Has the iPad Saved Newspapers?

With it’s large high resolution screen and the ability to digitally download content, many newspapers and magazines believed that the the iPad would be the solution to their internet problem. Most have fallen victim to the stream of free information and news available online, suffering falling subscription numbers and loss of advertising revenue. They hailed the iPad as a way to recapture audience, providing customized content to new subscribers who would access their news through the device.

Now that the iPad has been available for six months, industy analysts have been researching the pull of the iPad. Their finding indicate that the iPad hasn’t been the revolution publishers expected, but it is slowly making progress. iPad developers have created more than 900 apps that fall into the “News” category in the Apple App Store. However, some of those apps are content aggregators and feed readers that aren’t traditional news media.

News publishers are still hopeful. After an initial frenzy of early adopters , iPad sales have slowed to a more moderate rate. Research predicts that the device won’t achieve mass-market penetration for another three years. Newspapers are counting on their audience growing as use of the iPad increases. Many are offering free access to their news for a limited time or only headlines. The hope is that once users get a taste of the content, they will pay to subscribe to the full version. The final word on the impact of the iPad on traditional media is still a few years off.

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