For many people, the State of the Union address that they truly care about will happen at about 9 PM tonight. It will take over all of the channels on your television and will have a lot of standing ovations from one half of the room or the other.

The "State of the Union" address that I've been looking forward to however, is the one that will come around 1 PM this afternoon. Apple has set this time aside to make (what is speculated to be) another "landmark" change to its product line. This year's buzz is that Apple will FINALLY be unveiling the much-rumored tablet computer. Said to be a cross between an iPhone and a MacBook, if the rumors are true, this piece of equipment could be a real game changer ... especially for AnnArbor.com

Originally thought to be a challenger to Amazon's Kindle and it's hold on the digital reader market, this new tablet is rumored to be able to do what the Kindle does, and a whole lot more. Early speculators have said that they believe Apple will introduce a new marketplace (much like iTunes and the iPod work together) where owners of this new tablet will be able to purchase and download a number of things, from books, to video games, to television shows, to their daily newspaper.

Did you catch that last one? This is the part that I think could be interesting.

Also, let me take this time to specifically say that I have no part in the planning/decision making/important things that happen at AnnArbor.com. The following thoughts are held solely by me, and in no way indicate future plans for the direction of AnnArbor.com online or print versions.

With that being said, this is how I can foresee the future of newspapers in the increasingly digital landscape. Much like the music industry was when the iPod came out, the newspaper industry is in a new internet-driven world that it is trying to make sense of. The music industry was dealing with the emergence of Napster and the increasing presence of MP3s in people's everyday lives. The industry didn't know how to make music profitable anymore, and was coming across as the villain in many consumer's minds. Along came Apple and iTunes. iTunes and the iPod became the piece of technology that the music industry was looking for. The industry now had a legitimate, and trusted platform on which to sell digital music AND charge money for it. Music was once again profitable (to an extent) and consumers no longer saw the music industry as bullies. After all, what's 99 cents for a song we like?

Today's newspaper landscape can draw some strong comparisons, and there is no better place to see it than here in Ann Arbor. For years and years, the daily newspaper came to your doorstep each morning (or evening) and delivered your news to be enjoyed alongside your coffee and toast (and cigarette if you go way back). Over the years, the old model of the newspaper became outdated. It no longer could get you your news first. By the time you had a paper, you had already seen it on TV, discussed it online, and tweeted it to death. On top of that, the emergence of Web sites like CraigsList made it harder to make money with the classifieds section. As we've seen here, some markets are beginning to make changes to the old newspaper model. Some ditch print all together, some do a mix of print and online and some just decide to shut their doors. So how can this (rumored) announcement make a difference to AnnArbor.com? You're about to enter a scenario filled almost entirely with rumors, pieces of hearsay and inventiveness on my part.

Picture this: Much like iTunes, Apple unveils a new digital marketplace tailored exclusively to print content (this could also be a section of iTunes, much like they've done with Apps for the iPhone). Along with their new tablet, consumers can now subscribe to their favorite newspaper to arrive every morning (much like an RSS feed that many use already.) Every morning with your coffee, you can fire up you iTablet (or whatever they call it) and read a full color PDF version of AnnArbor.com. Since you are a paid subscriber to the AnnArbor.com "Morning Edition", you have a paper waiting for you when you wake up (delivered to your digital porch). It would read like a paper, you could turn the page like a paper, but it would be completely digital. This could return papers like AnnArbor.com to a place where they would be able to put out a "print" paper everyday, and still make enough money to thrive and grow.

In my eyes, this could really be the missing piece for the newspaper industry that it is looking for. I know that none of this has been confirmed. I know that this is all based on me guessing about things. I know that in a few hours this post may be COMPLETELY off base and pulled from the site. I also know that a lot of Apple has been built on the question, "What If?," and I guess this was mine.

Kyle Stuef is a marketing consultant who blogs on Internet/technology trends, and being a young professional in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor for The Deuce and AnnArbor.com

He can be reached at:

kstuef@gmail.com

@KyleStuef

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