Some of the biggest names in the media world came together to discuss the implications of tablet devices at the Big Tablet Debate on Friday.

The event, which was organised by News International and Haymarket, the publisher of Media Week and Campaign, covered a range of issues including the value of tablets to advertisers, whether they are “game changers” and what tablets mean for publishers.

Alex Hole, digital commercial director, News International; Nicholas Coleridge, managing director of Condé Nast; Robert Horler, chief executive of Aegis; Andrew Morley, vice president international marketing, Motorola; Simon Andrews , founder of mobile agency Addictive and Matthew Kershaw, content director at BBH, formed the panel.

The Big Tablet Debate coincided with the release of The Times’ digital numbers which revealed that the number of The Times and Sunday Times monthly digital subscribers has increased to more than 100,000. The figures also showed that The Times is downloaded onto an average of 35,000 iPads every day, an increase of 40 per cent since February. The average for The Sunday Times is 31,000, an increase of 41 per cent.

Apple released its original iPad device around 15 months ago and since then its competitors have been rapidly releasing their own tablet devices. Some leading industry figures believe tablets will fundamentally change the way people engage with content.

The panel discussed whether the tablet will change the way people consume media and what challenges tablets face in the current marketplace. 

Coleridge argued that the end of newspapers and magazines is not inevitable and that digital products can sit comfortably alongside their printed versions. He said: “It is statistically incorrect that young people don’t like paper. At Condé Nast we have the best of both worlds.”

Hole made the point that tablet penetration is low at present, and that for News International, user experience is the most crucial aspect of the company’s tablet strategy. He said: “Tablets have a different audience and therefore we have to create different content in order to engage this audience. Consumers have more choice and therefore we have to deliver beyond their expectations.”

Horler stated that the important issue for publishers was monetisation. He argued that “a blogger won’t do a better job reporting on the Libya situation than The Times.” Hole responded by saying that News International “is now generating more income than under the old model. Publishers are able to monetise their products on tablets more easily.”

The panel agreed that in order to monetise content, it was crucial to make it easy for consumers to make payments.

On the issue of advertising on tablets, Hole said that it was “incumbent on publishers to prove the effectiveness of advertising on tablets.” Kershaw said that tablet advertising was “lazy” and “inadequate”. But Morley believed that tablets provide the “opportunity to view things differently. He said: “It is important to compete, innovate and push the boundaries.”

The panel agreed to varying degrees that the tablet was a game changer, but they all acknowledged that for tablets to succeed they needed to sit alongside existing media, and that work had to be done to unlock their advertising potential.