Tablet PCs re-shaping SA media

For many years now, the revenues of major newspapers and magazines have been dwindling. Local and international newspapers are under enormous pressure to produce profits even as their readership figures plummet.

According to the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures, a measure of newspaper circulations, daily newspaper sales dropped by more than 72,000 copies over the past three months when compared with the same period last year.

Of the four major South African newspaper groups, only Caxton managed to return positive numbers for the quarter; with The Citizen gaining 1,324 sales when compared with July-September 2010.

Independent Newspapers dropped 18,991 sales in the same comparison. Media24 lost 46,452. Avusa shed 8,379.

If you’re a newspaper publisher those numbers don’t make for easy reading.

There are a few publications showing some positive returns, including the Mail & Guardian and Isolezwe in KwaZulu Natal – but on the whole, the picture is bleak.

There is a very definite possibility that some newspapers will be forced to close down in the coming year or two.

There is a faint light on the horizon, however, and that is the tablet PC. Tablet PCs such as the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab offer a brand new opportunity for news publishers – if they are brave enough to take the bold step.

News threat

For years news organisations have argued that digital technology was killing the news business; and in many senses they have been right.

The web has commoditised news – we now have hundreds, even thousands, of up-to-the-minute news sources to choose from.

News now reaches readers before most newspapers have even assigned a reporter to the story.

It’s not a fight traditional news organisations can win. In the always-on, instant news world there is very little space to produce a daily newspaper.

Repairing the model

The other problem with the web for traditional news organisations is that it breaks the model that underpins newspapers. Traditionally readers bought a newspaper, they read it from cover to cover, and they then handed it onto a family member or threw it away.

Advertisers work well within this model where there are loyal readers who spend money on a particular paper every day and it’s easy for newspaper sales people to sell space to advertisers.

Online there is no loyalty to a particular news brand – it’s a cat and mouse game of who can publish the news of the day first. For general news sites this is a massive problem because advertisers are loathe to commit to a single platform when news provision is so fluid.

Tablet PCs have the potential to be different. Issue-based tablet publications allow users to buy a particular newspaper without actually leaving their chair.

They also give readers an experience similar to that which they are used to with print publications, except with additional interactivity. Interactive graphics, audio clips, video links, and social networks can all be built into tablet PC publications.

The big advantage of tablet PC publications for publishers and advertisers is that they are issue-based and encourage loyalty among readers. They make it possible once again to sell subscriptions, to have a known audience which can be quantified; and advertising can be sold against that.

Clearly tablet PCs won’t save “newspapers” – that format is fast becoming obsolete – but tablet PCs will very likely save journalism.