Imagine the collective sigh of relief in old-school newspaper boardrooms when Apple unveiled its iPad last month. Finally, someone shouted, the newspaper model can look great on a mobile device and save print.
In other words, the people who claim the only reason they still read the newspaper is because they can bring it to the toilet, will be vindicated.
And that's true. I think the glossy tablet interface can allow creative newspaper publishers to design a companion piece that will be visually as engaging as newspaper, itself. Maybe more so. Time will tell, of course, which papers will invest heavily in this new medium, since most aren't exactly at the forefront of usability on their flagship Web properties even now.
But for all the potential improvements in look and feel, a migration might actually bankrupt already hurting newspapers in the process, because the iPad and Windows Mobile 7 do not, and won't anytime soon, support Flash.
Why is this a big deal, you ask?
Because large and legitimate advertisers almost exclusively use the Flash platform to deliver online display ads. Having seen what they can do with Flash, compared to the old animated .gif, they're not going back. And it will be a long time, if ever, before they migrate their creative process to the new HTML5 and abandon a platform that serves them perfectly well everywhere but on the iPad. Adobe, the makers of Flash, are also doing their best to block HTML5.
It's true that publishers might charge users to read iPad optimized content, and some people might actually pay for it. But selling content that can otherwise be found for free is a tricky value proposition.
And more importantly, subscription fees aren't what's keeping your daily newspaper (and this online magazine) in business. It's ads.
These might sounds like ticky-tacky details, and in some ways, they are. But the newspaper industry doesn't exactly have time on its side to experiment, try, fail and fail some more.
Meantime, it had better fix its digital problems on its own, rather than waiting for Apple to swoop in and save the day.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
