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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
iPad journalism with the eyes of editorial staff and readers
Merja Drake
Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, Finland
Abstract:
Journalism has faced many challenges in the past decades. Maybe one of the greatest
influences has been the invention of the Internet. Online journalism has played a very
important role in the Internet’s growth (Foust 2005). According to Paul (2008), the
Internet is not the first disruptive technology that news organizations have contended
with, but it may be the widest reaching.
In recent years there has been much discussion about the role of social media and
Web 2.0 in journalism. (Aunesluoma, Majava & Wilenius 2010; Kaplan & Haenlein
2010; Kim, Jeong & Lee 2010; Drake 2009; Boyd & Ellison 2008; Burns 2008; Domingo
et al. 2008; Castells 2007; Lietsala & Sirkkunen 2008; Deuze 2006; Gillmor 2006;
Rosen 2005; 2004; Bowman & Willis 2003; Pavlik 2001.)
The year 2010 was exceptional for Apples’s iPad, e.g. over 2 million iPads were sold in
two months. Many newspapers and magazines now publish their stories in iPad format.
Finland’s first iPad magazine Suomen Kuvalehti was published on the 1 st of October
2010, only two months after the company had made the decision to do so. Journalists
and photographers are now producing print and iPad magazines alike. Noteworthy is
that iPad devices were first sold in Finland only in December 2010.
The objective of the presently ongoing research project is to gain an understanding of
what kind of journalistic product the iPad magazine is from the point of view of editorial
staff and readers.
Focus in on how the iPad format is changing editorial workflow and what are the
reactions of the readers: Do they think iPad magazines are something new and
revolutionary? How much are they willing to pay for an iPad magazine? And how
interactive and participatory do they consider iPad magazines to be?
Keywords: iPad, magazines, open journalistic culture, readers’ participation
The realm of iPad and magazines
Why is iPad so remarkable to the journalism industry? According to Matsa et al. (2011),
the magazine industry is losing its audience but nevertheless managed to slow down
the decline in 2010, mostly because magazines were able to hold on to their
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