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Publishers remain split on native versus app debate: ad:tech speaker


During the ?Why Publishers Hate Apps: HTML5 & the Future of Publishing? session, the executive discussed the pros and cons of HTML5. The session was moderated by Christopher Peri, chief technology officer of VentureBeat.

?HTML5 is not done,? said Jason Pontin, editor in chief of MIT Technology Review.  ?It?s a work in progress.?

Current status
Today?s smartphones and tablets provide publishers with a way to mimic a digital representation of past print models and lure back subscribers and advertisers. 

However, although initially touted as a way to build a new subscription model to pay for content, publishers soon came to realize that apps create walled gardens and struggled to get consumers? attention, given the accessibility of other curated sources on the Web. 

Additionally, mobile heavyweights, such as Google and Apple, have placed high demands on single-copy sales that cut into subscription revenues.

Because of this publishers struggled to factor digital copies into their circulation, and creating consistent content across a myriad of devices took time and effort, per the executive.

To try and solve this problem, several publishers have turned to HTML5.

?When Apple release the iPad in April 2010, traditional publishers were already gripped by a sort of collected delusion and convinced themselves that tablets would allow them to unwind their happy experiences, like the Internet,? Mr. Pontin said. 

?Smartphones and mobile devices seem to promise a return to simpler days ? the way we used to do publishing,? he said. ?The other attraction to doing native apps was that we thought we could revive the print advertising economy. 

?Essentially, publishers lost their heads ? everyone rushed to the marketplace to create native apps on iOS and Android platforms.?

Went wrong?
According to Mr. Pontin, things went wrong when Apple demanded 30 percent of revenue. 

Furthermore, app development was not as easy an many had thought. 

Currently, publishers are increasingly focused on mobile content. 

?Mobile publishers believe in the importance of generating dual revenue streams from mobile,? Mr. Pontin said. ?Publishers are anticipating a growth in mobile advertising revenues. 

?There is no established set of units,? he said. ?Yet publishers think there will be an explosion of mobile advertising in the future.?

Although many publishers are struggling, there are those that got it right.

Take the New York Times, for example. The company launched an experimental HTML5 Web app to sidestep Apple?s 30 percent fee. 

Then there is The Atlantic, which launched an HTML5 iPad app in January 2013. 

Finally, there is the Financial Times, which Mr. Pontin calls the gold standard. 

FT was one of the first that decided to bypass Apple and develop its own Web app. 

?Many publishers are already profitable and the expected profitability will continue to grow,? Mr. Pontin said.