Apps vs. eBooks: Where can newsrooms and journalists make the most money?

How much time do you or your news organization spend developing apps? What’s your return on that investment, and by that I mean – how much money are you making on app sales and from direct advertising on those app platforms?

Now, how much are you spending on developing eBooks for your newsroom content? I’d be surprised to find a newsroom that’s spending even half of what its devoting to app development on eBooks. In fact, I have yet to find a major newsroom that devoted more than a token amount of time and money to eBook development. (If you’re in newsroom that is spending time building eBooks, please let me know. I’d love to tell your story on OJR.)

Here’s why you should consider amplifying your investment in eBook development. Here are the prices of the top 20 paid apps in the iOS app store, as of last night:

$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$2.99
$0.99
$0.99
$1.99
$1.99
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99

Now, here are the prices of the top 20 paid eBooks in Apple’s iBooks store, for comparison:

$9.99
$14.99
$12.99
$2.99
$12.99
$12.99
$0.99
$9.99
$12.99
$1.99
$12.99
$11.99
$14.99
$14.99
$12.99
$3.99
$14.99
$9.99
$12.99
$14.99

In which market would you rather try to make money?

Let’s sharpen the focus a bit. In the News category in the app store, most expensive paid app in the top 20 is Instapaper at $4.99. There is no News category in the iBooks store, but let’s use Politics & Current Events as the closest approximation. Of the top 20 paid eBooks in that category, 19 of the top 20 sell for $4.99 or more.

Clearly, the public is willing to – and does – pay more for content in eBooks than it does in apps. That fact should encourage any serious news business to take a serious look at eBooks.

But what about volume? That’s where I couldn’t find reliable data comparing sales in the app store versus sales of eBooks. But it’s clear from the pricing that a news organization would need to sell many times more apps than eBooks for apps to have better sales revenue, given the higher price points routinely supported in eBook stores.

There’s the possibility of ad revenue too, but I’ve yet to hear from any news organizations that are earning the several dollars per user on app ad revenue that they would need to in order to close the gap between app and eBook pricing. (And let’s not forget that a sharp businessperson could find a way to employ advertising in certain eBooks without killing consumer demand for the book, as well.)

And don’t forget the expense side. Outside development for both apps and eBooks can be expensive. But while writing an app can mean creating and compiling executable code, creating an eBook required no more tech skills than writing HTML then zipping some files. (Here’s our handy three-part do-it-yourself guide for publishing eBooks.) There’s no reason why a competent online publishing business – whether it be a large newsroom or a one-person shop, can’t publish eBooks in-house, keeping expenses to a minimum.

I’m not trying to dissuade you from developing apps – they can be an important part of your product mix in serving readers and customers. But I am trying to open your eyes to a paid content publishing option that too many news businesses are overlooking. If you’ve made a business case for app development, the business case for trying eBooks is much, much easier to make.

After all, apps are, literally, applications. They’re programs – the work of tech companies creating functionality for a market that wants to do something.

EBooks are content. They’re the work of content companies that create words and narratives for people who want information. Any special section, extended report or beloved series of 20,000 words or more than you create or have created for your newspaper or website can become an eBook. If you’re covering a geographic community, you should have an eBook guide to that community that you’re selling to travelers or people relocating to the area. If there’s a special event or sports team in your community that brings in visitors, you should publish a fresh edition of an eBook covering them each year. If you’re creating content, then why not leverage that content through the eBook market, as you do through the Web and other media?

In summary – eBooks sell for more than apps. They cost less to develop than apps. They’re content, not programming, so they’re a better match for the content companies in the news business.

So if you’re developing and marketing apps to expand your market, why aren’t you developing and marketing eBooks, too?