News Corp Prepares for Growing Tablet Market

The growing onslaught of tablets and e-readers has content owners taking notice.  Over a dozen major publishers have already created apps for the iPad since its launch this past April and many more plan to release titles before year’s end.  Most publishers are simply extending their traditional print magazine into an interactive electronic format but this doesn’t appear to be enough for Mogul Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp media powerhouse.

According to reports by the Financial Times, News Corp may soon start a new media business focused solely on tablet devices and would “provide content for a subscription application on digital tablet devices such as Apple’s iPad.”

If this happens, News Corp would be the first major media outlet to create a tablet only media group.  CNBC says the “new digital news venture would incorporate text, photo and video, tailored for the iTunes app format …. neither a newspaper nor a news website — it would not be based on any of News Corp’s existing papers.”

With e-readers now under the $150 mark and major consumer electronic firms such as HP, Microsoft, RIM, Motorola and Dell all planning tablet type devices, Murdoch may have stumbled upon a unique business opportunity.  It’s obvious that more and more magazines and newspapers will be consumed with these new e-devcies but it remains unclear whether users are willing to pay for electronic content that they are accustomed to getting for free on the web.

News Corp has seen some initial success selling subscription news services on the iPad with their Wall Street Journal app, so this early success may be part of the motivation for creating the new tablet news organization.