Newspapers and magazines, facing a crisis of declining circulation and advertising revenues, are scrambling to launch digital editions of their papers as iPad apps. As publishers move away from ad-funded-only digital models and experiment with charging for content, the iPad offers the opportunity to package media in application and digital edition form and differentiate the product from that available through the browser, where consumers have become conditioned to free access.
The difficulty for publishers is that, even based on the most optimistic of analyst sales forecasts, the installed base of iPads in the market will take years to reach levels that are financially significant for large publishers. Ovum estimates that 13 million iPads will be sold globally by the end of 2011, and publishers will find that the iPad media marketplace becomes very crowded very quickly. iPad revenues for individual publishers will not be sufficient in any scenario to compensate for their loss of income from declining print paid circulation and advertising revenues.
Nevertheless, the iPad is a slick and attractive device for presenting content in the best possible light, and is already being heavily adopted by publishers in this context. Publishers will still need to pursue a multi-platform strategy encompassing print, web, mobile web, smartphone apps, tablets, e-readers, and even TVs. The iPad’s role is as a showcase device for premium content, not as a high-volume earner.