Australian Newspaper Says The Only Way To Get Its iPad App Is To Subscribe To The Paper Version
from the you're-doing-it-wrong dept
rorybaust points out that the Sydney Morning Herald has joined the popular trend these days of offering an iPad app of its content. Nothing wrong with that, of course. However, what's odd is that the business model appears to be that you need to get a paper subscription in many cases to get the iPad version. It's no secret that some publications view the iPad and paywalls as ways to slow down the rate at which people are ditching subscriptions to paper publications -- but it seems particularly short-sighted to make that the only way to get access to the digital app. And that seems doubly true when people who have seen the app say it's little more than a PDF of the physical paper. If you're going to push an iPad app, at least let it take advantage of some of what the digital platform allows...Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: business models, ipad, paywalls, sydney morning herald
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
If you don’t like toffy adding an apple won’t make it taste better (a toffy apple approach to news)
I think that the newspaper industry is a classic example of an industry that is failing to adapt to the new digital landscape and that the unprecedented success in their past has created a sense of entitlement, but in this new landscape they have neither adapted nor are they ready to compromise
the whole article is at my blog.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's competing with it's own website.
Their web page versions are more useful to me because they come to me via links from other pages/applications.
I think that the newspapers are not considering value here.. With the iphone apps were often a good substitute for websites. They were an alternate way to present the data well formatted for the small screen. This isn't needed on the iPad, so the value of these apps is marginal at best.
I have no idea what the SMH app is like, but even if the SMH was my main paper I would be looking for a really good reason to download it at all.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Too many pathways to get all those sources.
News is pushpulled BY THE CONSUMER now, not the paper. I get my headlines via RSS+keyword often 18 hours before a paper might pick it up and I glance it on the way to work. Papers do a disservice to themselves now with glaring headlines we knew about yesterday.
There really is no way to realistically survive commercially if everyone consumed data like I and many other tech geeks do. I pay my ISP $70/month, that's the only company that really gets my dollar, and even then I'd go cheap wi-fi if I lost my job, damned if I would pay for that without a write-off.
I never see ads, I block them all, they have no value in my life.
I could care less about iPhone apps, I'd never use a platform as restrictive as that, and find people that do use it to be at a distinct disadvantage in the ecosystem of information permutation. They are silly. Why would I have a singular app for a singular source of information when information is so distributed and varied and there are so many sources?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
You and I are like 20-30% of the population of the US. The percentages of people with news reading habits that match ours are rising very quickly. What we are in right now is a middle ground of a profound change in the way people use, interact with, relay, and share information. Dont worry crap like single newspaper dedicated apps will die over time. Probably replaced by what ever RSS evolves into.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They do have ONE interesting idea...
You get the iPad version of the paper during the week, "when you're on the go" and delivery of the physical paper on Saturday and Sunday "when you've got time to sit down and read a real paper" or something like that.
It doesn't really appeal to me, but give them credit for an interesting idea.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: They do have ONE interesting idea...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Free Newspapers
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
another example
I emailed the editor my concerns and he hasn't replied. The toothpaste is out of the tube! Why doesn't anyone realize that?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: another example
http://www.oleantimesherald.com/edition/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: another example
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I have been noticing something lately. I get the news days before the media report on them, I think it is because the legacy media don't look at the same places I do, so they get late in the game.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Print still has it's head in the sand
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]