'The Daily' and iPad: A revolution in reading?
By Priyanka Boghani, for CNN
Launched on Wednesday, 'The Daily' is the first iPad-only news magazine.
(CNN) -- With its glossy touch screen and adaptable content, Apple's iPad is reviving longer-form reading, according to a recent report.
And with the release of News Corps' "The Daily" on Wednesday, the first iPad-exclusive newspaper, it appears media companies are ready to invest in the growing trend.
"The findings show that people are willing to pay for the simplicity and content that the iPad provides," said Roger Fidler, author of the report for Reynolds Journalism Institute.
Murdoch's Daily finally debuts
"They'll pick up their iPads when they're free in the evening and read at their leisure, like they used to with the traditional newspaper."
Fidler was surprised by the amount of people who said they would cancel their print news subscription and switch to an iPad within the next six months. This, he feels, could cause a serious economic impact on print publications.
At the launch of "The Daily" in New York on Wednesday, News Corps's CEO Rupert Murdoch described the iPad as a device that will "completely re-imagine our craft."
"I'm convinced that in the tablet era there's room for a fresh and robust new voice," he told assembled press.
"The Daily" is currently only available to those with U.S. iTunes accounts and costs $0.99 for a weekly subscription.
Tablet computers, commonly used as e-readers, were also the talk of the show at Las Vegas' Consumer Electronics Show in January and their sales are set to rocket.
Consultancy company Deloitte estimates that companies will buy more than 10 million tablet computers this year, while technology analysts Gartner predict the market for Apple's iPad to increase from 19.5 million devices in 2010 to 55 million in 2011.
"This is all exciting news," said Brian Marshall, iPad analyst at Gleacher & Co, referring to both the launch of "The Daily" and the Reynolds report.
"The iPad is all about content and if research shows that people are willing to spend more time on it then it's a sure win."
Marshall singles out Apple's app store as one of the contributing factors to the iPad's success.
"It could mean competition for Google with its customized and unique content display," he said.
Major publishers like Conde Nast have already moved their titles including Vogue, Wired and Glamour, onto the iPad, but not everyone thinks that the future for both news publications and periodicals looks more efficient and electronic.
"While anything that Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs do in collaboration is bound to be unique, we have to be mindful of the fact that the tablet is just in its infancy stage -- it's like the early days of the printed press," said Barry McIlheney, chief executive of the UK based Professional Publishers Association.
He believes that newspapers are easy to replace because their format is adaptable to the screen but reading longer passages of texts with images are not.
Publishers will keep a close eye on the emerging trend, he said, but the rise of the tablets will not necessarily threaten printed magazines.
"Magazines are a treat. You immerse in lengthy articles that are both text and image rich. It's a luxurious experience that can't be replicated with electronic publications," he said.
"Not everyone has an iPad, so while the big names are adapting, at the moment, I don't think all our publishers will be directly affected by the tablet."
But tablets, iPads in particular, are affecting how we consume news and even affecting our lifestyles.
Another report last month from ReadItLater, a web service that follows web trends, found that the time spent reading on the iPad is even crossing into primetime TV hours.
It reported that maximum iPad text consumption occurs from 7pm to 11pm, a slot traditionally allocated to reclining on the couch and watching TV.
"With tablets the experience is like dining on news," said Fidler.
"We're looking at a hybrid of print and web that will take a few years to develop but has already defined a different medium for content consumption."
Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment