The iPad v Kindle battle shaking up global media and publishing is about to send some waves to South Africa’s shores. Experts say 2010 will be the year the e-book reader comes of age and at the moment there are only two main players in the ring: Apple’s iPad tablet computing device with web, multimedia, gaming and e-book functionality and the less functional but more established e-book reader from Amazon, the Kindle.

The battle between these two global giants is redefining the rules of publishing and content distribution and the big players in South Africa are watching the fray with an eye for opportunity. Already there are unconfirmed rumours that one major South African media house is talking to Amazon’s Kindle division and speculation that another is toying with developing its own e-reader device.

What the key players will say, however, is that they are interested in the market that is emerging on the back of this technology. And well they should be. Mobile phones have yet to come of age as a viable platform for media and publishing houses – even in South Africa where cellphone technology is pretty much ubiquitous at every level of the population.

The Amazon/Apple battle is fascinating not only because it involves two celebrity companies but because a new business model is emerging that could be a fundamental game-changer for publishers and creators of content. The new rules of the game for media houses could lead to dramatically higher margins as distribution and production costs plummet with content pushed through the ether on to mobile devices such as the Kindle and the iPad.

But with this revolution comes new gatekeepers demanding a charge for these mobile eyeballs. Amazon was taking 70% of revenue of book sales done through the Kindle until Apple came along with the iPad. After a recent face-off with book publisher MacMillan, Amazon has decreased its slice of the pie to 30% on MacMillan’s book sales.

But should South Africa’s print media be jumping on to the bandwagon when the take-up in this country will be quite slow? On the one hand these devices are reasonably pricey and there’s not just a wealth barrier. Many older people may not be keen to learn new tricks.

Clearly, this is the way of the future. In 20 years, e-readers could well be as ubiquitous as cellphones are today. The technology will improve and prices will come down.

New-media experts Matthew Buckland, who heads up the 20FourLabs innovation unit at 24.com, and Elan Lohmann, general manager of Avusa Media Online, say that newspapers should be on as many digital platforms as possible but at the moment it may not be worth South African publishers putting time and money into optimising content for the Kindle or iPad… TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY WEEKLY MEDIA COLUMN ON MONEYWEB.

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Grubstreet talks to Elan Lohmann, general manager of Avusa media online, about the launch of the new Times Live website, dealing with nasty user comments and losing Google page ranking.

QUESTION:  So it’s been a week since Times Live launched. What are you happiest and unhappiest with?

ANSWER: OK, I’m happiest with the fact that we’ve taken the great step forward in terms of the brand – creating a new identity for ourselves which is not linked to print. It’s a start for us to say we do want to be a digital product and, for me, a digital product must be real time. There are operational issues that need to be resolved before that is actualised but at the end of the day, to me, it’s a vision statement.

QUESTION: So this is the start then. What’s the goals medium and long term?

ANSWER:  The first step is to get the guys into the swing of breaking news because the product was never run in that way in the past so a shift in mindset needs to happen. I want to create a breaking news stream as quickly as possible and then it’s a matter of getting our journalists to help populate that during the week as and when things happen.

The new look for a new domain.

QUESTION:  So what are you unhappiest with?

ANSWER:  I think just minor details – minor layout details. We’ve got a whole lot of feedback from our users – some of it civilised and some not – and things that they point out, we take to heart. Things that we feel they have a really good point on, we’ll fix or change. The thing about the web is that it’s not big bang. It’s always nice to launch a site and it’s 100% perfect and everyone goes: “Yay”. But the beauty of the web is that I can change the navigation tomorrow if I want, I can add in an extra section or I can decide that news should actually be South African news elevated over African and international news.  So it’s really just a matter of refining the product. I’ve said to my team that must realise that is a launch; not the end. It’s a daily work in progress.

QUESTION:  I noticed that the users were exceedingly irritated with the comments running most recent at the top.

ANSWER:  Yes, we’re changing the comments process. They didn’t like the fact that the comments were on another page and a cutting the comments off (to a certain length) was a mistake but changes will go live soon. So, yes, you make a mistake but the question is can you fix it quickly. And, you know, you say “the users” but there is a group of about 20 to 50 people who are trolls.

QUESTION: Yes, there usually are.

ANSWER:  They’re racist and, frankly, I’m quite happy if they don’t use our site… A lot of the stuff they write is disgusting and I think it’s bad for the brand. I also think it puts off a lot of other users  who want to say something intelligent because they fear for their lives; that they going to get flamed.

QUESTION: Well, a website’s not a democracy.

ANSWER:  I’m going to implement comment moderation. I don’t believe that we have an obligation to publish everyone’s comments in the name of freedom of speech. At News24 (where Lohmann was before Avusa), we had comment moderation.

QUESTION: But with thousands of comments, don’t you need a lot of manpower for that?
ANSWER:  It wasn’t a problem at all at News24. It’s manageable but obviously I’m only going to turn that on when we’re ready operationally.

QUESTION: But let’s backtrack a bit. Why do you guys want a digital identity in its own when you’ve got strong brands such as the Sunday Times.  Are you moving along to charging for content?

ANSWER:  In terms of the brand, I arrived here recently to find the brand was launching but I’m happy it’s been done as it’s the perfect catalyst to say: “This is a different product. It works differently. It’s not The Times or the Sunday Times. It’s  Times Live”…
In terms of charging for content, there’s obviously a buzz globally because of what Mr Murdoch said. Frankly, I think he’s bluffing. I really don’t think Rupert Murdoch announces what he’s going to do a year in advance. He’s not like that. He knows that competitors will react and maybe he wants to test the waters or otherwise he’s trying to sabotage them. This paid-content debate has been going on forever and one of the problems is when the average consumer buys a newspaper, they think they’re paying for the journalism. But they’re not paying for the journalism. They’re paying for the distribution; for you getting it into their hands. But content is expensive so it stands to reason that you would want to extract the same amount of value from your digital product because online advertising is very undervalued…  You can charge if it has value to somebody so for ex-pat South African users, there s value in the (online) Sunday Times because they can’t get their hands on the newspaper. So we might try it out. Nothing’s cast in stone. But it has to make business sense. I’m not going to rush into something on whim. The numbers have to be right.

QUESTION: Now, with the new Times Live domain, you guys have lost your Google page ranking. Isn’t that a problem?

ANSWER: It’s a short-term problem. We’re looking at taking about three months of pain.

QUESTION: But page ranking is based on years of traffic unless you’re contacting Google directly to sort this out.

ANSWER: We’ve got a few things in the works. I’m looking at basically losing about 20% to 30% of traffic in the first three months. That’s as bad as I think the damage will be but on the flipside, the previous site didn’t have a single SEO (search engine optimisation) principal in it whatsoever… I would personally like to get some SEO resources into our business on a permanent basis…
I believe once we over that hump, we’ll be in a much stronger position than we ever were. The only traffic we’ll use is search traffic and lot of that was international but, even with the loss of traffic, there should be no financial loss to us. So I’m not too concerned but if we leave it to chance, we’re looking at six months of pain so we’re doing everything we can to mitigate the damage.

QUESTION: The new content management system is Escenic (from Norway)  but you can do more with it, can’t you. I like the new site but I’d like to see more integration, for instance, multimedia embedded in stories and more links to other Times stories to give more context.

ANSWER: Escenic is integrated but we could probably do more with the user interface. So, for instance, under “related links” there is a little icon of a camera to indicate video. It’s probably not something you’ve noticed.

QUESTION: No.

ANSWER: In that particular instance, there rather needs to be a thumbnail These are the little user interface improvements I’m talking about. There will be a teething period before we are flying. That content has been integrated – just not in a way that it’s visual enough.

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This just in, as they say in TV. Avusa has announced to staff that Elan Lohmann has been appointed the company’s online general manager. This means that Elan, who’s been heading up Media 24′s online department, is going back to his roots.

He started with the Sunday Times’s fledgling web team yonks back practically straight out of university. I hope he’s milking them for loads of dosh seeing as he’ll be giving up the cool Cape lifestyle and Avusa’s not known to be the most innovative online outfit on the block.

Speaking of innovation, Gregor Rohrig, who is also well regarded in Web Land, has been made the head of of the Avusa iLab, its digital innovation hub.

Previously Gregor was responsble for project management and research at the iLab. Maybe with Elan and Gegor running the show, Avusa will get with the programme.

Avusa’s digital business contributes 23% of its earnings, according to its latest annual results that came out last week. Read the Business Times story here on Avusa’s annual results and interview with CEO Prakash Desai.

Click here to read Elan’s own thoughts on the move at his blog.

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