So over to Lauren:
There has been much hype recently over the future of publishing, be it the death of print, the rebirth of paywalls or the excitement around interactive digital editions. Regardless of the headline, one name has been cropping up time again; the iPad. Heralded as the ‘game changer’ the device can fit into a number of areas including gaming/internet/eBooks/rich media, in addition one that has really caught my eye is that of publishing. As an iPhone owner (sorry) I have become accustomed to reading articles on my handset and I am not alone in this it seems: the iPhone accounts for a whopping 80% of the BBC’s mobile websites readers according to Jason Daponte – one of this week’s panellists. Yes, the iPhone has a small market share when it comes to devices in the marketplace, but blimey, those who have the iPhone really seem to use it..a lot! So I’m wondering if the same will be said of the iPad in the coming months? Many on the panel commented tonight that the iPad is a ‘coffee-table’ device and I would have to agree, but our browsing and media consumption habits are changing and the thought of reading my iPad on the sofa is actually quite a nice one. So I’m awaiting iPad usage results in the coming weeks and months with interest.
So a bit more about the panel.
The Panel discussion …
Russell Buckley, AdMob @russellbuckley – chair, Neil Johnson MD Teletext Mobile (AND), Dave Gwozdz CEO Mojiva @mojiva @gwozdz, Jason Daponte BBC @jasondaponte, David Gibbs BSkyB @dgibbs72 and our very own Helen Keegan @technokitten.
The move from print to digital is the perfect example for ensuring your brand is reaching customers through every channel available. It is no longer about a static news website; news can be shared and viewed via social media e.g. twitter so easily and the addition of location, makes the mobile phone a key target for brands. We are demanding personalised, portable, fast and relevant content through our mobile devices and advertisers need to take advantage of this. For the BBC, 50% of its iPhone page views are through WiFi further highlighting that we want content on the move.
One of the main concerns with the move from print to digital is how to make money, with much of this content previously available for free, will brand loyalty prevail? Potentially, I feel that if a news site provides me with a story that adds something I can’t find on another ‘free’ site then I will pay. That could be a video and/or image, interactive features, exclusive/personalised content or just a particular writer that I enjoy reading. There are a number of pricing models that could be applied for pay-walls including pay-as-you-go, monthly subscription or day-passes - the key here is to not make it a huge hassle every time we want to pay, a PayPal type service would be perfect … simple but feeling secure. Another option would be to use ads or sponsored apps to fund the content – media owners need to experiment with what works best for them and their readers.
The iPhone was mentioned quite a few times tonight and I understand that this can be annoying, but admit it or not, it has completely revolutionised business plans. If you own an iPhone you are five times more likely to use data then any other platform, which is a huge, and it’s also why so many target the iPhone above another platform. However, from a customer point of view iPhone only accounts for 10-15% market share and so by doing this you automatically alienating over 80% of your audience. Getting the balance right here is tricky, but one thing we can assure is that the majority of your readers will not have an iPhone or smartphone of sorts.
So what is the future of the publishing industry? Print magazines and national newspapers will be here forever or at least a lot longer … but will decline. The key take home message from today’s event is that media owners need to reduce the cost of producing good content and maximise the niche aspect of the content that they produce, be different.
Thanks for that Lauren!
This was a really in-depth panel session so it’s hard to convey everything that was covered in one short blog post. However, a few of our audience also blogged about the session – and some of them in-depth so please do have a read of the following:
Belen Barros Pena’s MoMoLo Chronicles
Life is Better On’s take on the event
And a very comprehensive round up from MoMoLo regular, Adam Cohen Rose (Adam’s also written up great round-ups of previous MoMoLo events too if you care to take a look at his archive).
Lauren also did a personal interview with David Gwozdz from Mojiva, including some top tips when thinking about mobile marketing, which you can read over at her new blog - TechTelGirl.
And if that’s not enough, you should take a look at Cait Tierney’s video vox pops that she recorded at the event for Techfluff.tv. She interviewed some of our community on their thoughts on publishing, the iPad and more. I particularly like Dan Doherty’s description of his experience with his latest HTC phone – it’s a classic.
Lauren also did a short interview with Dave Gwozdz from Mojiva who co-sponsored the event. We’ll share the link here once it’s been published.
A special thank you to our lovely sponsors for the evening – DCKTN and Mojiva – our wonderful panellists and to everyone who came in person and also to those who joined the fun via twitter. All in all, it was a cracking session.
Our next event is on 14th June and we’re covering platform fragmentation... registration open shortly at our website.
