For newspaper publishers and newspaper readers, iPad apps tend to be nice to have but not especially important. Given the choice of rich newspaper apps like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, I actually opt for the browser versions over the apps: I can see a lot more at once, they’re updated more often, and they load faster.

But I’ve found that newspaper apps for “lite” newspapers are much better. USA Today’s headline and short story format is perfect for the iPad. The Washington Post (not such a lite paper) has a great iPad app, too.

In early December, The San Diego Union-Tribune — a truly lite newspaper but with good local news and features — also launched an iPad app. The result is vastly superior to the print and browser version of the newspaper. More than 11,000 downloads have already taken place.

The U-T’s iPad launch coincides with the elevation of digital chief Mike Hodges to president and COO, and today, a rebranding of the newspaper company, which recently changed hands, to U-T San Diego. The new name also does away with the dated “Sign On San Diego” city guide moniker.

An announcement on the company’s website notes that “We will now use one company name and logo on all of our media products and communications: U-T San Diego. This change marks a new era in our company’s history. It will help us unify our print and digital products under a single brand with a clear and consistent expectation of quality. SignOnSanDiego.com is now UTSanDiego.com, to match the nameplate of the newspaper and our newly released iPad app.”

Hodges, a digital real estate marketing vet prior to joining Freedom Communications and then The U-T, has been responsible for several new revenue initiatives. These include a heavy emphasis on the local daily deal, bolstered by the acquisition of Discover SD, an events guide and deals platform for a younger demographic.

Hodges notes that the iPad app was specifically designed to have an entertainment orientation. “The primary time that people are looking at it is after 6 p.m., when people want to lean back after dinner and watch TV. They’re often reading the app as well,” he says.

The app, designed by MindGruve Interactive, is geo-enabled for traffic and Surfline surf reports. It features a FlipBoard-like news page, along with dropdown “sections” for easy access. The sections include a full graphic on the Daily Deal — it shows up very well. It also prominently highlights features that were obscured in print and on the website, including arts, photos and videos.

Notably, in an effort to keep it simple, The U-T App doesn’t offer newspaper content such as comics, a television programming guide, letters to the editor, user-generated content or local news — although Hodges says a major local initiative will launch in early January. Other Phase 2 items will include more in-depth, iPad-only content. It might also include more localized weather (the temperature in the San Diego region varies by as much as 15 degrees from one area to the next).

Much has been made of the iPad’s appeal for advertisers. The charter advertiser for The U-T’s free phase is Cadillac. When the app goes to a premium model next quarter after an introductory period, sponsorship will be available for multiple sponsors on a premium basis.

Pricing for the app, however, is still being finalized. When it is introduced during Q1, there is likely to be an a la carte three month subscription for users who just want the app, especially those outside the San Diego area. My guess is it might be priced in the neighborhood of $5 a month. But there will also be bundles for people who want seven-day delivery or three-day weekend delivery.

We’ll see whether The U-T pulls the trigger on a firewall for the app. Several other publishers have announced plans to charge but haven’t done so.

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Just in time for holiday search, shop and feast, both restaurant recommendation site Urbanspoon and local reviews hub Yelp are ramping up their mobile efforts.

Urbanspoon’s updated iPhone application adds a new layer of recommendation capability by allowing users to not only rate and review restaurant locations, but also actual menu items. Reviewers can snap, upload and share photos of their preferred dishes, with accompanying recommendations, directly to the site … as well as browse for menu items at nearby eateries.

Urbanspoon Rez, the online reservation services that competes directly with OpenTable, will be integrated into the new app in select markets (L.A., New York, Seattle).

Urbanspoon: Rating Menu Items

Meanwhile, Yelp is taking its popular local reviews platform to iPad. The app allows for all the expected user engagements (writing and socially sharing reviews, bookmarking businesses). The new “dish”: photo search results (with connected ratings and reviews) that take advantage of the screen size and resolution of the iPad screen. The double column format posts search results along the left edge, with the right dedicated to visual aesthetics such as maps and photos.

Yelp: Photo Search Results

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The release of the Samsung Galaxy Tab will give the iPad some competition. It reminds us that the rise of tablets has been positioned as a savior for publishing, including newspapers and magazines.

Theoretically, at least, tablets can process incremental per-copy and subscription sales via their download function. Utilizing their larger, touch-screen capabilities, they could also enable appealing interactive ads. The Galaxy Tab is expected to sell 1 million units by the end of 2010, while Apple has so far sold 7 million iPads.

Of course, we are equally intrigued by their potential for bundling in transactional capabilities. This includes everything from the sale of music, event tickets and even promotional giveaways of consumer packaged goods. All of these can become purchased “apps.”

Indeed, a successful billing vehicle has become something of a holy grail for e-commerce, partly driving the $1.2 billion sale of Skype to eBay in 2005, and the development of other phone-based commerce since then. But tablets, which have additional capabilities beyond the mobile “on the go” experience, might have additional potential.

A lot comes down to the success of a tablet newsstand that local (i.e., geographically zoned and often smaller) publishers could work with. Currently, for the iPad at least, the TuneKit format has been focused largely on large publishers (and most of these deals haven’t been consummated). Consequently, the only recourse that publishers have had is to build custom applications for the App Store — an expensive and iffy proposition, especially for smaller, local-oriented publishers.

While other publishers are often invited to participate on custom platforms, they haven’t offered ideal solutions. The New York Times platform, for instance, can only publish that day’s slate of stories. It can’t package “issues” containing historical content, pay-per-view support or tie-in to marketplace verticals such as classifieds and business directories.

One of the vendors that has focused on a better solution is Matchbin, the Utah-based CMS builder. It has been working on a newsstand solution that solves these issues for its customers, which include major newspaper publishers such as Freedom Communications, community weeklies and ethnic media, such as ImpreMedia and World Journal. Matchbin represents 850 media titles and services at this point.

Using Matchbin, publishers can choose to support subscriptions (including options for pricing, time period and/or number of issues). They can also choose to sell by single issue only. In the works are support services for dynamic user-interest matching, classifieds integration, vertical product integration and news wires.

The Matchbin Newsstand supports all content formats — HTML 5, Javascript, CSS, MP3, h.264. It also offers sales of every kind of content from 50-cent newspapers to $5 children’s books to $5,000 trade reports. Publishers can either develop custom layouts in popular formats such as DreamWeaver or iWeb, or send their XML-formatted raw stories to Matchbin, which will reproduce them in an assortment of stock templates.

While the Newsstand has been developed for iPad, Matchbin is working on Android, as well as solutions for desktop browsing, purchase and reading. The company also has its eyes on supporting BlackBerry.

All of this — coupled with subscription pay-per-view revenues — means that pubs will now be truly free to start shifting their expectations from print to digital, notes CTO Miles Romney.

Another newsstand vendor in the marketplace is Next Issue Media, which will open its consumer-oriented digital newsstand early next year. The service, however, is entirely oriented toward Android.

Matchbin CTO Miles Romney is giving a special demonstration of Matchbin’s Newsstand at ILM:10, which takes place Dec. 7-9 in Santa Clara.

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Mobile ads already show greater engagement than their online counterparts across several notable metrics, including brand awareness and purchase intent. Now, the latest research from mobile video ad network Rhythm demonstrates that mobile video ads are far stickier than online video ads, both in initial clickthrough rate (CTR) and retention.

The report studies ads served across Rhythm’s publisher network on the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android and other devices. Highlights include:

– Mobile video ads retain at 94 percent for the first 10 seconds of the commercial message, as opposed to 81 percent for online video. The retention disparity over 60 seconds is similar (68 percent mobile, 56 percent online). Furthermore, more than 87 percent of pre-roll video ads are watched in their entirety on mobile devices.

– CTRs for video ads, as expected, are significantly higher on mobile than online. However, CTRs varying widely by the format of the mobile ad. Full-page mobile ads featuring video were clicked through at a staggering 10.3 percent, nearly double the CTR for full-page mobile ads lacking video components.

– IPad continues to support its premium CPMs with metrics that qualify it as a high interaction and engagement device. CTRs for pre-roll video ads are double Android and iPhone and well ahead of iPod Touch as well.

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Millennial Media — the largest independent mobile ad network, reaching 63 million U.S. mobile Web users — has published its August Mobile Mix report. The report covers impression activity and trends across its network, encompassing device hardware, operating system software and applications.

Highlights from the latest release include:

– Android OS smartphone impression share climbed 7 percent month over month, capturing 26 percent of the U.S. smartphone OS mix. Only Apple is ahead of Android with 48 percent impression share. Apple OS, however, dropped 7 percent from the July report. The results mark the continuation of Apple’s summer slide, as its July impression share score was lower than June. RIM placed third in this category with 19 percent of smartphone impression share. Surprisingly, its relative share grew by 3 percent from July.

– Zooming out, overall smartphone impression share improved from 48 percent to 51 percent, distancing both feature phones (33 percent) and connected devices (16 percent) and serving as a microcosm of the hastening adoption of smartphones.

– In terms of ad requests, Android also gained ground, surging 39 percent month over month while Apple remained flat. The continued rise now brings Android’s explosive growth in this area to 996 percent since the beginning of 2010.

– Apple’s growth spurt occurred with iPad, where ad requests were up 76 percent from July.

– Among device impressions, Apple still holds a commanding lead at more than 28 percent, with Samsung (15 percent), Motorola (14 percent) and RIM (11 percent) trailing. Apple’s iPhone is the dominant branded device at almost 28 percent, with the Motorola Droid rising to a distant second at nine percent. BlackBerry’s Curve checks in at 6 percent.

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Michael Zimbalist, who runs R&D at The New York Times Co., told Inman Real Estate Connect attendees in San Francisco yesterday that the rise of social networks has spearheaded a very real shift from “the paradigm of publishing to the paradigm of communicating.”

“The consumer is squarely at the center,” said Zimbalist, noting that there are now more global users of social networks than even e-mail. “Time spent using e-mail has completely flattened out.”

The new paradigm has led to a change in overall behavior, with users now active creators of content. “Every minute, 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube,” he said. Mobile is also integrated into everything.

The implications for the publishing and software industries are that they have to plan for multipurpose devices and services and incredibly rapid innovation. “We are seeing a Cambrian explosion of evolution,” said Zimbalist. Many things are coming up, and some don’t make it.

Features that have been seized upon include search with voice, location, image recognition, multi-touch, augmented reality and “gestural navigation” such as Wii game devices. To stay abreast, it is critical that publishers and software producers work to sync everything at all times.

Regarding the iPad, Zimbalist took note of an audience member’s disappointment with The New York Times’ initial iPad app, which is just a “best of” product (I like it, actually). A new premium version will come out soon. Addressing rumors that it will be priced as much as $360 a year, Zimbalist only joked that users will “definitely pay more” than they do for The Wall Street Journal’s iPad app.

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Citysearch has debuted “cityseries,” a new digital “best of” magazine for the iPad that allows users in key cities to quickly find “best” bars, shopping, spas, breakfast and other top categories.

The attractive online magazine, which will be promoted on other iPad sites, relies on Citysearch’s editorial staff and combines reviews with business profile information. Initial monthly editions have been launched in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Seattle.

What’s especially unique is that Citysearch combs its coupons database and presents “popover” coupons that appear when the iPad is held horizontally, below the text. Users can either save the coupons to their photo albums or fling away the coupons with their fingers — iPad/iPhone/iPod touch style — before continuing. Currently, there are five on a page. There are no additional charges to advertisers for inclusion.

It isn’t really clear what users will do if they save the coupons. Show it to the merchant? Confirm discounts via word of mouth? E-mail it to themselves and print it out? But they do represent a unique touch screen advertising option we hadn’t seen before.

Note: This post has been updated to reflect Citysearch’s fix of the coupons.

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Wired on the iPad, via All Things D

Next month, Apple’s iPad comes out (and I will buy one). But what will be the impact of iPads and tablets from other companies on traditional media? Many are considering it to be the new magazine form factor. In theory, the iPad would make online ads compelling, and better enable digital subscriptions and a la carte buys. Wired Magazine, for one,  has been showing off a good-looking prototype. I highly recommend this video from The Wall Street Journal’s All Things D site.

Newspapers will look great, too. Look at The New York Times’ demo. My guess, however, is that the iPad’s impact on newspapers’ bottom line will be marginal for several years — and then, it may be too late. While the iPad should have excellent introductory sales, most sales will likely be low-end units without communications, so their usage will be mostly home and coffee shop based. Low-end units, limited to Wi-Fi Internet, are $499. Wireless Communications adds $130, plus $30 a month. Wi-Fi-only won’t provide a big lift to newspapers, because it doesn’t get the product onto commuter trains.

Newspaper companies, of course, are better positioned to participate in the mobile revolution than a year ago by virtue of their vertical properties, such as Classified Ventures’ Cars.com and Apartments.com. Both are “on the go” media sites that allow users to get information on a 24/7 basis, but more importantly, while they are out and about shopping for their category.

Other newspaper niche sites, like The Envelope from the LA Times, bring newspapers into an entirely new domain with the addition of online App games based on news and entertainment. These might ultimately play a role in the transformation of newspapers.

For now, I’m not counting on significant advertising or circulation revenues to develop for newspapers directly because of their investments in tablet devices, or mobile generally.

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As promised, here are the “day 2″ thoughts on the fate of the iPad. Obviously, lots of talk about the device this week — whether it’s a viable device, whether it’s a Kindle killer, etc. The former question is more important and the answer is yes.

The User Take

The timing is right as touch screens have assimilated into the mainstream. The “lean back” nature of the device makes it perfect for reading or watching video on the couch; the size makes it suitable for a kitchen device; and the portability + 10-hour battery make it a no brainer for travelers and commuters (there are well-covered technical limitations, but to focus on the big picture … ).

Besides form factor, the 140,000 iPhone apps compatible with the device on day 1, give it an extra boost. This is especially true for iPhone owners who have spent time and money building app libraries. The timing is also right for Apple’s content deals, as newspapers and other industries are hoping for iTunes help, a la music industry.

Will it fit? In other words, can Apple pull off a third device class between laptop and smartphone? I believe yes. We’re too early in mobile device lifespans to discount a device class. The same “in-between device” logic made against the iPad can be used to argue that the smartphone itself lies “in between” a dumb phone and an iPad-like device.

Don’t assume smartphones have “won” yet as a device category. With still relatively low penetration of mobile devices, the market can still adopt form factors on either end that do smartphones’ hybrid functions better (an ongoing debate). Pan back: Again, it’s still early and the market has made few decisive judgments.

The Advertiser Take

The other interesting angle here is advertising. Like user acclimation to mobile, advertiser demand levels have likewise risen for the many reasons we talk about here daily. The iPad gives the growing ecosystem of in-app advertising a boost by increasing usage, traffic and ad coverage — a function of inventory and screen size.

In this light, it makes Apple’s Quattro acquisition that much greater, as we speculated. Quattro will likely be positioned as the preferred ad network that is integrated with the SDK workflow for app developers. Meanwhile other major mobile ad networks have announced support for the iPad app format (same SDK with option for iPad optimization via more pixels).

Apps aside, it also makes mobile Web advertising a bit more interesting. One question is whether this will be mobile advertising, or is it the same ads you see when browsing via laptop? The answer is both: The iPad renders the “real Web” but does so through the mobile Safari Web browser.

This means that it doesn’t read Flash ads (Apple is likely awaiting broader adoption of HTML 5 among other reasons), and that certain ad networks (like Google) differentiate to a certain degree which ads are seen on mobile browsers. So it can be seen as a mobile browsing experience to a certain degree. As such, it will bring more users and inventory to the mobile web.

No One Really Knows Yet

Like the reverberation throughout the tech media and blogosphere over the past 2 days, this is mostly speculation. The market is yet to react, and the device’s true use cases and killer apps are yet to be seen. But judging by the rapid fire rollouts of the iPhone and other past Apple products, you can bet to see a lot more from this device that hasn’t even been mentioned yet.

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Minutes ago, the fabled iPad was unveiled by Steve Jobs at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. An exciting moment: I’m at my desk constantly hitting refresh on the Engadget live blog coverage to get details.

Though I’ve kept an open ear to the pre-launch frenzy, I mostly avoided covering it here because the dial was already turned up way too high for a device that no one had seen.

We heard lots of speculation. Based simply on the law of large numbers (and some leaks), a few on-target calls are likely to result from thousands of speculating analysts, bloggers and reporters.

Here’s what turned out to be on-target:

• Name: iPad
• Touch screen device that resembles a larger iPhone/iPod touch
• Device built for portability of iPhone but larger screen of a MacBook
• Apps-centric interface for home screen navigation (though customizable)
• Accelerometer-controlled dual mode landscape and portrait
• Full capacitive multi-touch display
• 10 hours of battery life
• 9.7 inch display, 0.5 inches thin, 1.5 pounds
• Wi-Fi 802.11n & Bluetooth 2.1
• Available in 16, 32 and 64 GB Flash storage capacity
• Like iPhone, Syncs with PC via USB (adapter required)
• Also like iPhone, mobile connectivity is Wi-Fi plus 3G dual mode on some models
• Deal with AT&T for $29.99 for unlimited data ($14.99 for 250MB). Compares with average wireless broadband access for laptops (via dongle) of about $60.
• Price: starts at $499 and goes up to $829, based on a matrix of options:

Additional specs:

• iTunes and YouTube HD built in
• Docking station available for keyboard & desktop setup
• Photo viewing/sharing showcased as a central use, along with calendar, e-mail
• Web browsing is also central component, employing what looks like a larger version of mobile Safari
• Google Maps and Street View showcased in Jobs’ demo; so much for Bing rumors (for now)
• Video capabilities showcased; lots of power under the hood with a 1GHz Apple A4 chip
• Environmentally friendly (arsenic and mercury free)
• Can run all iPhone apps (now up to 140,000)
• Additional support for larger screen now included in iPhone SDK for developers to optimize apps for iPad (optional)
• More robust gaming apps showcased for this additional capability: partnership with EA will yield many games
• Brushes — capacitive touch-based sketching app will be powerful tool for graphic designers
• As expected, device built for reading newspaper: NY Times example showcased
• iBooks app is built in eReader with Kindle-like “e-ink” (ePub format)
• Online bookstore looks to be an offshoot of iTunes and includes partnerships with Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Penguin and others (sounds textbook-heavy … student target market?)
• iWorks productivity suite rebuilt for the iPad (again, likely a student play here)
• Device will begin shipping in 60 days for non-3G models and 90 days for 3G models

Jobs ended the presentation by stressing that more than 75 million people already know how to use this product. In other words, the design is built on the interface and mobility of the iPhone and iPod Touch (also interesting that we get to hear the previously undisclosed number of iPhones and iPod touches shipped).

This is Jobs’ preemptive answer to the question of whether the company can pull off a third class of products between mobile device and laptop. My gut feeling is yes. Apple is a market maker. Period. This is yet another game changer from Cupertino.

More thoughts to come over the coming hours and years.

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