We’ve been waiting for an article like this to come out ….
We firmly believed as soon as the iPad came out that it would do to the Magazine/Newspaper publishing world what iTunes did to the music industry.
When iTunes and iPod’s came out they had a huge effect on Physical CD sales with various sources reporting double digit percentage drops in Physical CD sales as more and more people would just go to iTunes and purchase their digital tracks there, often for much less than the physical CD sale and with no need to get in your car and go buy it.
With more and more people choosing to listen to digital music on their iPod’s and Digital media links in their vehicles as well as digital media interfaces to home audio systems it just makes sense to purchase digital tracks in the first place because many people simply pop their physical CD into their computer and put their tracks into iTunes and other Digital Music players anyways …
Now comes the iPad ….
I think to many people this is just a toy and an oversized iPhone that can’t make phone calls 🙂 … but if you take a serious look at it we believe there are some excellent applications for this device and others like it that may come along in the future ..
Magazines and Newspapers
A number of major newspapers in North America are either shutting down or deciding to go purely digital/online because traditional readership is declining and they are having to either adapt or die. There are huge costs associated with operating a traditional newspaper or magazine when you factor in cost of materials, transportation, distribution, staffing…etc..etc…
We believe you’ll see a major shift on the part of Magazines and Newspapers towards going purely either purely digital (e.g. iPad) or going online (Web) only or at the very least drastically increasing the amount of online/digital content being made available.
This delivery medium allows them to focus on delivering rich content and delivering the best possible experience for the reader. A digital content delivery system allows for greater use of Interactive content and even great reaction time for late breaking items…
Books
Picture that you’re a medical student … you’ve just entered pre-med at a University and have just been given a list of books that you need to get from the University Bookstore. Let’s say as well that there’s 15 different books at an average cost of $80.00 a book (for you University Students you know that’s not far off) …
This is $1,200 worth of books which a publisher has had to develop the content for, print and bind all the books, package the books in boxes and deliver them to the Universities. The University has then had to allocate large amounts of Real Estate to housing a book store and staff it for the students coming in…
Now picture this … a student walks into a bookstore with their iPad, walks up to a terminal and looks up all the courses they are currently taking, and the system pulls all the books and downloads them to a digital bookshelf on your iPad and let’s say instead of $80.00 a book it only costs $40.00 a book. That’s a huge savings to you, you get the books quicker and just as importantly you no longer need to carry around all those books with you … a simple notebook and an iPad in a backpack 🙂
Now … let’s take it even one step further … what if the text book publisher was to be able to not only provide the textbook itself but perhaps updates for a period of 1 year. This way if there are last minute additions or updates to the book they are instantly synchronized with your digital copy and you have the latest information available … the possibilities are endless!
The “Take Away” …
Digital devices like this are not for everyone … some people will still always prefer the actual magazine or newspaper in their hands and that’s Ok. However for those that are comfortable with digital technology and digital media delivery devices, these are incredibly exciting times and the opportunities to take advantage of these tools will only increase as times goes on …
We’d love to have your feedback on this topic and get your opinion ….
Have a successful week …
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