A customized, constantly-updating newspaper used to be the stuff of

science fiction. Now, thanks to tablet devices, there are several, such

as Livestand, a news app launched by Yahoo!, Editions, created by

AOL, and Flipboard, which Google tried to buy last year. These

corporate giants aim to cash with on the desperation of traditional news 【M1】________

publishers. A study last month by the Pew Research Center found that,

less than two years after the iPad went on sale, 11% of American adults

now own a tablet and more than half of this group read news on them 【M2】________

each day. They are more avidly news consumers than those without 【M3】________

tablets, and for long articles they prefer their tablets both to

ordinary computers and to print.

For news outlets facing dwindling print circulations and meagre

online advertising rates, this is glimmer of hope. Yet turning this 【M4】________

readership into avenue is tricky. Not all publishers can afford to build 【M5】________

their own tablet apps. For those that can, readers are somewhat ready 【M6】_________

to pay for subscriptions than on the web; advertising rates are six to ten

times higher than online. But it is not yet clear how many readers will

make the switch. And for publishers without an app, tablet users are just

like other web users: worth very little money.

Flipboard and its rivals let users create a personalized digital

magazine from a mix of sources, which can include magazines,

newspapers, blogs and articles posting by their contacts on Facebook or 【M7】_________

Twitter. On the web, similar “aggregator” sites have a bad name as

freeloaders where create no content of their own. And the app versions 【M8】_________

have been of dubious benefit thus far to publishers, which must provide

their stories free in turn for the vague hope of getting more readers. But 【M9】_________

compared with a website cluttered in with links and ads of low tastes, 【M10】________

the apps are clean, stylish and nice to use. And some have started

carrying glossy, high-end ads and sharing the revenue with publishers.

【M2】