AP announces subscription app for iPad

The digital age has been painful for newspapers because the Internet made it possible to publish without a printing press and hatched less expensive advertising alternatives. The upheaval has contributed to sharp declines in print subscriptions and the advertising sales that account for most of newspapers' revenue.

The situation has prompted scores of publishers to consider erecting toll booths to get into their Web sites. But few newspapers have done it because they fear they would lose advertising revenue if online readers spurned them for free sites.

Now, both news and technology executives sense the digital landscape is shifting again as a growing number of consumers buy increasingly sophisticated mobile phones that have created a new distribution platform.

This emerging generation of handheld devices could produce a "digital do-over" for newspaper and magazine publishers as they try to avoid repeating the mistakes they made when graphical Web browsers started to disrupt things 15 years ago.

"For publishers, it is likely the defining moment," Curley said.

If this view is right, people would depend less on Google and other search engines to find news. Instead, they would embrace applications that give them more control to select which types of information and entertainment they want fed to their "smart" phones, electronic reading devices such as the Kindle and more powerful "multi-touch" devices such as the iPad.

"Multi-touch experiences will take us all to a new place," Curley said.

But it might not be a better place if the iPad doesn't turn out to be as revolutionary or popular as Apple's iPods and iPhones. Or readers could simply use the Web browsers built into computer tablets to peruse the Internet's free news sites.

The AP already has been mining digital opportunities with a mobile phone application that has been downloaded more than 3 million times. Except for an unsuccessful attempt to charge for a version of the app on BlackBerry devices, the AP has given away its mobile product, which includes stories, photos and video. The AP has not disclosed how much ad revenue the service produces.

Selling the news directly to consumers is something new for the AP, a not-for-profit cooperative founded in 1846. The AP subsists on fees paid by newspapers, broadcasters and commercial customers, including Internet-only outlets such as Yahoo Inc. and MSNBC.

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