Entries for month: December 2010
Newspapers and the iPad: good exercise and the wanker effect
07 December 2010 · By Earl J. Wilkinson
The past four months have been a constant stream of presentations to and interviews with corporate boards, management committees and industry conferences. Central to every conversation was the iPad — more specifically, what the app on this broader digital canvass means for branded content.
One moment stood above the rest, both funny and illustrative.
The management committee of a Pacific Rim newspaper company exploring the possibilities of an iPad app talked passionately about the pros and cons of the iPad versus other mobile devices, the app versus the web browser, and more. They were talking themselves into an iPad strategy, and I was the foil for the debate — a role I'm accustomed to playing.
Somewhere near the crescendo of conversation, I happened to ask the CEO how he used the iPad outside the walls of his newspaper company. He was perplexed by the question. His team was perplexed by his silence. And I was perplexed by the perplexity in the room.
“No, Earl, you'd never catch me with an iPad at a restaurant or a bar or maybe most public places,” he said. “I wouldn't want to look like a wanker.”
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