Biz journalism apps engaging readers

Sean Callahan of BtoB Magazine writes about the success of media that have been at the forefront of rolling out applications for smart phones and tablets.

Callahan writes, “Since its debut, the Journal’s app has had about 1.1 million downloads, said Mark Fishkin, VP-digital sales for The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. The app updates with new content every 15 minutes, and about half of the app’s regular paid users visit it daily, he said.

“Pearson’s Financial Times rolled out its app last May, and it already has had 480,000 downloads. ‘We’re seeing [the app] drive our new digital subscribers,’ said Stephen Pinches, group product manager-emerging technologies for FT. ‘Over 10% of FT.com’s new digital subscribers are coming directly from the iPad.’

“Additionally, advertising on the iPad generates 20 times more click-throughs for FT than similar ads on the Web. ‘That’s huge,’ said Jon Slade, global digital and strategic advertising sales director for FT, who said the elevated click-throughs came not from the novelty of the iPad but from the nature of how people interact with the device. While Web users search for a specific piece of information, print readers are more engaged with the entire product, including ads.

“The Economist launched an app late last year, and while it includes video and audio attributes, it is essentially the weekly magazine transferred to the iPad. Oscar Grut, managing director of digital editions for The Economist, said the goal was to not muddy the magazine reading experience with constant news updates from the Web. ‘What our readers tell us is that they like that there’s a beginning and an end; there’s a ‘finishability’ to the experience,’ he said.”

Read more here.