Is AP Subscription News App Coming to iPad?

Keeping up with the online trend and the competition, reports from the Financial Times states that the Associated Press is working on an iPad app. This would give users direct access to news, and sports. There is a possibility that this will be a subscription only app.

In a recent press conference Tom Curley, AP's chief executive office said that the company was creating a new business unit for its mobile service offerings called AP Gateway.

The focus of AP's organization group will be to expand and develop the company's AP Mobile news service to mobile phone users. Curley said “some of its services might be available free with ads, but others might be subscription-based”.

The company’s main goal is to use the AP Gateway group to help its newspaper members come up with digital content instead of having to do the development on its own.

With so many free news sources, traditional print media is tying to keep up with all the technological changes. Financial Times and Wall Street Journal, had some success with subscriber-only portals on the web and apps on the iPhone and other smartphones.

The decision to create its own iPad app was a brilliant move on AP’s part. This will certainly put it ahead of the competition. None of the other Publishers such as Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times or even The New York Times, which was featured in Steve Jobs's presentation of the iPad has shown any interest as of now in developing an app for the iPad.

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