Eighteen months after the introduction of the iPad, 11% of U.S. adults now own a tablet computer of some kind. A new study conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism in collaboration with The Economist Group, says about half (53%) get news on their tablet every day, and they read long articles as well as headlines.
The study finds that 77% use their tablet every day, spending an average of about 90 minutes on them. But a majority says they would not be willing to pay for news content on these devices.
A large majority of those who have not paid directly for news on their tablet remains reluctant to do so, even if that was the only way to get news from their favorite sources.
Newspaper advertising has continued to decline more than any other medium.
Can newspapers and magazines replace their lost cash with online revenue? New data from eMarketer says not, projecting that total US magazine ad revenue will fall from $17 billion in 2010 to less than $15 billion by 2015.
On the other hand, Condé Nast’s digital subs have soared 268% after iPad magazines got their own Newsstand. It represents an initial validation of the separate area for periodicals, says Paid Content. Hearst Magazines show it had exceeded the number 300,000 in paid distribution for its digital editions across iTunes, B&N Nook Color and the Zinio Newsstand as of the end of September.
The revenue potential for news on the tablet may be limited, says Pew Research. Just 14% of tablet news pay to access news on their tablet. Another 23% get digital access of some kind through a print newspaper or magazine subscription.
Of those who haven’t paid directly, just 21% say they would be willing to spend $5 per month if that were the only way to access their favorite source on the tablet. And of those who have news apps, fully 83% say that being free or low cost was a major factor in their decision about what to download.
While about two-thirds of tablet news users have a news app on their tablet, the browser, carried over from the desktop experience, is still the more popular means of consuming news.
These early users turn to the internet as their main source for news much more frequently than the public overall, and they have a strong preference for reading and listening to news rather than watching it. Fully 71% of tablet users prefer reading and listening versus 45% of all U.S. adults.
Fully 90% of tablet news users now consume news on the tablet that they used to get access in other ways. The greatest substitution is occurring with news that people used to get from their desktop computer. Eight-in-ten tablet news users say they now get news on their tablet that they used to get online from their laptop or desktop computer.
Close to half of this group say they now spend more time getting news than they did before they had their tablet (43%). That is more than twice the rate of those who mainly go through a browser (19%).
eMarketer says the U.S. is on track to have its first year of $1 billion-plus in mobile ad revenues.
The $1.23 billion figure is nearly double the investment made by advertisers into mobile ads in the U.S. in 2010, which was $743 million.
According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, annual revenue for Internet advertising surpassed newspaper ad revenues for the first time in 2010. The IAB said the record breaking $26 billion in ad revenue last year was up 15% from the $22.66 billion reported in 2009.
E-Marketer has some additional thoughts on Ad Targeting Trends (below).
HTML5 “web apps” can also break the monopoly of app stores, potentially eliminating Apple’s 30% royalty.
