As far as I know, there are no stats on how successful the iPad-only publication, The Daily, has been. But there’s more evidence that digital newspapers and magazines are part of the wave of the future.
E-book distributor LibreDigital (http://www.libredigital.com) says that its business in distributing digital magazine content generated 175% more revenue November through January that in the previous 12 months combined. Surge in demand for digital magazines from LibreDigital’s tablet and e-reader partners drove the increase.
“Demand for digital reading is exploding,” says Russell P. Reeder, LibreDigital president and CEO. “LibreDigital’s goal is to bring scalable solutions to publishers and marketplaces to meet that demand. We are excited to be bringing our experience as the leader in the e-book distribution business to the early stages of an exciting digital periodicals market.”
Explosive growth in media tablets, projected to grow 181% in 2011 to 54.8 million units by Gartner, is fueling strong consumer demand for digital reading. I don’t know if that means we’ll see more iPad-only publications, but we’ll certainly see an increasing number of publications that will offer iPad subscriptions.
— Dennis Sellers