Check out the report at GIGAOM about a speech by John Paton, CEO of the Journal Register group of newspapers in the US. Paton says that the time for debate about digital versus print is over and that digital is the game. He goes into extraordinary detail to make his case. Click here to read the full speech.
Sadly, Australian enwspaper publishers will publicly ignore or ridicule Paton’s speech if asked. Privately, our major publlishers are doing what he outlines.
The challenges his company faced in making its transition are similar to what newsagents face. Those of us focussed on reengineering our businesses for the new economy are already seeing rewards in sales.
News Ltd, Fairfax etc have it all – they are now selling Apps online – surely this is an extension of the “subagents” in the distrubutor agreements – newsagents should look to opt out of these agreements ASAP – a good legal team would make mince meat of the agreements with the push to digital.
Newsagents should adapt – and as quickly as possible.
Ex Newsagent,
Apps are not the print product prescribed in distributor agreements.
I agree that the distributor agreements are for the printed product only – but legally they are selling against your “agreed” printed product described – and hence competing within their own distribution model without loss – distributor newsagents should get what Golden Casket offer – the profits from electronic subscriptions of the newspaper that reside in your geographical area. Play hardball and fight this and collect the rewards – or do nothing?
Also – along the same lines – all print media are heading this way through the electronic media – when a magazine subsciption doesn’t arrive – customers head straight to the newsagent to complain – what will happen when News Limited’s e- newspaper App is down (NAB last week) – straight to the newsagent. These corporations need to know where their existance and future will and has come from???
Ex Newsagent,
I have never read a clause that prevents publishers from alternate methods of content distribution. You seem to be under the impression that distribution contracts cover publisher content – they do not. They cover printed product only. A digital version of a newspaper, while still using the same brand, is a completely different product that simply uses the same content owned by the publisher. There is absolutely no legal case to be made here.
As for publishers servers being down, most major publishers will have the resources to get these back up and running within a very minimal timeframe – hours at most. People who read digital content will not be going to their newsagent if problems occur. There is no reason to think that they will.