I am a PR and I have not bought a newspaper for two weeks
A shocking revelation.
Why has happened to m lifetime-long newspaper habit? The iPad 2 has entered my world and stamped an Apple logo all over my well-established reading habits.
Like many newspaper loyalists, I protested that nothing could stop me trudging out to my local newsagent to buy the papers every weekend. Collecting a huge bundle of the Observer, Sunday Times, News of the World and the Mail, was part of the weekend routine.
But this was all before I realised just how engaging the Times app on the iPad is.
Crystal clear imagery, embedded video content from Sky News, more articles and in-depth analysis – what is not to like? And all downloaded in less time than it takes for the kettle to boil.
The layout also makes the paper incredibly readable; op-eds, news, sport etc are all helpfully delineated, and can easily be cross-referenced. The whole experience is much more exciting and engaging then the morass of print that the weekend papers have become.
If, as I now feel, tablets really are the end of newspapers then it means that PRs are going to have to sweat to make their stories count more than ever before. The Times app is very headline dependent. If it doesn’t catch my eye then I do not delve into the article. However, once you are in, the more immersive experience means that the reader does tend to absorb more content.
It also makes a very compelling argument that PRs should be using video content, graphics and illustrations as much as possible to avoid competing for a small quote in a large article.
Leave the Apple backlash behind and try out the iPad. It really does represent a shiny, touch-screen future for modern media consumption. And I haven’t even started on the new magnetic cover yet!
So in fact, you have been happily buying a newspaper every single weekend, but you now only buy The Times instead of a large collection of publications?
We need to get away from this idea that a newspaper is something printed on paper and that reading the same content on a computer/ipad/mobile is somehow “not buying a newspaper”.
Just because the delivery mechanism has changed, it doesn’t mean you aren’t consuming the same information written by the same journalist.
Alter all, The Daily Telegraph is named after a long defunct communications service – but the publication is still going strong.