“The satirical Onion newspaper has recently struggled with the same problems as other less-jocular print news outlets in America: a dwindling print readership and evaporating local advertising,” Nick Bilton reports for The New York Times. “To battle this inevitable change, The Onion has taken on the transition from print to digital with a growing portfolio of downloadable mobile apps.”
MacDailyNews Take: The Onion started as a printed newspaper? (Seriously, we thought they started as a Web site! Alas, Wikipedia confirms our ignorance.)
Bilton reports, “On Friday, The Onion released a free iPad application that showcases its comical news articles and videos… Michael Greer, chief product officer at The Onion, said the company’s mobile apps are quickly generating more traffic for the newspaper, with mobile readers now representing 20 percent of all readership on The Onion sites.”
“When creating the new iPad application, developers chose to build the experience primarily using HTML5, the new Web programming language that allows for full interactivity online,” Bilton reports. “‘We chose to build the iPad app in HTML5 so we could avoid having to learn a new programming language,’ said Mr. Greer. ‘We are a small company and we wanted to keep the development as simple as possible as we’re now managing a number of other apps.'”
Bilton reports, “The Onion is able to offer the iPad application as a free download by partnering with Scion, the Toyota car brand, which is sponsoring the development and distribution of the publication, Mr. Greer said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Toyota makes Scions?! (Just kidding, that one we knew.)
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: More info and download link for The Onion for iPad app via Apple’s iTunes App Store here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]