INMA
If you want to know what the future of digital publishing is, a fair starting point would be to look at the online and mobile habits of today’s 15-year-olds.
This constantly connected population is no longer dual-screening, but triple-screening. And their primary screen of choice is mobile.
They are more connected to the Internet than ever, more willing to participate in social and sharing activities and more able to consume rich content at any time and on any device. To them, the role of a TV scheduler — someone who decides when you are allowed to watch a particular piece of content — is completely anachronistic.
The times they are a-changing. So while the future for TV schedulers might be bleak, the future for mobile content is practically sparkling.
Ten years ago, digital readers looking for content had limited options of where to find it; in fact, they really only had one choice: the desktop Web. They found their way to a Web page filled with content that linked to other Web pages filled with content.
With the experience so singular, publishers focused on building audience share with the hope that one day, the money might follow.
A couple of decades after the desktop model emerged, mobile publishing exploded. If mobile publishing were a person, it would be 7 years old and caught between the discovery ages of kindergarten and middle school: growing in confidence, but in constant need of minding.
However, even at just 7 years old, mobile is already nearing the day when it has a larger audience than desktop and routinely captures 35% to 45% of general news visits in Australia, more for breaking news.
For example, records were almost broken at the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia’s oldest metro news business, when news of the ill-fated Flight MH370 broke online March 8.
With 41% of the total digital audience reading about the missing aircraft on a mobile phone and 42% reading about it on a desktop PC, the Sydney Morning Herald is closer than ever to the mobile tipping point.
For publishers all over the world witnessing this mobile migration firsthand, it’s becoming clear that mobile publishing is altogether a completely new proposition with a lot more complexity to execute than desktop.
The growing number of different user experiences as we consume mobile content will force a staggering amount of product choices onto publishers. The mobile Web is just one way to consume content. Apps are another. If you’re asking which one is best for publishing your content, then you are asking the wrong question.
