Mail’s iPad edition helps segment audience

The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday’s updated tablet edition will target a more upmarket audience than the respective print titles, says Mail Newspapers managing director Guy Zitter.

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Daily Mail to offer greater interactivity with its Mail Plus tablet edition.

A tablet edition of the Daily Mail called Mail Plus was readied as a partner for the launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire last month. This edition lacked interactivity but the new version of Mail Plus, set for release in mid-December for Apple and Android devices as well, will have enhanced functionality designed to benefit both readers and advertisers.

At a presentation to media agencies Zitter said: “What we are desperately trying to do here is evolve from a newspaper model to more of a brand – and evolve again.”

“Mail Plus will be slightly upmarket of the newspaper – the very nature of its audience {on tablets} will make it slightly upmarket. In the same way the Mail Online is slightly downmarket – that’s a popular platform.”

He added that the strategy gave the group “three very clear positions” in regard to audiences.

He also pointed out that unlike the model offered by other newspaper groups the Mail Plus tablet edition will not be bundled with a subscription for the print edition. Mail Plus will be £11.99 per month with a weekly and daily price yet to be decided.

He said that the reason was that bundled apps and print subscriptions are only counted once by the ABC audit of circulation.

Mail Plus will offer advertisers functionality such as 360 degree rotation on imagery, so, for instance, a whole hotel room or a full view of a car could be shown, and the opportunity for in-ad video content.

Advertisements in the print editions more than 100 cm will be carried as static ads in Mail Plus for free. Charges for interactive content are still being worked up.

The presentation also offered independent research to demonstrate a link between advertising in-paper and a greater propensity to visit the relevant brand’s website online.

The research also showed that print readers are more likely to go directly to an advertiser’s website rather than via Google.

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