NPR creating new iPad-friendly website

However, Kinsey Wilson, senior vice president and general manager of NPR Digital Media, told Poynter that the app was like a "fixed-price meal, with fewer options aimed at creating a rich overall experience" as opposed to an "a la carte menu" in which the diner can choose from a wide range of choices, when speaking of the iPad-friendly site.

While the NPR iPad app will offer a self-contained experience with fewer choices and fewer pictures, the iPad site will offer a user-controlled experience. Interestingly enough, it does not seem like their iPad app, which will be offered for free, offers any advantages. If the experience is better with the actual website, what incentive do users have to download their app?

Through a post on NPR's portal, Wilson said that the "NPR website will get an experience that is optimized for the device" with features such as the "NPR audio player" given greater visibility and adapted to the iPad.

Like the iPhone app for the NPR, the NPR iPad app will prominently feature public radio streams and on-demand programming, as well as reading content.

The fact that Apple's iPad does not support Adobe's software originally presented an obstacle because much of NPR's content uses a flash-based audio player. In fact, Apple computers have had problems with Flash and Apple's decision to leave out such an important feature of content struck many experts as cavalier.

However, the website developers are working with HTML5 to overcome that problem and to make audio controls "more convenient and more persistent."

According to Wilson, the iPad is an ideal platform for NPR's audio content and developing content for it has been simple because its main website was redesigned last year.

NPR joins a host of other news organizations preparing their websites for the launch of the iPad. Kafka from Media Memo says the Wall Street Journal will allow visitors to see an iPad-specific, flash-free page, but deeper content, like an interactive graph within the website, may be impossible for users with iPads to see.

With 152,000 iPads sold in three days, and many more expected to sell before its launch on April 3rd, it is no wonder news organizations are rushing to get their websites iPad-ready as soon as they can. Even though some software glitches may be solved in a timely manner, most newspaper versions for the iPad are still just concepts and this would mean users would have to wait, as well as newspaper publishers, to reap the benefits of the iPad.


Sources: Poynter, Media Memo, NPR