Well, I finally bought my own iPad last week and have to tell you I am hooked. The iPad makes reading, listening to and watching media better than ever. Frankly, it's hard to put down. When the print edition of The New York Times arrived on Sunday, I just let it be, preferring to use my iPad to access all kinds of information rather than pick up the old newspaper. I wandered through all kinds of content, including the NYT, YouTube, NPR, etc., rather than dive into the physical artifact at my feet. Which only reinforces my belief that the iPad is another nail--if media companies continue to make all their content free. It's simply a preferable way to read journalism.
So far, of course, the media offerings on the iPad are currently few and not that all impressive. Much has been written about the absence of The New York Times' mega-app which is still in limbo. Zinio's newsstand of magazines is a bit of a hit-or-miss mess. As far as I'm concerned, the few standouts so far in media are these:
1) NPR. Designed by Bottle Rocket, NPR's iPad app is the single best news and feature application available today. It has a spectacular carousel interface that is fun to use, and it works like a gem. Bravo to the folks at NPR for getting it out so quickly, but mostly for making an app that is enjoyable to use, that easily accesses the great content produced by NPR, and that makes great use of this media player's sizable audio files.
2) USA Today. There's a wealth of content here and it's highly accessible on this app. This is well-designed and cleverly implemented. For now, it's all free which puts USA Today in the forefront for iPad news junkies.
3) BBC. Not as good as either NPR or USA Today, but pretty damn good, nonetheless, for the great content produced by the BBC. It's also obviously free.
What are your favorites?
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So are you alluding to that they should not give away their content for free, in order for their "print readership _not_ to erode", in the era of iPad and tablets?
ReplyDeletebtw beginning of 3rd para needs a slight edit I think ;-)
John,
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting and pointing out my now fixed typo. Yikes. Yes, indeed. My argument is this: the iPad is such an enjoyable and pleasant way to consume media, far more so than a laptop or a smart phone, that it can and will be a replacement for print. Until now, magazines have lost little readership but large amounts of advertising dollars. So if content providers don't charge now, they'll never be able to get paid for their content.
Best,
John
Right, got it.
ReplyDeleteDo you believe that it will be viable to charge for or all kinds of content or principally for timely financial/business content only?
I feel that with the plethora of good-enough content out there, charging will fly as a business model only for WSJ/BW/Economist kind of content, where people get a benefit from not sharing the info.
cheers
I would personally only justify paying for true insight in the iPad era...news and generic commentary are too widespread and easy to produce to be able to command a price.
ReplyDeletei could only justify impulsively buying an ipad generic magazine and that only if it was very cheap (bellow 2 usd) but that is would not be a sustainable business model for content producers.
...interesting times ahead!
Have to say I'm with you. NY Times, NY Times editors' choice and NPR. Eagerly awaiting the first magazines such as Wired, but will have to see whether it's worth paying for each edition.
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ReplyDelete