Tablets as a News Platform

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Tablet Ownership : The numbers• For the first time, a third (34%) of American adults

ages 18 and older own a tablet computer like an iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus, or Kindle Fire—almost twice as many as the 18% who owned a tablet a year ago.

• Demographic groups most likely to own tablets include:– Those living in households earning at least $75,000 per

year (56%), compared with lower income brackets– Adults ages 35-44 (49%), compared with younger and older

adults– College graduates (49%), compared with adults with lower

levels of education• Study conducted by Princeton Survey Research

Associates International from April 17 to May 19, 2013Source: Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project

What the “experts” are saying• “Tablets are undoubtedly the future of magazines. Here’s evidence: A

study by Harrison Group showed that tablet and e-reader owners spend 50 percent more time reading magazines than the general population. Why? …Most tablet versions of magazines these days, in addition to being more convenient…also give you many things the print version can’t, and with the immediate gratification the print version can’t. A few examples: multimedia, the opportunity to provide immediate feedback, links to infinitely more information about a topic on the Web, including updates to the particular story itself. In short, a tablet magazine is interactive.”– -Greg Zimmerman

“Why Magazines are Thriving”Feb. 2012

What the “experts” are saying“I fear the app-based tablet approach to magazines leads straight to oblivion, at least for individual magazine titles.Not that tablets aren’t suited for reading. I discover most of the articles I read every day through my favorite iPad apps: Zite, Flipboard, Facebook and Twitter. These apps don’t produce any content themselves. They’re merely curating what’s already out there. My dedicated magazine apps, on the other hand, have been lost among the many other apps on my iPad. I never read them, even those I pay monthly subscription fees for.”

-- Jon Lund, Chairman, Danish Online News Association October 6, 2013

THE DAILY is dead.

• Introduced by News Corp. in February 2011 as “daily news magazine for the iPad era”

• $.99 per week of $39.99 a year• Problem: ONE PLATFORM isn’t

enough– iPad users are “digital carnivores” across platforms (tablet, smartphone, print, PCs)

• 100,000 subscribers (not enough)

• Dec. 15, 2012 Operation ceased, 120 employees

“Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term.”

-Rupert Murdoch, CEO NewsCorporation

452 students at large SE university surveyed in Fall 2010 and Spring 2011

Published in Newspaper Research Journal (Winter 2013)

Most would use iPad to access a newspaper

Only 22.5% would pay $5 for such an app (for newspaper)

20% would pay $3 for a digital magazine

Older users were happier with iPad experience than smartphone experience

Study: Few Students Will Pay for Tablet

Content

Is the iPad on the Decline?

• iPad sales dropped to 14.6 million during April-June quarter (compared to 17 million last year April-June 2012)

• Apple’s market share of smartphone market also dropped to 14.2% (from 18.6% last year)

• Bloomberg: Global tablet shipments slowed from previous quarter as consumers delayed purchases awaiting a new model

Source: Is the iPad Era Already Drawing to a Close?Advertising Age August 19, 2013 (Simon Dumenco)

BOTTOMLINE: WHY this unit on tablet?

1. It’s another platform for delivering news.2. It’s different from mobile (smartphone).3. Few news organization have a clue how to

program for it. 4. It’s a Great example of how the “business

influence” impacts cross-media content delivery.5. It’s a work tool that journalists (and working

professionals elsewhere) are more likely to use than in the past.

6. Sophisticated understanding of mobile is a MUST! (It’s not enough to be just a consumer)