EBooks: changing the publishing industry, PwC

Tablets – A success model for 

paid content?

Tablets are expected to be the 

breakthrough product for newspapers and 

periodicals. With mobile Internet access, 

color diagrams, good display quality, 

the possibility of displaying videos, and 

accepted distribution channels, they form 

a virtually ideal platform for the digital 

range of newspapers and periodicals. 

The United States is, once again, the 

pioneer. Major newspapers such as The 

New York Times, The Wall Street Journal 

and USA Today as well as periodicals 

such as Time or Newsweek offer apps 

with functionalities and content that go 

far beyond what is available in Europe 

(especially concerning non-English 

content). The free and advertising-financed

app of the The New York Times had been 

downloaded more than 400,000 times 

by the end of July 2010. And more than 

10,000 iPad users have subscribed to The 

Wall Street Journal for a monthly fee of 

US$17.99. The advertising space within 

the apps was in demand even before the 

launch of the iPad; for instance, Morgan 

Chase booked all advertising space of 

The New York Times app for 60 days, and 

the advertising space of The Wall Street 

Journal was overbooked at the beginning.

Despite the success of the apps, some 

consumers use the iPad to simply go to 

websites, which are way more appealing 

on the larger screen of tablets than they are 

on smartphone screens. With more tablets 

joining the market, a possible development 

could be that apps will give way to specially 

designed web pages, which offer the same 

functions but are not accessed by a store 

and are free on the Internet.

However, the response of numerous 

European publishers is moderate compared 

with the restrictive business policy of 

Apple, which currently dominates the 

market with the iPad. Indeed, the company 

demands a sales commission of 30%, 

controls the content, and blocks access 

to all user data. In order to stimulate the 

competition, numerous publishers are 

working on producing a generic solution, 

as further tablets will be launched on 

the market in the course of the next few 

months.