HTML5: Assessing the Promise

As publishers are quickly realizing, the digital conversion does not end with tablet-ready editions. The year 2011 was deemed "the second year of the iPad," but 2012 is shaping up to be the advent of the mobile content. HTML5, with its device-agnostic and Flash-free capabilities, is seen as a way to fast-track this mobile jump. Some publishers, like Hearst, are bullish on the HTML5 transition; others, such as Rodale and Atlantic Media's Government Executive, are stepping more carefully into the arena. The glitter of HTML5, like many other technologies, social networks and ideas currently catching fire in the publishing industry, is bound to diminish as it becomes simply another Web standard. Then, publishers will turn back to the most pressing issue of all: What their audiences want.