• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 11, 2011

Digital editions for tablet computers are starting to make a noticeable contribution to newspaper circulations, with The Wall Street Journal leading the way.

The country's leading business news publication has now sold 200,000 digital subscriptions to readers who own tablet-style devices, including the Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle, according to Dow Jones boss Les Hinton.

Even more remarkable, the vast majority of these subscriptions -- 150,000, or 75% -- were sold in the last 12 months, suggesting the huge uptick is mostly attributable to growing adoption of Apple's iPad, following its release in April 2010.

According to the Boston Herald, the WSJ charges mobile subscribers $3.99 a week for the digital edition. On an annual basis, this equals about $41.5 million in extra circulation revenues. (Theoretically, that's more profitable than print circ revenue, since the publisher saves costs on ink, paper, and fuel and labor for delivery.)

These strong early results from the WSJ hold out hope for the beleaguered newspaper industry, which has seen print advertising and circulation revenues collapse over the last five years. The industry increasingly counts on digital circulation and advertising to make up some of the lost ground.

But the WSJ is not representative of the newspaper industry as a whole. Unlike most other newspapers, it has always charged for digital content (whether delivered online or via mobile) -- reflecting its unique position as a source of business information, whose premium value derives from its particular accuracy and timeliness.

Still, newspaper and magazine publishers are pushing ahead with plans for expanding digital distribution,issuing confident predictions about prospects for growth in the near term.

Earlier this week, Hearst Corp. president David Carey predicted digital editions of magazines delivered to tablet computers could contribute up to 30% of total circulation in the not-too-distant future.

And in November, Conde Nast's managing director for the U.K., Nicholas Coleridge, predicted that 15 years from now, "I would expect 70% of our sales to come from print and 30%, or even 40%, to come from products such as the iPad."

In the U.S. market, the Next Issue Media consortium, of which Conde Nast is a member, projects online subscription revenues for newspapers and magazines will rise to $3 billion by 2014 -- with perhaps half going to magazine publishers.