St. Louis Beacon Releases iBook

ST LOUIS, MO — St. Louis Beacon, the non-profit regional news organization, has released an iBook built using Apple's recently released iBooks Author. "Meandering Mississippi" is a collection of articles, images and video from the Beacon's ongoing reporting on the issues surrounding last year's record floods.

iBooks Author provides a lowered barrier of entry for e-book development and in that an opportunity to compete in the expansive iBooks Store. This gives regional and hyperlocal investigative operations opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach. The conversation about media is synonymous with that of distribution. iBooks Author has implications far beyond its initial release focus on the education sector.

"The Beacon is pleased to be among the first organizations using this new tool to create an iBook on an important topic," said Beacon editor, Margaret Wolf Freivogel. "Flooding near the Mississippi River last year caused problems that Missourians are still dealing with and raised questions for the nation. The Beacon's reporting in this new iBook shines a light on both issues."

The book is drawn from reporting by Mary Delach Leonard and Robert Koenig of the Beacon staff. It explores the personal impact and policy implications of the federal government's decision to deliberately breach the Birds Point levee and flood parts of southeast Missouri.

The iBook was compiled in just 72 hours following the release of iBooks Author by St. Louis Beacon presentation editor Brent Jones. "Apple's iBooks Author made it easy to bring our work to the iBookstore and a whole new audience," said Jones. "Our iBook brings stories, audio, video and graphics together into a package that is an easy-to-read, compelling look at the flooding in Missouri in 2011."

"We realize that using iBooks Author is platform specific," added St. Louis Beacon general manager, Nicole Hudson Hollway, referencing the fact that e-books made with the tool will currently only run on the iPad. "The same articles are available on our website for free, as well as in a printed volume. Giving our readers who enjoy the iPad interface a first class integrated experience is a natural extension of our philosophy: meet people where they are. The development costs to offer an e-book like this from scratch would not have made sense. iBooks Author made it almost turnkey."

All of the articles included in "Meandering Mississippi" will remain accessible for free on the Beacon website. The iBooks Author version is available for $.99 in the Apple App Store. Description and screenshots available here.