The Guardian: Apple iPad 'won't change newspaper publishing'
Online editor talks tablets
TR: Why do you think there's not a huge amount of commercial partners signed up to add content to the iPad?
JG: Not a lot of people would turn down the opportunity to work with Apple, but there was a lack of content partners announced as I expect Steve Jobs is trying to lower expectations.
There's no point tapping up international content providers until you are closer to releasing the tablet in those sectors.
The Guardian has a fairly big international presence online – two thirds of our audience is outside of the UK at the moment, but the device isn't shipping anywhere just yet so we haven't committed to anything.
Saying that, you don't ignore anything that Apple do.
TR: What kind of newspaper content would we see on the iPad?
JG: It seems to me that a device of that size which is more portable and going to rely on Wi-Fi and 3G wouldn't really lend itself to a hyperlinked experience, like on your phone, but more like a proper browsing experience. And that is more suited to magazine content.
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So, as a publisher, we would probably want to look at our magazine content as no newspaper publisher currently has found the way to publish content from their supplements online.
TR: Would you consider charging for the Guardian on a tablet?
JG: There is a consensus around micro-payments. Even at the Guardian we have an open, free philosophy but then we put a paid app out and that worked well for us.
We do think that people will pay for compelling content but you have got to look at it in context. If you have got something that's brilliantly functional, brilliantly useable, is bringing perfect content then we are not opposed to charging for it.
If there is an effective way to charge for it, of course you are going to do it.
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Liked this? Then check out Is the Apple iPad the saviour of magazines?
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Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.