MEDIA & MARKETING:Newspaper and magazine businesses are finding that the iPad is not the Holy Grail they hoped it might be
THIS MONTH a lot of people will be getting to grips with their new Apple iPad, one of the most popular presents among adults over Christmas.
The tablet device launched last spring has moved beyond the early adopter brigade to the mainstream and Apple is confident that the trend will accelerate through 2011.
Many players in the publishing arena see the iPad as a channel to monetise content that until now has been given away for free on the web.
However, the early indications are that newspaper and magazine publishers are finding that the iPad is not the Holy Grail they hoped it might be. To serve up content on the iPad, other than through a link to their websites, publishers have to work with software developers to create an app that is then made available in Apple’s App Store. Publishers have two choices. The simplest solution is to serve up a replica of the printed product. In this way, the iPad becomes an alternative consumption channel for the printed newspaper or magazine and each download can be charged for.
The problem with this route is that type in a newspaper or magazine page isn’t readable on an iPad unless the user expands the screen view. Because of this, the reader experience is less satisfactory than with the paper product. One step forward, two steps back.
The alternative solution is to serve up a publication’s content in a bespoke App that takes account of the iPad’s 7.5ins screen. For the publisher, this means a lot more investment in the app’s software development.
Going down this route also facilitates adding embedded video, picture slide shows and other features that enhance rather than detract from the reader experience.
In the US, some of the big consumer magazine titles have chosen the bespoke option. One of the best early executions came from Wired and its debut iPad edition sold more than 100,000 downloads last June. Now sales of the magazine's iPad edition have dropped to about 20,000 compared to 130,000 for the print version. Even as sales of the iPad were accelerating through last autumn, fancy iPad editions produced by Vanity Fair, Glamour, GQand Men's Healthhave been trending downwards.
To date the only Irish magazine publisher to produce an iPad edition is Image, which sells its iPad replica version for €2.99 compared to a €4.25 shop price for the printed magazine. To date Imagehas published three issues on the iPad and managing director Richard Power says the process has not been easy. "Each issue has to get sign off from Apple and it took them 2½ months to approve our first iPad edition."
He adds that advertisers approached by Imagehave talked about creating specific campaigns for the app. "The app is an opportunity for us to attract new advertisers we wouldn't get in the magazine."
So far Irish newspapers have adopted a cautious approach to the iPad. The Irish Timesand the Irish Independentmake their replica digital editions available on the tablet platform, which is handy for readers who can't source the printed paper, though much of the digital edition content is freely available on the titles' websites.
Online start-up TheJournal.ie, which aggregates and rewrites news stories and links to the original sources, has proved to be more nimble, with a free iPad app that serves up bite-sized news and comment that appeals to the iPad's younger demographic.
The most ambitious attempt at a bespoke newspaper app in Ireland and the UK has been made by the Timesand the Sunday Times. Both newspapers have gated off their formerly free website content to digital subscribers and devised bespoke iPad editions that are instantly readable and take full advantage of the tablet's capabilities.
The entire edition of the Sunday Timesis now available in iPad friendly format for €2.39 compared to the newspaper's cover price of €2.80. Unfortunately the iPad version is only for the UK edition of the newspaper so it won't find many takers in Ireland.
The downside of News International’s paywall strategy is that traffic to its websites has collapsed, and industry observers doubt that the paywall revenue is offsetting the loss in revenue from online advertising. None of the other big UK newspaper publishers have followed News International’s lead, though Rupert Murdoch insists that he’s going to persevere.
The dilemma for iPad content providers is that consumers have become so used to sourcing free news and comment on the internet that they seem reluctant to start paying just because that content can be made look better on an iPad.
