The mobile digital newspaper:
Lessons learned from the epaper project
Periódicos electrónicos en pruebas
Bram Lievens
Prof. Dr. Caroline Pauwels
Prof. Dr. Leo Van Audenhove
Studies in Media, Information & Telecommunication (SMIT)
Institute for Broadband Technology (IBBT)
presentation @ AEDE Conference - November 16, 2006
CONTENT
The mobile digital newspaper
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
General context
E-paper project
User experience
Business models
Conclusions
Lessons learned for the newspaper industry
2
Preliminary - SMIT
The mobile digital newspaper
user analysis
business modelling
policy analysis & foresight
3
Preliminary - SMIT
The mobile digital newspaper
 Other e-publishing projects
 A4MC3: Architectures for Mobile Community
Content Creation
 mobile communities and community journalism
 http://a4mc3.ibbt.be
 Fleet: Flemish e-publishing Trends
 Interdisciplinary fundamental research
 Journalist, Editor & User
 http://www.fleetproject.be
4
1 - CONTEXT
The mobile digital newspaper

Bit & byte - Hip & Hype of today
 Journalist




Role challenged by community and user contributions
Evolving from ‘lecture’ mode to conversation mode
New media ecology: no one has control
Journalist as authenticator
 Editor
 Rise of Web 2.0
 Information worthless because of abundance
 Attention becomes a scarce commodity
 Value shift: Media 2.0 dominant strategies are based on economies of scale
and scope in production, distribution and search
 User
 From consumer to prosumer
 Rising consumption of micro-chunks of information

In the new media world, the love triangle between editor, journalist
and reader is set to change based on equal power and mutual and
complementary needs
5
1 - CONTEXT
The mobile digital newspaper
Project
Where,
when?
Who?
Results?
Les
Echos
France,
Started
recently
Newspaper Les Echos
Consulting company Tebaldo
After presenting the prototype, Le Monde, La
Parisienne & l’Equipe expressed their interest in
trials too en got involved in the research aspects
of the project
The New
York
Times
USA,
To start in
a couple
of months
NYT & Microsoft
Not yet
Internati
onal
Herald
Tribune
Internatio
nal,
2006
IHT
(NYT Co)
Not yet
eNews
Internatio
nal,
06-08
Ifra,
20 major publishing houses,
4 technology developers
Not yet
Asahi
Shimbun
Japan,
Since
2000
Newspaper Asahi Shimbun,
Sportcontent provider Nikkan, 4
telecom operators
1 million users
20.000 subscriptions for print via mobile
new competitors have arisen
MINDS
platform
Germany
Since
2005
Partnership between 40 German
newspapers and dpa (German press
agency)
Introduction cost are low -> easier for papers to
start offering online services
From 300 to 10.000 users per activity -> little but
direct revenues -> mobile brand awareness
6
2 - E-paper project
The mobile digital newspaper
 IBBT research project
 Interdisciplinary institute on Broadband
Technology
 Technological, user oriented, social & legal
research
 Demand driven
 Public private partnership
7
2 - E-paper project
The mobile digital newspaper
CONTENT
ADVERTISEMENT
RESEARCH
TECHNOLOGY
device
network
8
2 - E-paper project
The mobile digital newspaper
 Project goals
 Generate generic knowledge about the potentials of
news content on a dedicated electronic reading device
(Iliad eReader)
 Test some common hypotheses concerning success
factors in practice
9
3 - User experience
The mobile digital newspaper
 Living lab setting
 Dedicated testpanel
 200 test users, within subscribers “Tijd
 Purposeful sampling
 Maximum variation
 Sex, age, social class, comparable professions
 Phenomenal variation




Off- and online use of newspapers
Mobility
Use of interactive services (vb: download ‘de Tijd’)
Ownership of devices (PDA, laptop, smartphone,...)
 Specific reading behaviour
 Functional, mostly more then 1, once in a day
10
Video demo
The mobile digital newspaper
11
3 - User experience
The mobile digital newspaper
 Prototype - bias
 Device
 Screen quality biggest asset
 Size, weight & battery
 Operational




Not intuitive enough
Feedback of the device
Slowness
Different logics: ICT vs book
 Content
 Link with printed newspaper
 Navigation and structure needs improvement
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3 - User experience
The mobile digital newspaper
 Issues for improvement





Connectivity
Speed
Usability of buttons
Lay-out & navigation structure
Zoom function needed
 Other uses
 Specific context
 Mobility
 More content
 Old habits die hard
13
4 - Business models e-paper
The mobile digital newspaper
 Research Question
 What are possible business models for ePaper devices in the
newspaper industry?
 BUT technology broadens scope
 Publishing industry - Print Media
 Information industry
 4 main levels of analysis
 Functional level: Dealing with the architecture of a product or
service
 Strategic/organisational level: Dealing with the roles and
relations between actors
 Financial level: Dealing with sources of revenue and financial
flows
 Value proposition: The way value is created in the market
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4-1 - Scenario development
The mobile digital newspaper
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4-2 - Kiosk-Model: Value Network
The mobile digital newspaper
 Intermediary plays important role
 Integrates two markets 1) readers; 2) information providers
 Causes network externalities, especially online
 Advertising possible at two levels
 Can cause friction
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4-2 - Kiosk-Model: SWOT
The mobile digital newspaper
Strengths
Larger selection of content
One platform for all content
Newspaper retain editorial function
Weaknesses
New initiative so:
Higher start-up costs
Need for individual marketing and branding
Newspaper looses customer relation
Opportunities
New platform for digital news
One open standard
Threats
Conflict over revenue sharing
Conflict over advertising
Intermediary risks to become dominant
Intermediary shifts towards role of content
provision
17
4-3 - iTunes-Model: Value Network
The mobile digital newspaper
 Intermediary plays central role
 Integrates two markets 1) readers, 2) content providers
 BUT ALSO device suppliance and service provision
 Content on single platform and on only one type of device
 Disaggregation of content
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The mobile digital newspaper
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4-3 - iTunes-Model: SWOT
The mobile digital newspaper
Strengths
Higher selection of content
Single platform for all content
Strong personalisation possible
Strong compatibility between service and device
possible
Might be in line with changing user experience
Opportunities
New platform for digital news
Possible high market penetration of single device
Weaknesses
New initiative, so:
Higher start-up costs
Need for individual marketing and branding
Newspaper looses customer relation
Newspaper looses part editorial function
Threats
Conflict over standards possible
Conflict over revenue sharing possible
Conflict over advertising
Intermediary might become dominant
Intermediary might shift towards content
provisioning
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4-4 - Business models
The mobile digital newspaper
 Newspapers
 Remain in a rather unique position as mass medium, brand
and trustworthy
 Have strong customer relations
 Have shrinking market but willingness to pay
 ePaper allows for more constant monitoring of
newsreaders (follow the reader technology)
 Believe in value of editorial function
 Path dependency of the eReader might be possible pitfall in
the future
 Scenarios might co-exist
 Kiosk model more for newspaper publishers
 iTunes model might seem possible scenario for print in general
& ebooks in particular
 BUT most online examples rely on long tail
 Newspapers have short tails
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5 - Lessons learned
The mobile digital newspaper
1.
2.
3.
High potential of the device vs. Importance of look ‘n feel
 Positive on screen quality and size
 But look ‘ feel of newspaper
 48,9% of test panel would consider buying an eReader (if
fully operational
 Reading device (vs. AIO)
Old habits die hard
 No change in reading pattern
 Strong link with printed newspaper
 Navigation
 Content (trust, aggregator,...)
 Representation
Substitution or complementarity?
 In this stage, the device is not ready but it provides users
with some additional options (time, place)
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 Strong competitor for printed paper in the long term
6 - Lessons learned
The mobile digital newspaper
4. Control of the user: choice/complementary: AND & AND
story



Personalised & full
News of today (breaking news) &. News of yesterday
Payments: fee & free
5. Newspapers as aggregators

Brand as trustmodel
 Offer
 Certified, trusted & authentication
6. Business model
•
Kiosk model (in co-existence) is surely looks interesting for the
newspaper industry in the future.
 Yantai Daily Media Group (China) offers since Oct 2006
all its newspaper titles on the Iliad eReader
7. Interesting issues identified, but further research needed
23
The mobile digital newspaper
 Thank you for your attention
 Q&A
Further information
Bram Lievens - bram.lievens@vub.ac.be
prof. Dr. Caroline Pauwels - caroline.pauwels@vub.ac.be
http://smit.vub.ac.be
https://epaper.ibbt.be
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