iPad loaded with New York Times subscription?

Apples’ new iPad was launched to much excitement and so many blogs that it seemed to be pretty pointless giving any further response to the new product – yes, we all agreed, it was wonderful.

However, now the dust is settling, people are beginning to ask – ‘I’ve got a PC or Apple Mac, I’ve got a iPhone or smart phone – do I really need an iPad’?

It is a good question – because the answer is, to paraphrase the reply to Captain Kirk; yes Jim, but not as you know it…

Will the iPad be a better portable computer? Clearly not, because it is designed to synch with a PC or notebook – so not a replacement.

Will it be a better smart phone? Again, no, because it doesn’t have a picture taking camera nor any ability to talk.

So, why then?

Well, the reason that we’ll all have iPads is because we will want the media products that it will stimulate – and that haven’t yet been built!

Essentially, Apple have offered the publishing industry a holy grail – and after 20 years of steady decline, this industry is desperate for good news.

The holy grail is that newspapers – the FT, New York Times, Daily Mail etc … will be able to deliver their product as a whole entity to the iPad each morning.

Sorry for the language here – whole entity – but I’m just trying to say ‘the whole newspaper’ – which means selling a product or brand rather than the common internet language of ’selling content’.

The media conversations around ’selling content’ will now die and it will become; selling an iPad subscription to such and such a newspaper or magazine.

Now, here is the crunch, why read the newspaper or magazine on your iPad when it is free online? Simple, because;

a) it will feel like a physical newspaper (or magazine) - you can do the ‘B’s’ that is – take it to the bath, bedroom, beach, bench, bus and, yes, bog. Okay perhaps only the bath is in question – but all other Bs are fully taken care of – this is not so, remember, with you PC (but it might be with your iphone???).

b) it will be delivered to your home ontime and everyday- regardless of the weather, the paper boy or your dog’s desire to chew before delivering. And, we humans, are habitual – that is we like routine and when your newspaper arrives every morning you will read it more regularly than if it does or doesn’t depending on the day or traffic or some other factor

c) thirdly, your newspaper will come alive. You’ll have embedded video reports for news, highlights of the goals, videos explaining health techniques – and you’ll be able to click through to the internet or put favourite items straight into your shopping basket.

Oh yes, the newspapers and magazines will come alive on the iPad – they will be quite different products – and this will allow the publishers to sell them on a subscription basis and advertisers will eat them up – lovely colour and moving image with a direct clickable link for ‘more information’

So, truly, the products and publications that you will want on your iPad haven’t been built yet, but they are coming.

And when they do – you will want (need) an iPad. Perhaps we should start saying; its publishing Jim, but not as we know it…

MediaModo has won a grant from the North West Development Agency (NWDA) to conduct research into an entrepreneurs accrediation award.

“This is award will allow us to create and formalise the process by which entrepreneurs can be recognised for the real life business lessons they have learned and skills they have gained” said Neil Lewis, Media Modo Partner.

He continued, “we expect that banks, business angels, VC funds and fellow entrepeneurs will be able to use the formal accreditation to more effectively select entrepreneurs to lead their business ventures and investments and that the outcome will be a reduction of risk and higher rate of return.”

“This is a very exciting media project that will be delivered through our Rags to Wreckages brand – real life business advice and services to help entrepreneurs succeed” explained Lewis.

The award will be spent at a North West University or research institute.

Do you have a website? Of course you do.

Or perhaps you have a blog? Or have written a book or guide?

Certainly if you are a consultant or part of a business, then that business will have a website, right? And probably a blog? And you might be thinking about a forum or a newsletter?

Or perhaps a whole lot more, audio, video, reports, graphs, moving images and so on?

Either way, you are now publishing, aren’t you?

And, whilst a few websites may remain static digital business cards (and some should simply revert back to this status), the majority of business websites or websites for business people, need updating.

Updating today, and tomorrow, and the week after, and next month? That’s publishing – creating, displaying and distributing new content to the (hopefully growing) band of users.

In fact, how does it look if someone looks at your website and sees the last post or entry is from last year (ie last month, December)? Not good is it?

So, now the tail is wagging the dog. You thought it would be great to have website, you knew you needed to add content to get search engine ranking and so bring in the new enquiries and so forth; only now, the regular blog is getting harder to write. If you send a newsletter it is going out a week late (or two). And you are starting to think, can we keep going?

It is a good question. Or at least, it is good that you are asking the question. Sadly, many websites don’t address this issue – that is, they stagnate and then just sit on the web growing old and damaging your brand.

So, what do you do?

You have a choice, either return your website to a digital business card (such that it doesn’t need updating) or accept that a website is like a magazine and needs to be updated and refreshed on a regular basis.

The reason that so many websites fail, is because they fail to do one of these two things – update and refresh.

We are all publishers now (okay, accept those business that restrict themselves to just a digital business card) and, publishing needs to be done professionally and to a reasonable standard to maintain your brand.

If not, then your website risks joining the other 90% of living dead websites that fill up most of the internet.