Google’s announcement last week that it plans to offer free WiFi access in San Francisco is like a small pebble being thrown deftly across a smooth lake. The ripple of the bounces and eventual drop will travel far and be felt for years to come. Whether the offer proceeds remains to be seen. If not this time, major city WiFi coverage is a fait accompli. The only barrier is the economic model.
A WiFi enabled city is a city of opportunity on so many levels. For example, with enough wireless enabled handsets in the city Google will be able to deliver interest based advertising as it does today online. It will know where you have been, probably where you are going and will therefore provide options appropriate to that information. This change to the advertising paradigm is how Google makes its money online. Advertisers pay per click and punters are shows the ads based on what they are interested in. This compares to the traditional advertising paradigm which is not based on demonstrated interest.
The impact of WiFi coverage will be felt, I suspect in stages. The first casualties will be free newspapers, those focused more of delivering advertisements than editorial content of real value. These are local newspapers and the ‘thin’ commuter newspapers. However, commuter newspapers will only be affected in there are better WiFi enabled handsets like the Sony PSP device which offers a better screen and an improved experience. The next casualty will be listings followed closely by trader type newspapers and magazines (Trading Post, Trade A Boat). The final impact will be felt by mainstream newspapers. However, since by then they will be part of the citywide WiFi mix and their over the counter offering will have been rejigged appropriately, the impact should be minimal.
Given that newspapers and magazines are built to generate advertising revenue their brands will adapt to WiFi enabled cities. Some expect this to impact newspaper and magazine sales. Others expect it to attract new business.
The Google announcement, even thought so far away and facing huge hurdles, should be enough for newspaper publishers and the newspaper supply chain to be tuning their businesses already to cope with such a change.
The announcement by Google is disruptive to an already disrupted publishing industry. One hopes that decision makers in Australia are taking notice and engaged in planning for their future in a free WiFi enabled world.