Will Tablets Kill Newspapers Or Help Them?

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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Changing the Information and Media Distribution Channel

Remember the days of dialing the rotary telephone? Have memories of sitting down and writing a distant relative or friend a letter, with a pen, finding a stamp, and placing it the mailbox? Those days are far removed from where we find ourselves today. Welcome to the age of instant information distribution. So much of our information is created, consumed, and distributed from mobile devices.

A majority of American households have at least one mobile phone. Many have notebook computers. Over the past few years, the miniaturized form-factor and capability of mobile devices has brought the power of communication and content creation to the masses, all in a device that can easily fit into a front pocket. With increased portability, we've seen an incredible surge of amateur journalists, the ability to break news instantly, and a constant record of visual events that occur around us.

An event that comes to mind that clearly illustrates this trend is the horrific terrorist events that occurred in Mumbai, India from November 26th through 29th in 2008. Moments after the first shots of the attack were fired, Twitter users in India were using the micro-blogging service to send eyewitness accounts of the unfolding events. As tragic as these events were, we can gather that it was the general populous, using commonly available mobile technology and social media services that broke the story. Mobile users were able to report the news more effectively than the mainstream media. This clearly illustrates how mobile platforms and services have allowed us to make the world a smaller place, and in many regards, spurn global concern for events that were once before considered to be so distant.

With the announcement of the Apple iPhone4 device, as well as devices featuring the ever-evolving Google Android OS, users can now hold face-to-face videoconferences with users across the globe, with a device that fits in the palm of your hand. This "Jetsons" technology has finally become a reality, and it is just the beginning of the convergences we will see in the future.

The ability to record high definition video in a small, simple form factor was perfected by the Pure Digital FlipVideo devices. These devices have existed for a couple of years, but were limited strictly to recording audio and video. The smartphones available today can do everything the FlipVideo and its competitors can do, but can also make phone calls, browse the web, as well as run any of the thousands of currently available mobile applications. The smartphones are now our media players, affording us the ability to take feature films, television shows, photo collections, and thousands of songs with us on the go. The recently announced iPhone4 can record high definition video as well as give users the ability to edit the video on their phone, and then upload that video to YouTube with the push of one button.

We've been living in a brave new world for quite sometime, but mobile technologies are continuing to offer consumers the ability to distribute massive amounts of information and media. This paradigm-shift has afforded us the ability to on many occasions bypass mainstream corporate media as a source for quality news, information, and media.