What the Poynter eyetracking study means for tablet publishers

By Dalton Barker

Poynter recently conducted a study that tracked the eye movement of people reading and navigating through three tablet layouts.

This study came at the heels of another study published in the Sacramento Bee about reading newspapers on tablets versus in print. It showed that people viewing newspapers on tablets account for 7 percent of total Web page views and that 10 percent of tablet users read news on their tablets daily.

So, what does this mean? We already know the shift toward digital is coming and, in many places, is already here. Look at Thursday's headline about Newsweek. Instead, the question becomes, How do online publishers maximize the tablet experience? Poynter's study shows online news can be tailored to individual users, but making sure that happens is one of publishers' biggest tasks.

Long live long-form journalism

By Dalton Barker

As newspapers have struggled, long-form journalism
has found a home online.

Job cuts that have swept the journalism industry have led to thinner newspapers and tightly stretched staffs with more responsibilities and less time to do them. It was only inevitable, then, that many papers would pare production of in-depth stories and instead require that reporters submit two, maybe three stories per day.

However, the Web is now driving a long-form journalism comeback, according to Forbes writer Lewis DVorkin. Tablets, smartphones and the ability to share via social media what you're reading are a few factors driving the upswing, according to the article. It mentions how the first two have given publishers and online-only publications more incentive to produce in-depth pieces because more people are itching for online content.