This is the weekend edition of TheMarioBlog and will be updated as needed. The next edition is Monday, January 18
It's paper no more for La Presse of Montreal, Canada
It was one of the most attractive newspaper tablet editions when it appeared in 2013.
However, letting the tablet edition of La Presse substitute its printed newspaper all together Is a gamble, a total experiment and we wonder if it will pay off.
We applaud this level of experimentation, especially on a platform like the tablet that, while heralded as ideal when the first iPads appeared in 2010, has not captured the enthusiasm of readers and publishers. Although the tablet definitely has its most fervent cheerleader in Guy Craver, President and publisher of La Presse and a staunch supporter of the tablet edition since its beginnings. I remember listening to a presentation from Cravier, in Berlin, and feeling that for sure La Presse might be the first newspaper to ditch its print edition for the tablet.
Now it has happened and I know that many publishers globally are going to be watching, especially at the Toronto Star which in October launched StarTouch, their own tablet edition app built off the La Presse+ system.
Ironically, the one tablet project with which I have been involved in Canada, with the Postmedia group, did not fare as well. Or, perhaps the tablet editions for the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette and Calgary Herald were retired from the market before they had time to evolve. We will never know what would have happened if those tablet editions would have been rethought.
La Presse+ has experienced success with readers since the beginning. Today more than 180,000 are reported to be reading the tablet edition.
What next for tablets?
I think that many in the industry will be watching La Presse + with more than casual interest in the months ahead. There will be questions, too: Will some readers miss the La Presse printed edition? Will other Canadian papers follow suit and stop print to go tablet edition only?
I personally don’t see many publishers moving in that direction anywhere in the globe, but La Presse could inspire some. When publishers think mobile today they are thinking smartphones.
But, don’t give up on the tablets yet.
They are mobile and readers over 55 like them and use them a lot. I advise my clients to curate material for tablet editions, but not entirely devoted to features. We have learned that tablet users want news, too. As for what time a day to publish those tablet editions: it is different with each market. La Presse+ appears in the morning, just as the printed newspaper was. I don’t think that tablets are exclusively for evening anymore.
Tablets, which remained off center stage in 2015, may be a platform to watch in 2016.
Related content
Why 3 Canadian newspapers gave up on the tablet edition
http://www.poynter.org/2015/why-3-canadian-newspapers-gave-up-on-the-tablet-edition/380744/
Montreal-based La Presse ends 131 years of daily printed news