The Role of the Tablet Newspaper

Abstract: The newspaper industry has been struggling for quite some time now. Circulation has been in steady decline for the past decade as readers are migrating online, a place where newspapers are yet to be succesfull at charging for their content. However, in recent years there has been optimism surrounding the increasingly popular tablet and its usefullness as a bearing device for news services, potentially combining the best from both print and online news. Due to the recency of the innovation little is known about the ways in which people use or plan to make use of the tablet newspaper and why. By applying a research model based on the technology acceptance model and theory of uses and gratification we aim to uncover the underlying motives and factors influencing its adoption. In cooperation with two major newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Sydsvenska Dagbladet, a large quantitative study was performed on their subscribers and a sample of 4771 respondents was gathered. Our findings reveal that the tablet is a powerful substitute to the printed newspaper. Further we also acknowledge five motives that positively influence the attitude towards the tablet newspaper: Knowledge of current news, Search for updated information, Search for specific information, Entertainment and Leisure.