New devices like iPads seem to be much easier for the elder generation to understand and to use.

It’s an opinion based on my observations of individual users. I admit there is a lack of hard and scientifical evidence about it. Early Nielsen research done in the US suggests iPads and other devices are bought first by early adopters who tend to be young (63 % of iPad buyers are aged 35 and younger). But it is a nascent market, premium priced at the moment — many things will change when the market matures, number of devices become available and prices fall. Obviously, more research is needed.

I do believe iPads and similar devices have some killer features making them attractive for elder people:

• Intuitive touch-based interface: so no more intimidation when the young try to teach you the new technology, no more problems with operating the mouse and finding cursor on-screen.
• Simplified operating system and apps: no more fear that pressing anything is going to corrupt the device or data, no more features regular guys don’t need and that make the whole experience complicated.
• Concept of apps: this world of ”one click = one feature” seems to be somewhat more familiar to their world of brands/utilities they trust and look for.
• Media consumption patterns: according to our research old users tend to be rather consumers of media than producers. iPad and similar devices — more easy than flexible – are simply more suitable to their needs.

These new devices may diminish the most important barriers for the growth of the Internet usage.

Until today in all European Union countries the Internet has been adopted more by the young than by the old. Some Eurostat data: among people aged 18-29 almost 100 % use the Internet. among people aged 55-64 do it only 48 %. Among people aged 65 and older the Internet is used only by 25 %. In my Poland the difference is even bigger: compare 95 % to 30 % and 8 %.

So if the Internet usage is to grow, it is to grow among people aged 55 and older.

This difference is a market opportunity recognized already by many players like telecommunication companies, financial services etc. It is yet to be recognized by many other players as hardware or software producers… and media themselves. It will be recognized sooner or later as Europe is aging. At this very moment 30 % of Poles are aged 50 and older. In 20 years there will be 50 %. No business can ignore such a change on the market.

According to our latest research study done in Poland infrastructure or money are not in fact the most important barriers for the elder people to start using the Internet. The top barrier is that they don’t see it any useful. The second barrier is they believe it is too complicated.

You can interpret these answers in many ways. Many researchers including me believe that what these people really mean is they face a lack of devices/services suitable to their capabilities and interests, and they don’t know what’s really useful for them on the Internet and how to use it.

Here come the iPad and others.

This new breed of hardware have been already supported by a new generation of software and you can just expect this trend to excelerate. New, easier to use software will help the old people to discover things we — the younger ones — already know like digital entertainment, communication, e-commerce. The most popular features of the Internet apart of finding information and news.

I have just shared my iPad with my parents-in-law. They have learnt it almost immidiately and started to use features they had never used before.

And watch this 99-year-old woman rediscover reading and writing thanks to this new device:

Remark: I have wrote this post to answer to questions raised after I have contributed to an overview of digital media trends published at BetaTales, the blog of John Einar Sandvand of Aftenposten in Norway.

I am going to share more insights about new media devices at the INMA Transformation of News Summit at Harvard on December 2-3, 2010.

Mecom is not a typical company with typical management. In Mecom, there are owner and operators. There are also shareholders. Mecom is not only a local player, they own several national newspapers – Rzeczpospolita in Poland is one of them.

Mr. Montgomery during his speech assured, Mecom has no intent in selling their assets, he ensured they are going to keep it.

Media Regionalne is a Polish publisher part of Mecom Group. It is a publisher that developed its own citizen journalism platform. The efforts of Media Regionalne make David Montgomery very proud.

David Montgomery understands that Mecom is not only in print business. He prefers to see it they are in the content business, and more specifically – in local content. He knows that people are always interested in their society’s issues. That’s why being local is so important.

Mr. Montgomery addressed 5 most important issues that Mecom is dealing with:

• online newspaper
• local social network
• e-commerce
• mobile
• paid-for model

1. online newspaper. The more he looks at newspapers online, the more he thinks they are wrong. More and more content is introduced online, richer content as well. The strategy should not be about dumping all the content online. Online newspaper should be developing in other way than newspaper. By using the broadcast possibilities for instance.
2. local social network. Opportunity to expand into community network where families have a way to archive their documents etc.
3. collective selling on behalf of communities. Service and engagement to readers that expands their presence online.
4. mobile. Mecom has a dedicated innovation group in Kopenhagen, drilling the ideas to expand. Mobile is a “coming home”, it’s like a tabloid but on the move. Again, local should be the key in mobile strategy.
5. paid for content. Future of the industry depends on it. Content online is as valuable as content in print. Mecom surely does not want to give the content away for free.

David Montgomery has also addressed the efforts concerning the paid-for model: everyone should be thankful to Murdoch – as usual he sets the standards. He tells the world publishers should not be giving their content away for free. He probably will be the first person to say he got it wrong. David Montgomery does not think the model at the Times will survive, but knowing Murdoch, it will evolve into something that does work after all.

Jakub Krzych

AdTaily is a startup founded 1,5 year ago. It allows people who are used to advertise in traditional newspapers to move online in a very simple way.
Thanks to that, anyone can turn visitors to the site into advertisers.

AdTaily is based on one format of the ad, paid per day. Users can impulsively buy the ad. Readers who also have websites should know that if they are readers of a specific site, some other readers could be interested in reading the advertisers’ site. That way, the readers become the advertisers.

Some AdTaily statistics:
16.000 publishers installed the tool
They generate 1 billion monthly impressions
1,5 million clicks each month
5200 paying customers
30000 ad unit sold each month

About a year ago it was only 2500 publishers engaged who generated 13 million impressions.

In the AdTaily model, readers can buy an ad, which can be interesting to the readers of any site. At the same time the tool is so simple, that when it is used by a publisher – publishers’ salesperson can easily sale such an ad as well.

The main discovery from this system was that there are advertisers among visitors. Important for the ad sales persons is the fact, that in that case the efficiency is not that important (most advertisers are not as impatient as regular advertisers counting clicks and looking at other statistics). If the efficiency is not that important, the advertisers are willing to pay more!

Make sure you check the AdTaily.com system, as Poland’s Agora does on its webpages.
simplicity does matter

Forum4Editors: How do your editorial offices cooperate with their advertising departments?
Griet Ducatteeuw: The walls between the editorial and the advertising departments have always been high at Corelio. It’s because we believe that the credibility of our newsbrands (print, website, mobile,…) are our most important assets towards the future. Nevertheless, advertising budgets are crucial for surviving. Sometimes the advertising department sees opportunities in creating new editorial content, sometimes the editorial department can only realise new projects when sponsoring our advertising money is found. So in a way, we’re doomed to live together, and sometimes, it’s a love-hate relationship

At Corelio, we created a special division within the advertising department, called ‘Creative Lab’. Its goal: to be the bridge between advertisers and the editiorial and marketing department. Creative Lab follows very closely what’s going on in the editiorial and marketing department and what the desires of the advertisers are. From time to time, we can create nice ‘marriages’.

But, let it be very clear. In every discussion, it’s the interest of the reader that wins. Because we believe that a good and credible editioral product, with loyal and engaged readers, is the best thing we can offer to the advertisers.

Would you give any advice to the marketeers about what they should or should not do in order to cooperate fully with the editorial office?
Griet Ducatteeuw: The goals of the marketeers and the editiorial office are simply the same, so we have every importance in full cooperation. We both want satisfied readers, growing audiences, interesting profiles. The best thing marketeers can do, is know the audience very well. Know what they like and don’t like about the newsbrand, on every possible platform.This knowledge is very important for the editiorial office. At Corelio, the marketing departments are integrated on the same floor as the editiorial room. We believe there cannot be enough communication between those two departments. A marketing idea, not carried by the editiorial room, will never have the impact we dream of, and vice versa.

What is the future of advertising in print and online? Can the drop in print circulation be replaced by the rise in price of print advertising? Will the unefficient advertising online be replaced by advertising on tablets?
Griet Ducatteeuw: What is the future of… It’s a question no one can answer. There is no crystal ball. All we can do is monitor our markets closely and make sure we can be flexible and move fast. For many media companies, this alone is a big challenge…
I’m convinced that print advertising will still be very important for us for many years. It’s up to us to keep convincing the advertisers of the strenght of the print medium, this throughout research. And advise them how they can use the print medium even better. Online advertising will offcourse continue to grow. It offers the possiblity to communicate more and more one-to-one, or at least one-to-many. This is good news for us: it’s complementary with the possibilities of print-advertising. Advertising on tablets is still very young. The speed of its succes will depend on the speed of the succes of the tablets themselves. At Corelio, we recently launched an iPad app for De Standaard. Our advertising department immediately found some nice advertising budgets for the launch. This shows that the advertisers are eager to experiment. But it’s too early to predict what the tablets will represent in the online media mix of the advertisers. Better make sure the advertising people are well trained, because the knowledge and techniques of the online products is very different  than the knowledge of the print product… Specialism is very important here.

Do you believe in Wired’s Chris Anderson recent statement, claiming the traditional World Wide Web is dead – long live the apps? What is your view on that thesis?
Griet Ducatteeuw: ‘Print is dead’, or ‘The WWW is dead’ … provocative statements that are usefull to make the discussion going.  It’s hard to imagine that the ‘World Wide Web’, that has become such a big part of our lives, will disappear.
For media companies, apps are a very exiciting and difficult challenge: it boils down to having a smart platform-strategy that creates complementary platforms instead of cannibalizing media.  A tough challenge…
And this while we are still struggling with our print/webstrategies… What content to put where ? Free or paid ?
At Corelio we chose to already invest in experimenting with apps. We believe it’s important to learn abouts apps and create the experience and knowledge within the company. Because it’s clear that the tablets and apps are here to stay… So let’s be prepared!

Thank you very much and see you in Kraków!

Griet Ducatteeuw is the Sales and Marketing Manager at Corelio and member of the INMA European Board

In a personal message to the European Conference of INMA and OPA Europe starting this week in Krakow (29 September to 1 October 2010), the President sends his best wishes for a successful debates.

“Under the heading Transformation, inspiration, innovation, you will analyze your industry’s transition from single medium to multi-media and the implications of this for your marketing, circulation, revenues, and means of gathering, writing and editing”, writes Herman Van Rompuy.

He adds: “It is also fitting that this conference takes place in the historic city of Krakow, one of the greatest centres of European history and culture, just before next year’s Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union. This will be the first time since Poland acceded to the European Union that it will chair the Council, and it will do so just when, at the same time, the former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek chairs the European Parliament. It can be said that Poland is taking an ever more prominent place in our institutions!”

The President of the European Council is delighted that the importance of your conference has warranted strong support from the Polish authorities, including the Mayor of Krakow Jacek Majchrowski and the Marshal of the Malopolska Region Marek Nawara.

More info on the conference

More than 310 editors and managers of leading news media from Europe and the world will arrive this week to Krakow to discuss the future of print, internet and mobile media as well as share their experience in how social, technological and market developments affect consumers and advertisers, and how to meet their expectations. The conference is already sold out, but you still can follow it online at forum4editors.com and at Twitter.