Hot on the heels of the PBL/Optus deal, the Seven Network has announced a deal with m.Net.
According to the Seven release, m.Net Corp. will mobilise Seven’s content assets such as Home and Away and The Great Outdoors through to Girlfriend, New Idea, k-zone and Better Homes & Gardens magazines.
While Seven and Pacific Magazines will see this as a means of extending the reach of the brand (and therefore not impacting over the counter sales of the magazines), who can say what the medium term future will be of magazines as we are in unchartered territory in terms of low access cost high consumer enjoyment mobile devices.
The Seven deal makes sure that their brands are accessible through the rapidly growing mobile channel.
Seven Network’s Head of Digital Media, Rohan Lund was quoted in their release saying “Mobile content isn’t just about watching TV or reading magazines on your mobile. It’s about delivering a richer experience for our audience and offering them a deeper interaction with their favourite brands. This could take the form of WAP sites, SMS promotions, mobisodes, ringback tones, games or music.â€
This move makes it easier to release the story from the current old world aggregator – the TV show, the magazine. The story can be free on its own and available on these mobile devices for a few cents. This pushes the brand, creates an advertising opportunity and grows the consumer connect. All with a more efficient supply chain than the old model.
These developments are fascinating. It’s appropriate that Seven moves in this direction as it would be for any content creator and aggregator.
The challenge for the newsagent channel is to have a game plan to maintain and indeed build their relevance in this mobile world. This game plan needs to be build around the personal and local connect. It needs to rely on products people purchase which are less likely to be sold over the internet.