Last week, an Adweek article suggested that the iPad bubble had burst and that publishers would soon be mourning their “irrational exuberance” regarding the potential for apps to positively impact their industry. Wow, did they ever get it wrong! In fact, publishers have been downright reserved in their embrace of what may be the most important thing to happen to publishing since the Gutenberg press.
According to a recent Fortune article, the consensus estimate is that 8.25 million iPads have been sold between the introduction of the device in April and the end of the third quarter – making iPad adoption the fastest ever for any electronic device, including the iPhone and the DVD Player.
Nonetheless, U.S. publishers have proceeded cautiously. Although more than 700 publication-related apps have been released worldwide, only about a third of these are from the U.S. – and most of these are little more than PDFs, many for magazines outside of the mainstream. While national newspapers were quick to bring high quality apps to market, among the almost 200 magazines for which MRI reports audience estimates, only 26 have released iPad apps as a way of distributing issues. Of these, about two-thirds are technologically sophisticated enough to support advertising developed specifically for the iPad that leverages its functionality. Other entries from the U.S. tend to be from smaller, lesser known publishers, and some exist only in digital format – but there are indeed some exceptional apps from among these other, less familiar, groups.
According to a recent Nielsen study of 5000 iPad users, among those who have downloaded apps, 41% have downloaded magazines. This is a respectable, if not dazzling, rate. However, consumer adoption of apps for magazine reading has been slowed not only by the relatively low number of apps available for the most popular titles, but by a variety of other factors, as well:
- Subscription pricing is not yet available for most magazines, and issue prices are perceived as high relative to traditional newsstand and subscription pricing.
- There is not yet a well-developed model for marketing apps.
- A relatively low proportion of the apps available are of high quality.
Consumers have been vocal in their objections to issue prices that are often at or near newsstand levels, and have also made clear their desire for subscriptions. Fortunately, the lack of subscription capabilities is starting to change. People’s app launched in August with free access for print subscribers and just last week Newsweek updated its app to incorporate a subscription pricing model – a trend we expect to rapidly encompass a wider array of titles.
Because the App Store does not have a separate magazine category, it is not as easy as it should be for consumers to find magazines they want to read. Some show up in the enormous and amorphous news category, and some show up in other – often inappropriate – categories. Unlike a newsstand, it’s very difficult for a consumer to browse. While editors often make reference to the apps in their print or on-line version, best practice has yet to develop for bringing apps to the attention of prospective new readers.
Lastly, not all of the apps currently available are good ones. Even among the more ambitious apps, there can be glitches; issues don’t always download properly, crashes occur, and navigation doesn’t always work appropriately. Links – both for editorial and advertising – don’t always work. But when the good apps work, they dramatically enhance the user experience with both graphics and functionality far exceeding those available in printed form. Photography has never been showcased quite as well as it is on this new platform. Evolving transactional capabilities, where users can easily buy products featured in both editorial and advertising, not only provide a valuable reader service, but should strongly reinforce perceptions of ad effectiveness.
The good news is that factors that have slowed consumer adoption of publication-related apps can be addressed. Apps provide potential solutions for several of the industry’s most intractable problems: the need to monetize digital content and increase the efficiency with which content can be distributed to consumers in a format that shows it to optimal advantage.
They also deliver particularly high levels of user engagement, guaranteed to delight advertisers. For publishers, rational exuberance should be the order of the day!
Rebecca McPheters is President of McPheters & Company. The company’s iMonitor™ provides global tracking and detailed evaluation of media-related tablet apps. To date they have evaluated more than 700 apps from 36 countries.
