Newspapers (paper versions) are monolithic vehicles – you buy all the content even if you only want 5% of it. Why oh why are some publishers still persisting with dumping all their content onto the web as an electronic replica of the old physical form? Take a look at some of the National Titles in UK and Europe to see what I mean.

The ft.com (and a few others) have begun to see the value of breaking content down into component parts, re-packaging and reformatting it at different price points and targeting who to sell it to. They are evolving from a traditional “Newspaper” into an information service provider – diversification is happening as well as evolution.

Some publishers are beginning to think in imaginative ways about what the user experience might be. The iPad will only be as good as the content and the software interface that provides the user experience to that content. One such example comes from http://www.marlindigitalpublishing.co.uk – imagine how content could be made more engaging using the type of software these guys are developing.

The publisher who partners with other organisations that can complement and enrich the value of the publishers’ core content via the iPad (and similar devices) is likely to survive and thrive. Those who persist in clinging on to the “old style of monolithic publishing” on new technologies will surely wither and die.

Patrick King
Atypon Systems Inc.

Let’s not kid ourselves, this iPad stuff will break the newspaper industry due to high demand/high TCO and little ROI because they have to keep feeding the daily beast.

So the real question if this – should you create expensive short-lived content for the iPad such as breaking news (if anybody do this – they will go under fast) or do you use the iPad for in-depth analysis and contextualization?

I hope the newspapers are smart enough to follow Newsweek business model of focusing on depth and analysis when they start producing content for the iPad….

http://stevenduque.com/2010/03/new-frontiers-ipad-e-magazine-pricing/