Newspaper publisher Fairfax is bundling newspaper iPad apps with weekend home delivery of print newspapers. Check out the Fairfax press release here. I am not sure that this is a smart move but I’d expect that they have done their research.
Thinking about this purely as an iPad user for the moment, this idea seems ridiculous to me. Forcing me to get a print product to get access on my iPad. No thanks. I’ll get my news elsewhere – like the ABC or The Australian – or both.
Forcing me to get the print product is like, well, being forced to use a medium which I have moved on from. The print subscription is something else I have to worry about. With my iPad I take it everywhere whereas with the home delivery, I would have to remember to stop and start when I am away – I wanted to get away from all that by moving to the iPad.
The price is the other issue. $18 a month? What are they smoking?
No, I can’t see much upside in linking the iPad to a print edition.
Now, from a newsagent’s perspective … cheers Fairfax! Smart move connecting the old technology product to the new technology. It maintains a feeling of relevance for me and my print centric business. That will make me feel good and worry less about change bring brought about by technology.
Seriously, I don’ think this is a smart move from Fairfax but the market response will be more important than mine.
Newsagents reading this should not take any comfort from the Fairfax move. Change is here, on our doorstep. Publishers will do what they need to do for their future. We should do the same in our newsagencies every day. No supplier is going to put our needs ahead of theirs, nor should they.
Maybe there is a market for the busy professional type to get the SMH on his/her iPad, but still get the weekend editions tossed over the front fence for the family to read? There are many people who will still wish to have the lazy pleasure of spreading the paper out on the patio table in the sunshine, or at least not have to lend the iPad to the others in the house!!
Do the iPad versions of the newspapers still contain the comics and crosswords/puzzles?
Aaron none that I have seen but I am really only looking at a select few compared to what is out there.