In the ‘bottom-up’ world of publishing, the customer has all the power, “and we’d better get to know them intimately,” says News Limited group digital executive editor Alan Oakley (writes Melissa Hardcastle).

“We need to be able to deliver content when they want it, in a form that suits them, on a platform they can afford, with as much personalisation as they demand… and be able to share that intelligence with advertisers.”

Oakley, a keynote speaker at WoodWing’s ‘world tour’ event in Sydney this month, says the ‘lean-back’ iPad is going to be “more leisure than business, more main course than the ‘news snacking’ that characterises smartphone use, and more stay-at-home than eating out.

“This largely mirrors the pattern of print consumption – the immersive deep-dive into content at a time of your choosing.”

He says the good news is that they still want the content newspapers and magazines offer and many are prepared to pay for it: “One of the knowns is that tablets truly merge the print experience with digital capability, which is something we’ve never been able to achieve before with web PC.

“If people are using their tablets like newspapers, then they may be the first device to deliver on this promise: The newspaper comes alive.”

Oakley says US iPad users spend more than 18 hours a week with the device, mostly in bed. Some 63 per cent are under the age of 35, and of these, 37 per cent use it for web browsing and a quarter for Facebook/social networking.

Most newspaper applications will cost between $4-$8 a month with more than 350 articles on any App at a time.

The WoodWing event – supported by Celum, Adobe, Tansa, Imprezzeo and Creative Folks – was attended by about 150 industry professionals. It continues in Kuala Lumpur next year.

WoodWing chief executive Hans Janssen talked of “the best of times” with a strong focus on the tablet market and the prediction that 60 million devices will be in the marketplace by 2013. Research showed 31 per cent of news readers preferred the iPad, while 24 per cent still preferred print, with tablet/iPad data traffic at its highest at night (mostly Thurs-Saturday).

Other contributions came from Adobe’s Michael Stoddart, Andrew Lomas of Creative Folks, John Fong (owner of SeriousTec), and Owen Greenwell of Plug & Play.

Tennis Australia chief information officer Chris Yates discussed ‘the  power of brand station’ in what he calls the new tennis community, Fraser Crozier (Pacific Magazines) emphasised workflow issues, ACP Magazines editor Tony Sarno told of publishing a digital edition “with no extra resources and a short deadline” and Yaffa publishing director Tony Gunn provided details of looked-for one year ROI on its publishing investment.