Mr Murdoch’s News Corp has ridden the iPad wave, selling 20,000 apps for its newspapers. The sales included 4500 subscriptions for The Australian app and 5000 for The Times in Britain.

Analysts estimate Apple will sell up to eight million iPads this year.

Mr Murdoch said he expected to gain at least an additional 1.1 million paying subscribers to The Wall Street Journal he owns, thanks to the iPad. The Journal already charges a similar number of people for access to restricted content on its website. So far 10,000 people are reading the newspaper on their iPads, according to Mr Murdoch. Another 100,000 people who already buy the Journal and have it delivered at home are also using the iPad to read it, he said.

‘To introduce them to it, we’re giving them that for nothing. But later on, we’ll charge probably a discounted rate, if you’re also buying the paper itself, ‘ he said.  In comparison, a spokesperson for The New York Times said last week that its iPad application – entirely free of charge for now – had been used by 300,000 people.

Last Tuesday, Mr Jobs – Apple’s CEO – said that ‘any democracy depends on a free, healthy press’, a thought echoed by Mr Murdoch, who said he was convinced that tools like the portable tablet computers would not spell the end of the press. ‘Most people over 50 love the tactile experience of reading a real newspaper,’ said Mr Murdoch.

‘But it doesn’t mean that you won’t also have this or take it with you or read it on the train or whatever. Or use it for your email or whatever. Or give it to your kids to play games on it.’

Gold Coast Bulletin

Ipad Making News(Papers) is a post from: OE Design Blog