Presentation from M-Publishing Conference on 1 June 2010 in London, www.camerjam.com/events/m-publishing

1. Are Apps the Saviour of the Publishing Industry?
1 June 2010
Tim Smith
General Manager, Digital
020 7938 7722
Tim.smith@standard.co.uk

2. The Challenges Facing Old Media

3. The challenge facing analogue publishers
• Businesses that have made huge sums for years
via mass communication in print now having to
navigate a hugely changed media universe
• Publications changing hands or re launching to
face up to the greatest challenge of their lives
• Metropolitan dailies in the US, one a week
going into bankruptcy or cutting way back
• Digital Revolution
• This is drying up their life blood = Advertising
and Circulation revenue

4. The response of some publishers has been a move to free model
• Evening Standard sold by Associated
Newspapers to an individual named
Alexander Lebedev
• Growing sense of entitlement in the
minds of consumers around content being
for free

5. The Challenge of Maintaining Paid for Circulation
April June
778,273 781,744
(+0.3%)
789,995
(+1.5%)

6. Essence of Evening Standard Strategy
• Commercial Imperative to have a long term
sustainable model
• Retain the character of a paid for Newspaper
• Premium content = quality audience
• World’s first quality free newspaper
• Investigating which other channels offer
promise – getting interested in devices

7. Revenue Models

8. Mobile Applications
• Previous generation = price wars and battles
for celebrity scoops
• New battle happening in reader’s pockets
• All the big news groups are investing in
downloadable smart phone applications
• New readers, direct revenues and
advertising spend
• Could mobile apps be the answer to finding
a sustainable future for publishers ?

9. Uptake of Smartphone Apps
ComScore data from 2009 showed that:
• 23 per cent of all UK mobile phone users had a
Smartphone, and 3.5 per cent an iPhone
• 80 per cent of iPhone users and 48 per cent of
smartphone users access news via their device
• Some 56 per cent of iPhone users and 22 per cent of
smartphone users had downloaded an application to
access News
• More smartphone users had used their phone to read
news than had done so to access email(35 per cent), listen
to music (40 per cent) access a social networking site (29
per cent) or find out about the weather (26 per cent)

10. Paid for Content
• Only FT and Times charging to access their
web content
• Most of the other publishers have no such
shyness when it comes to mobile
applications
• Smart phone users are prepared to pay.
One piece of research shows that Apple App
stores 56 Million users spend an average of
$10 (£6) per month on apps – of which one
third retained by Apple

11. Case Studies

12. Direct Payment - Guardian
• 70,000 downloads in the first month
• £167,000 gross revenue in first month
• Excellent navigational structure and ability
to tailor the parts of the paper that you want
to read

13. Direct Payment – Guardian
• More paid for niche apps planned
• “Your website is not necessarily going to be the
fastest growing way that people access your
content, we definitely think that it is going to be
device driven”
• “It’s a new revenue stream but I’m cautious of
saying that apps are the saviour – we all
remember the crest of the wave that was WAP”
Emily Bell, GNM

14. Free to User – Sky News
• It used to live off other things we did, a
by-product. But now its increasingly
becoming a core publishing platform,
there’s no doubt in my mind, it’s a big
growth area
• “We’d sooner have 1 million iphone
users with a free app than 10,000 of a
paid one”
• Key focus revenue generation via ads
and sponsorship
• Also works hard to promote Sky’s
subscription marketing campaigns

15. Evening Standard

16. Evening Standard
• Free to user – mirror print
strategy
• Developed by Handmark
• Commercial model – revenues
from sponsorship and
advertising
• Features include share to social
networks, mini picture galleries
and widget (android)
• Plan to launch with relatively
simple application and then
develop over time

17. Case Study – Evening Standard
• Sponsor deal with British
Airways
• Sold by ES in house sales
team bought by Zenith
• Multi platform opportunity
key
• Deal includes sponsor
mention in press and online
ads to support launch
• Creation of city guide to find
out more about destination
cities

18. Case Study – Evening Standard
• Press ads to support Nokia Ovi launch
• Full page placed in Times and City AM

19. Insights

20. Insights
• Users are heading towards devices and so publishers have to be
where the audience is or they could lose out
• Can lead to renewed profits either by direct payment or by
sponsorship and ad funded models (most publishers will have a
mixture of both)
• Convenience is king. Some research from Forester is suggesting
that many users are more interested in the convenient delivery
of content, even over actual quality of stories
• Not just about iPhone