NEW YORK ? A Meredith executive at the NYC Mobile Forum last week said that company research found that women are most likely to use tablets at home and the device works well with its overall content and brand.

The panelists participated in the Print Going Mobile panel and discussed the importance of driving magazine readers to the mobile landscape. Panelists included mobile technology company Kargo, Meredith Corporation?s Fitness magazine, Time Inc.?s Entertainment Weekly and Reader?s Digest.

?We found research that women are most likely to use tablets at home, and because we are a women?s publication, tablets work well with our content and brand,? said Christie Griffin, digital director at Fitness magazine, New York.

?Tablets are a lifestyle device, which matches Meredith?s lifestyle-based publications,? she said.

Reader habits
According to Ms. Griffin, 40 percent of Fitness magazine?s readers do not have a gym membership, so tablet-specific, at-home content works well for readers, including fitness and recipe articles.

However, it is hard to balance mobile efforts with print editions when it comes to monetizing mobile.

?Subscribers feel cheated when they?ve already paid for print edition and don?t want to pay more for the tablet version,? Ms. Griffin said.

?It?s also hard to discover the digital edition in app stores if users don?t know the brand,? she said.

In the future, Ms. Griffin sees HTML 5 as the key link to mobile.

?HTML 5 is already implemented on the Web site and will eventually be used to tie all the mobile platforms together,? Ms. Griffin said.

Unique user experience
According to Harry Kargman, founder/CEO of Kargo, New York, one of the main challenges that publishers face is trying to draw readers into mobile, which means more than just dropping print and Web content into mobile platforms.

?It?s not just about moving contextual content over; the applications have to be consistent with the brand?s theme but also have a unique mobile draw to them,?  Mr. Kargman said.

Kargo worked with hip-hop magazine XXL to create an app that engaged  readers with what the magazine is most known for ? establishing hip-hop artists and maintaining a high level of credibility in the music industry.

The XXL Magazine app lets users record 30-second freestyle raps into their smartphones and upload each session to XXLMag.com for $1, as well as create an artist page on the Web site.

Web users could then vote for their favorite rappers.

?It was a novel way to use the brand?s mission with a monetizing aspect included,? Mr. Kargman said.

Build on a brand
One key way to drive magazine readers from a print version to a mobile model is to expand on a popular part of the magazine, per Seth Silverstein, director of business operations at Entertainment Weekly, New York.

?Entertainment Weekly launched the Must List app for the iPad last year by building on a popular department of the magazine that our readers already identified with,? Mr. Silverstein.

The Must List section in the magazine is a weekly round-up of editors? picks for the best in entertainment, including movies, television shows, music and books.

In the magazine, each pick gets a two to three sentence blurb, and the company used mobile to elevate the existent content.

?The app seemed like a natural way to take the reasoning behind the magazine?s content and connect it with the Web,? Mr. Silverstein said.

Users can access multimedia content on the app with editorial buttons on the app, including movie trailers and music tracks.

Entertainment Weekly launched the iPad app right after the device?s arrival on the market, which has both pros and cons according to Mr. Silverstein.

?We learned that it?s important to give yourself enough time when developing an app,? Mr. Silverstein said.

?You get one shot with consumers when rolling out an app, and it?s important that they have a good impression right off the bat,? he said.

Founding message
For Reader?s Digest, mobile is an extension of the magazine?s founding mission from the 1920?s ? to aggregate news and content into a single magazine.

?Our foundation in curation makes mobile a natural launching pad for our brand,? said Kevin O?Keefe, senior brand director at Reader?s Digest, New York.

?We also redesigned the front-of-the-book departments of the magazine when we launched our tablet versions to make the transition between print and mobile easier for readers,? he said.

According to Mr. O?Keefe, although the magazine?s demographic does not seem like the ideal target for mobile at first glance, the publication has seen the readers jump more on board with mobile than they expected.

?Tablet users are not as young as you might think,? Mr. O?Keefe said

?We?ve seen a high number of our readers adapting to mobile, and we plan to follow them in the future on as many devices as possible,? he said. 

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York