Over 1 million purchases in just 28 days places the iPad as Apple’s most successful product launch ever. No wonder Rupert Murdoch wants some of that business all to himself.

When the iPad first came out, some of the pay-for-content apps looked a bit steep. The Wall Street Journal app, for example, cost a user $3.99 a week compared to the $2.69 regular online and print fee. After the few months in action, WSJ owner Rupert Murdoch can’t help but boast about his 64,000 WJS app users. He adds: “Unlike the Kindle, we keep 100 percent of the revenue from the iPad.” Even if a good portion of the app downloaders are existing WSJ.com subscribers, that’s still not chump change!

There have been thousands of apps created since the launch (downloaded 12 million times, Apple says), many of them from mainstream media content providers looking to establish at least one digital medium where consumers must pay up first. The USA Today and The New York Times are set to release apps this summer and charge a weekly fee, and a series of magazines like Vanity Fair and The New Yorker have been jumping on board too.

Could this be the solution to mainstream media’s digital doldrums? We think so. This dramatic shift in motivation for app producers promises a steady income through loyal subscribers and a strong we-want-it-wherever-we-can customer base.

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