An interesting article in The Guardian on Christmas Day made me think about one more blog post this year. Digital content sales are up and the increasing number of tablets unwrapped during Christmas everywhere in the world including Finland and Scandinavia will more than likely boost demand for quality content. In the U.K. only it was estimated that a million iPads and Kindles were unwrapped on Christmas Day. In Scandinavia the number will be equally high.
In the U.K. publishers such as The Guardian and The Times are putting a lot of effort into developing a "Digital First" business model with well edited and visually attractive mobile and tablet formats of their newspapers and supplements, all spiced up with rich media. The Sunday Times even made a special Christmas Day tablet edition, which has never happened in print. This edition was given for free to everyone in order to attract new digital subscribers to news and The Sunday Times magazines.
The following quote from the article will probably put a smile on many Finnish and Scandinavian publishers' faces. At least it should providing that they are investing into multi-media capabilities and new concepts to attract digital subscriptions.
"I think the future is for local multimedia companies which focus on signing up 50% plus of the households in their area on some form of subscription – that's what happens in Scandinavia." For journalists there will have to be a shift from acting as "print writers to multimedia curators. There will be more content created by local people. The National Union of Journalists will hate this but it is fact of life."
Read the article in The Guardian - it's useful information including facts and figures: iPads and Kindles force newspapers further away from print
As for 2012 I have personally subscribed to six news services - Oh yes, I'm a news junkie - three international (The Guardian, Times+ and The New York Times), one Nordic (Svenska Dagbladet's "Insikt" monthly supplement) and three Finnish newspapers in digital format only. I still read one or two newspapers mainly in print, as the tablet versions are mere pdf versions of the printed paper. Also other international news services are readily available as convenient apps on the iPad, like FT, Mashable and NYT. My magazine subscriptions are mainly in digital format including National Geographic Magazine, Sköna Hem and Wired available on the iPad Newsstand. I subscribe to The Economist in print + digital format including mobile and tablet versions. Very handy and convenient, as a I can read these when I'm on the move. Print is still relevant, but as it arrives later by snail mail I have read most articles on the iPad already.
It will be an exciting year to follow as far as the news industry and media related business concepts are concerned. Looking forward to more news on the topic.
Happy New Year everyone!
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