Illustration by Iain Alec Bain

Updated October 13, 2010 5:40 p.m.

The ground was shaking around Parliament Hill and Ian Conrad was puzzled. He thought it might be the construction equipment nearby, but he decided to check the Twitter feed on his iPhone and discovered an earthquake had shaken parts of Ontario and Quebec. When people began walking out of the Parliament buildings, the 26-year-old web designer realized news was breaking and sent his eyewitness report to his hometown paper, Halifax’s The Chronicle-Herald. Weeks earlier he’d been part of the development team that designed the paper’s iPhone and iPad applications, which allow users to submit story tips and photos. Conrad snapped a picture of the scene on Parliament Hill and within minutes, his shot was at the top of the paper’s homepage. 

Readers armed with smartphones increasingly want to be a part of the newsgathering process, and publications are trying to make that possible. “You’ve got your device in your hand and you can send us updates, send us a photo,” says Sheryl Grant, manager of strategic innovation at The Chronicle-Herald. Of course, apps aren’t just for contributing to the news because the way Canadians get their news is changing. Matt Frehner, The Globe and Mail’s mobile editor, says, “The growth we’re seeing in mobile traffic suggests that it’s going to eclipse website readership in as few as four years.”

BlackBerrys, iPhones and iPads let people consume content with their fingertips, and apps give publications an opportunity to redesign how they package content. But Alfred Hermida , a journalism professor at the University of British Columbia, says so far most apps just put hard copy on small screens. “I think what happens when you have these new formats,” he says, “is you tend to base what you do on what you’ve already done.”

To their credit, though, newspapers and magazines are trying. The Globe released its app in February 2009, and its social network function gives users the ability to share their favourite content on Facebook and Twitter. Its iPhone app has been downloaded 250,000 times, and in June the paper had 20 million page views on its BlackBerry app, iPhone app and mobile website combined. On July 25, the Globe unveiled its iPad app, and Frehner says the tablet makes reading long features and viewing photo galleries a better experience. 

Photograph by Michelle Medford

While the Globe moved quickly, the Toronto Star waited and carefully designed its app, eventually releasing one for the iPhone in July. It quickly became one of Canada’s most popular news apps. Other newspapers are still planning. Duncan Clark, the National Post’s executive editor of digital media, says the paper is in the midst of “development and exploration” and expects to have an app for the iPhone and the iPad before the end of the year. 

Canada’s magazines also recognize the growing importance of apps on mobile devices. Beginning in 2008, Rogers Publishing released apps for Canadian Business and Maclean’s. These apps give users the option of customizing content, so their mobile homepages have only their favourite sections. 

Relationship and marriage magazine 2 For Couples released its iPad app in early August and now users are flipping through high-resolution digital editions in eight countries, according to editor-in-chief Neil Morton. “We’re just taking the experience of the magazine and trying to make it as interactive as possible, and we’re able to do that in one place,” he says. 

Even local publications, such as Halifax Magazine, see the value of a digital presence. Editor Trevor Adams says although Halifax Magazine has a readership of only 10,000, a “vibrant minority” enthusiastically requested an app. One for the iPhone came out in August. “We just have to remind ourselves constantly that a magazine is more than your printed edition,” he says. “Everyone is learning as they go with this.”

Although Hermida says it’s good so many outlets offer apps, Canadian publications need to be updating them regularly. Former Globe communities editor Mathew Ingram goes further. He thinks newspapers and magazines are missing an opportunity to innovate, saying, “Many of them, I think, are just as they were with the web, behind the curve substantially.” 

Since smartphones and tablets are personal, Hermida and Ingram insist, publications should be looking at different ways of personalizing their apps. For example, the British newspaper The Guardian gives its users the option of selecting their favourite stories, columnists and sections of the paper to create an individual version of the news. 

Flipboard is another example of an inventive way an app can present personalized content. The app pulls in information from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and generates a digital magazine composed of content shared between the user and his or her friends. Flipboard isn’t associated with any print publication, and Ingram asks, “Why didn’t a newspaper come up with something like the Flipboard app?”

Although the Globe’s developer, Spreed Inc., says its content engineers can put apps together in two hours, newspapers and magazines insist they’re not rushing to create new versions or develop apps for every new smartphone. “It’s a question of scale,” says Frehner. “You have a newsroom and you have only so many people. I don’t know whether it’s feasible for The Globe and Mail to have an entire editorial staff dedicated to every single device.”

Although Ingram says it’s “farcical” that publications aren’t devoting more resources to mobile development, he understands the challenge they face. “Because they still have to keep doing the newspaper and at the same time try to build this new thing,” he says, “it’s not easy.”