Nina LinkPresident & CEOMPA
“MPA Digital: E-Reading” WelcomeMarch 16, 2011New York, NY
Good morning and welcome to “MPA Digital: E-Reading,” our second annual conference focusing exclusively on tablets, smartphones, apps and digital newsstands. Everyone in this room is part of the e-reading revolution sweeping our industry. You are in the vanguard of magazine media executives and editors reinventing the very foundations of our business.
The e-reading landscape has changed dramatically in the last year. Think back 12 months ago. The iPad wasn’t even available. Nor was the Galaxy Tab or Motorola Xoom. When consumers turned to digital mobile content consumption, the only game in town back then was smartphones and dedicated e-readers like the Kindle. Digital subscriptions were pretty much a subject of theoretical discussions not heated debates spilling across the pages of the nation’s newspapers and blogs.
And here we are in March of 2011. Apple has sold more than 15 million first-generation tablets. There are more than 65,000 apps available for that device alone. And the number of iPad apps from U.S. magazine publishers has increased tenfold in the past year. The iPad 2 just landed on retailer shelves and you’d think they were free based on the lines snaking out of Apple stores. More than half a million were sold just last weekend alone. In four years, it’s predicted that a third of adult U.S. consumers will own a tablet. According to Forrester Research, about half of all tablet owners read magazines and newspapers on the devices.
In other words, tablets and other mobile e-reading devices represent a huge opportunity for us to expand the footprint of our brands and to explore:
This morning, you’ll learn about the opportunities and challenges of the tablet ecosystem. Our speakers will provide examples of magazine apps that will inspire you to use the capabilities of this platform in bold new ways. And you’ll hear the latest research on how consumers are using tablets.
We’re paying a lot of attention today to digital newsstands and digital subscription commerce, with one panel and two separate presentations by Google and Barnes & Noble. It’s clear that some of the most innovative companies in the world want to partner with our brands in a digital retail environment. And we’re pleased that these companies are focusing on consumer-friendly digital storefronts and payment systems where the audience buys the valuable content that magazine brands create.
At MPA, we are busy tracking all these developments, from the popular MPA E-Reading Blog….known as The Erb….to our comprehensive directory of magazine apps, which we launched a year ago. As of yesterday, we listed more than a thousand apps, and we’re sure the number has grown in the last 24 hours.
Before we start the show, I like to give a big thank you to our sponsors Adobe, Getty Images, Woodwing and Zinio. We could not produce today’s event without their generous support.
I also have a few housekeeping notes. At the 11:45 conclusion of the morning session, we’ll have a one-hour networking break outside this ballroom. At one o’clock, the second annual National Magazine Awards for Digital Media will take place back in this room.
I’d also like to mention our next conference, “MPA Digital: Technology.” This one-day event, which takes place June 23 at the Time Life Building, examines the technology of content on print and digital platforms. I hope to see everyone there.
And now it’s my pleasure to introduce our conference chairman and editor in chief of Popular Mechanics. Please welcome Jim Meigs.
