WGBH puts listings on an iPad

WGBH has begun distributing its monthly program guide, Explore!, in a package that brings video and audio promos along with it to iPad tablets. It can also use Wi-Fi to pull in updated “live listings” from the Web even after it’s in the viewers’ hands.

Also, the guide doesn’t have to go to the printer a month and a half before broadcast, as printed guides do, says Ben Godley, WGBH chief operating officer.

Starting in December WGBH members could view the guide only if they had iPads. Editions for Android tablets and computers will be developed later, says Steve Baker, senior director of creative projects.

[As this article was being prepared, the program guide was named best publication of the year by Boston’s Ad Club. See sidebar.]

The guide is a free but hefty download from the Apple iTunes Store.

It’s not exactly an “app,” Baker says. It’s a digital publication — more in the nature of a huge PDF document with built-in videos.

WGBH is the first nonprofit to try the beta version of the high-end Adobe Digital Publishing Suite previously used only by magazines such as The New Yorker, he says. The ultra-precise pages are composed like those of print magazines, largely in Adobe’s InDesign software. Several pages in the January issue were paid ads.

For the first time, enthusiastic viewers will be able to see all the dozens of promos made every month for PBS programs  — more than any station can run, Baker observes.

He expects tablets to become the second screen that offers supplementary material while a TV program is airing.

After almost a year of work on the project, WGBH is still focusing on its local guide, Baker says, but it’s open to helping other stations if they’re interested.    

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