Mobile Computing News

Photo: Apple

For nearly the last two weeks, the Internet has been all abuzz about the iPad. The reason there is so much talk is that this device’s success (or lack thereof) has interesting ramifications for a number of individual companies, as well as whole industries, not to mention the print publishing industry.

In the Rupert Murdoch Corner

The newspaper business is in terminal decline. Many realise that this is due to changing tastes in media consumption, but media mogul Rupert Murdoch is quick to blame Google. Hence the importance of the iPad and the on-stage demo the New York Times gave it. An interactive newspaper is what was shown, including interlinking and media playback that have made the Internet more attractive than paper formats.

Magazines

It’s no secret that there’s a direct relationship between the quality of a magazine’s presentation and its popularity. As such, magazine publishers around the world have been wondering how to implement their content into devices like the iPad. Time, Inc. even released a concept video prior to the iPad’s unveiling on how it imagines its group of magazines will work on devices of that kind.

Book Publishing

Newspapers have long had online versions that often cover the exactly same content, but where eBooks have succeeded is in the profits they amass. The drawback for publishers is that prior to the iPad, Amazon dominated the eBook market. The iPad presents an alternative to the Amazon Kindle store, and publishers will do well to pit these competitors against each other.

Towards a Paperless World

The thing that most pundits are forgetting is that platforms like the iPad take us one step closer to a paperless world. The environmental ramifications are huge, but more importantly, this will allow print publishers around the globe to scale back on the paper they use, thus saving costs and encouraging greater focus on content.

What is known with certainty is that print media is dying, and though many people will continue to prefer having physical paper-based material to read from, this death does not have to be a bad thing for the industries it will effect. The iPad and other platforms like it are the testing bed for new ways of delivering content, which is all that should matter to publishers.

Additional Reading

The Journalism Department at New York University has put together an extensive resource with plenty of links discussing the death of paper and the shift to digital.