Apple Online Store“MediaMemo reports that National Public Radio and The Wall Street Journal are preparing to roll out iPad-optimized versions of their websites as the device launches in the U.S. on April 3rd,” Eric Slivka reports for MacRumors. “Similar to sites formatted specifically for the iPhone or other mobile devices, users visiting the publications’ sites using an iPad will be automatically redirected to the iPad-optimized version.”

“While the iPhone and other mobile devices with small screens relative to traditional computers can benefit from streamlined and reformatted versions of many sites’ content, Apple intends for the iPad’s larger display to be used for a much richer browsing experience,” Slivka reports. “The iPad’s lack of support for Adobe’s Flash technology, however, means that many sites will not display as they would on a traditional computer supporting Flash. Consequently, publications such as NPR and The Wall Street Journal have turned to Flash-free versions of their sites to varying degrees.”

• Use the iPad’s browser to visit NPR.org, which will detect that it’s being viewed with Apple’s device and serve up a custom-built site. This means no trace of Adobe’s Flash, which is used to power graphics and media on the site.
• Visitors to the newspaper’s front page will see an iPad-specific, Flash-free page. But those who click deeper into the site will eventually find pages that haven’t been converted.

MacDailyNews Take: Yet.

Slivka continues, “Another aspect in NPR’s favor is its limited advertising, reducing the hurdles imposed by the need to work with that Flash-dependent industry.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Note: Note to advertisers: Your Flash-based ads are no longer reaching the most well-heeled customers online: iPhone owners. They’re also not hitting iPod touch users. And, very soon, iPad users won’t be seeing them, either. If you care about reaching people with discretionary income, you might want to consider dumping your flash-based ads and moving to a more open format that people with money and the will to spend it can actually see.

Help kill Adobe’s Flash:
• Ask CNBC to offer HTML5 video via the customer support web form here.
• Contact Hulu and ask them to offer HTML5 video via email:
• Ask ESPN360 to offer HTML5 video instead Flash via their feedback page here.
• Join YouTube’s HTML5 beta here.
• On Vimeo, click the “Switch to HTML5 player” link below any video.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "James W." for the heads up.]