition.
, an e-publishing startup founded by two ex-Apple engineers, that it was being acquired by Facebook.
The idea behind Push Pop is brilliant, and a godsend for a publishing industry sorely in need of innovative ideas. It sought to create a 鈥減ublishing platform for authors, publishers, and artists to turn their books into interactive iPad or iPhone apps 鈥� no programming skills required,鈥� according to . Push Pop published innovative multimedia e-books 鈥� think books that 鈥渞ead鈥� like movies, with interactive graphics and words mingling across the page 鈥� for Apple鈥檚 iPad and iPhone, including Al Gore鈥檚 鈥淥ur Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.鈥�
In an , Push Pop co-founder Mike Matas described it this way: 鈥淭he app is the richest form of storytelling. [Push Pop Press] opens doors to telling a story with more photos, more videos and interactions.鈥�
Alas, Gore鈥檚 鈥淥ur Choice鈥� may be the last interactive e-book we see from Push Pop. As , Facebook isn鈥檛 getting into the publishing business. Rather, Push Pop is getting out. According to , "there are no plans to continue publishing new titles or building out our publishing platform that was in private beta."
"Although Facebook isn't planning to start publishing digital books, the ideas and technology behind Push Pop Press will be integrated with Facebook, giving people even richer ways to share their stories," the publisher continued.
No additional information was provided so those 鈥渞icher ways to share stories鈥� may simply mean better apps, a better iPad interface, or perhaps allowing Facebook users to create multimedia scrapbooks using photos and other content uploaded to Facebook.
All in all, though, the acquisition is bum news for publishers. Push Pop represented a fresh, new way to reinterpret books for the digital era 鈥� all the more critical at a time when the publishing industry is scrambling to remain profitable.
鈥淛ust when you think a startup stuffed with talent is destined for big things, they Pull a Patzer (a move where a very promising company sells too early to a bigger, cash-rich suitor),鈥� writes Om Malik for . 鈥淚 had such high hopes for Push Pop Press and I thought they could redefine the idea of publishing鈥�. Instead they are now going to be acquired by Facebook, where in all likelihood, they are going to work on photo albums or something similar.鈥�
A folks at Wired were disappointed, too.
鈥淲e sorely need independent innovation in digital publishing,鈥� writes Wired.com鈥檚 Tim Carmody, in a blog post titled 鈥淲e need talented people who are willing to try things. Meanwhile, all of the money, attention and technological skill is marching in the opposite direction.鈥�
鈥淪o instead of an independent born-digital press, publishing next-generation multimedia novels (or magazines or textbooks or children's books or cookbooks), Facebook will probably get marginally better iOS apps,鈥� Mr. Carmody continues. 鈥淚'm happy for the team at Push Pop; they're a talented and experienced group, and Facebook is lucky to have them. But as a reader, and as a technology writer who's been writing about digital publishing for as long as I can remember, this news frankly bums me out.鈥�
Frankly, we鈥檙e bummed too 鈥� we鈥檇 rather see that technology applied to innovative book publishing. But we鈥檙e hoping Push Pop has inspired other e-publishers, some of which have already been working on similar projects.
鈥淸O]verall [Facebook鈥檚 acquisition of Push Pop Press] strikes me as validating the development of new kinds of multimedia storytelling tools, no matter how they end up being utilized,鈥� Evan Ratliff, founding editor of the multimedia nonfiction digital publisher , told .
, 鈥淸T]he disappearance from Push Pop Press is hardly the end of innovative ebooks. They're just getting started.鈥�
We hope so.
Husna Haq is a Monitor contributor.
Join the Monitor's book discussion on and .
