Long before the spring 2010 debut of Apple's iPad, we have seen a decline in traditional print media. The delivery of information on the world wide web and to a lesser extent email newsletters has given people alternate ways of being notified about things that they care about.
Several print publications have gone out of business or have ceased publishing print editions. Today, there are hundreds of newspapers that no longer publish print editions, and have moved strictly to electronic formats of distribution. The new format seems to be popular among those that have embraced technology, while many consumers miss their papers in their old traditional tangible format.
In a time where we find many companies wrestling with how to successfully move front print to digital revenue models, USA Today, the second largest newspaper in terms of circulation behind The Wall Street Journel as of September 30, 2010 has come forward and said that it is doing very well on the iPad. As reported in The Telegraph today, Gannett Company (the publisher of USA Today) COO Gracia Martore stated that "the iPad has been a real positive for USA Today," and added, "we expect this will translate into a much more significant improvement," regarding revenues.
After cutting more than a hundred staff members last fall, USA Today decided to devote a large amount of its remaining resources to the evolution and support of the iPad application. Since April of 2010, there have been more than 1.4 million downloads of the app. It seems that they have made a wise choice in embracing the new digital tablet format.
As more tablets come onto the market, there will be more and more publishers seeking to stake their claim to tablet screen real estate. The News Corporation will be debuting their news application The Daily on the iPad tomorrow. The application features an in-app subscription process that improves upon the models other print media have used on the iPad by not requiring consumers to buy issues individually. The individual purchase model has hurt magazines that saw some initial success on the iPad platform. Perhaps they will move to an in-app extended subscription model as well.
How do you consume your news? Do you have an iPad or tablet? Could you imagine using one as a primary source for news and textual media consumption? Please leave a comment below!
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