HBL+ is a new weekly news magazine just for tablets from Hufvudstadsbladet, a Swedish language daily based in Helsinki, Finland. It offers premium journalism from the newspaper to a paying tablet audience.
The new product a web app built in HTML, using Drupal for the back end, Conmio for the front end. Currently it has been optimised for 10 inch tablets, said Lotta Holm, who does research and development for KSF Media, owner of HBL.
One editor and one layout journalist will be dedicated to the app, which will launch on 9 November. They will work closely with the rest of the newsroom, Holm said.
Each individual edition of the weekly magazine will be €2.99, said Kaj Ritala, product manager for digital media at HBL, but there will be attractive subscription offers and it will also be available bundled with a print subscription.
Because HBL+ is built on open-source platform Drupal, and the fact that it is a web app, means there are very low production costs, Ritala said, adding that the paper is expecting to break even quickly. It only needs 2,000 subscribers to break even.
For more information (in Swedish) see here.