Putting the spotlight on The Californian's e-edition

The Bakersfield Californian has kicked off a substantial months-long multimedia campaign to market the iPad and laptop/desktop versions of our e-edition, which is a digital replica of the printed newspaper. 

One of four billboard designs promoting The Bakersfield Californian's iPad app features popular regional destination Morro Rock as a backdrop.The campaign features print and online display ads, TV commercials (watch them above and below), digital billboards and bus wraps. The messages promote the idea of escaping with The Californian -- anywhere, anytime. I won't spill the beans on all the creative until it's all ready for prime time, but I will say there's a neat trick we'll be doing with the digital billboard. And the bus wraps will turn heads. 

I've written previously about our highly rated iPad app and how it's a perfect match for The Californian's tabloid format. We're finding that our e-edition subscribers are extremely loyal in reading daily and spending a sizable amount of time with each edition. 

Any why promote the e-edition instead of the daily newspaper or any of our other products? Because it's been a subscriber hit amid massive adoption of tablet computers and there's much more growth ahead in that space. As more of our customers migrate to tablets and laptops, we want to be there for them -- anywhere, anytime. 

And while the e-edition is currently a replica of the printed edition, we're tossing around ideas for content that would be exclusive or published first in the e-edition. And to quell those Kindle and Nook owners, yes, we're working on versions for those platforms as well. 

Stay tuned.