Flipboard Introduces Topics; Powered By The Millions Of Curators On Flipboard

34,000 Topics Let Readers Go Deep on Any Interest While The New Daily Edition Creates a Single Place to Catch Up Every Morning
Third Generation of Flipboard Also Introduces a New Interface Designed Specifically for Phones
October 29th, 2014  •  Palo Alto, Calif.

Today Flipboard, Inc. unveiled the third generation of its poplar personal magazine for mobile phones and tablets. Central to this new experience is the addition of more than 34,000 “topics” that can be followed to more quickly tailor Flipboard to each reader’s specific interests. Topics are filled with stories, videos and images being shared on Flipboard and curated into any of the more than 10 million magazines made by readers. Using the Zite technology to index content, Flipboard can surface great, handpicked stories to readers and deliver a broader audience to magazine makers on Flipboard.  This people-powered network of content is indexed by algorithms and presented to Flipboard readers through new topic tags on stories and in search.

“Now, with topics, when you are browsing Flipboard and come across the amazing articles and videos people havepicked, it reminds you that finding the best stories can’t just be done with algorithms alone. There is no algorithm for important or cool—it takes a human perspective. The magazines on Flipboard create these great packages, on just about anything you can imagine, that you can’t find anywhere else,” said Mike McCue, CEO and Co-founder of Flipboard.

Starting today, when people launch Flipboard, they can select topics from the new Topic Picker. They can also search to find a topic or tap on topic tags shown on articles. It’s easy to follow any topic with the new “follow” button. As readers flip through a topic, they’ll see who first shared the article and the name of the magazine it was shared in. Then, if they want to look at the magazine, they can simply tap its title. This deeper level of discovery lets people explore stories and find magazines—while giving magazine makers even more exposure and reach.

The topics engine is based on a technology developed by Zite and is available in English to readers in the United States and Canada at launch. Flipboard acquired Zite from CNN earlier this year.

The Daily Edition

This third generation of Flipboard also introduces the Daily Edition, a news magazine for people who simply want a quick update on top stories in categories such as world news, sports, business and entertainment—delivering a fresh, focused experience. Flipboard’s team of in-house curators releases a new edition each day at 7 a.m. local time; breaking news stories are added around the clock. In addition to news, there is also a daily audio track and a “parting GIF.”

A Beautiful, Faster Phone Experience

With 70 percent of people on Flipboard now on smartphones, this third generation has beautiful new designs and simplified user interface optimized for the phone. Examples of this include:

– Upon opening Flipboard, readers are immediately in their Home, a stream of content personalized for them based on the sources, topics, magazines and people they follow on Flipboard.

– A new tab bar gives readers quick access to the key elements of Flipboard on a phone: Home, Search, Profile, and Notifications.

– Adding stories, videos and photos to Flipboard magazines is simpler with a single-step “flip” interface. In addition, the new release features beautiful new covers and provides readers with basic analytics quantifying each magazine’s followers, viewers and more.

Finally, with this edition, Flipboard is moving to a “follow” model. For the first time, Flipboard suggests topics, magazines and people to follow, including magazine makers recommended by the editorial team. Flipboard will also recommend people to follow based on someone’s Twitter and Facebook friends if those social networks are connected to Flipboard.