Another Print Publisher Turns to Tablets

By  |  Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 4:28 pm

In the latest news of print media companies turning to tablets,CNN reports that its sources say media conglomerate Tribune Co. plans to develop its own tablet device that would in turn be offered to subscribers.

Tribune publishes several major dailies, including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and the Baltimore Sun, as well as several smaller papers, plus a host of television and radio outlets.

The plan sounds to me to be a lot like a similar pilot program. soon to be underway in Philadelphia. There, local papers plan to sell devices at a discounted rate to support digital editions.

Sources told CNN that the tablets would be Android based, and would be either offered for free or at a highly subsidized cost, and may possibly come with wireless connectivity through a partnership with a carrier. Samsung may be the manufacturer of the device as the two companies have been in talks, but the Korean electronics company would not comment on the report..

A test was scheduled to begin this month in both Chicago and Southern California, however it was delayed due to undisclosed complications. It’s not clear from CNN’s reporting when we might be able to expect a wider release.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Success when it comes to tabletized print content has been a mixed bag. Time has said its offerings are doing quite well; I’m not sure the same could be said for News Corp’s The Daily just yet.

A wait-and-see attitude is probably still the best bet here.

 
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6 Comments For This Post

  1. nickp91 Says:
    August 9th, 2011 at 5:25 pm

    Tribune Co. developing a tablet device?

  2. inkjet Says:
    August 10th, 2011 at 4:14 am

    When will they release the tablets? Good luck to Tribune Co.

  3. IT Rush Says:
    August 10th, 2011 at 7:32 am

    Hmm, this is going to be an interesting wait-and-see scenario haha.. can't wait.

  4. Matt Says:
    August 10th, 2011 at 7:33 am

    I would rather they focus on improving their apps for existing devices. The Chicago Tribune iPad app is horribly unstable and does not allow for offline reading.

  5. The_Heraclitus Says:
    August 10th, 2011 at 11:27 am

    Develop their own? DOA They should concentrate on fixing the reason that they have been losing subscribers since the late 60's.

    Tech isn't a fix for a substandard product.

  6. Rob Says:
    August 11th, 2011 at 12:13 pm

    @The_Heraclitus

    Exactly my thoughts. Even assuming that the content was desirable by a sufficiently large subscriber base, why would anyone want a special-purpose tablet, even if free, to read it? Those with a tablet don’t need yet another. Those without a tablet might find these appealing, but wouldn’t it be better to subsidize general purpose tablets for those with low incomes and make the app for real tablets worth using?