Monday, November 17, 2008

WOULD YOU PAY MORE FOR DIGITAL?

Digital editions of magazines are common around the world although still very rare here in Thailand.
My own recent research showed readers expect to pay a lot less for a digital edition of a magazine versus print, however a
new venture from UK supermarket giant ASDA is actually charging more for digital.
I only looked at one magazine - Olive - which I buy every month. The UK cover price is £3.20 but ASDA's digital newsagent website wants £3.30 for the digital version. Yes, there are discounts for subscriptions but this is the first case I've come across where a single digital edition costs more.
For publishers there are still significant production costs for producing digital editions, however the big savings are of course in printing and distribution. The research I did for my own magazine here in Thailand showed readers expect to pay much less - as much as just one quarter of the print cover price. That's unrealistic in my opinion; a 25-35% discount from the print edition is far more realistic and reflective of actual costs.
Thanks to the Australian Newsagency Blog for the original story.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for taking the time to comment on my blog.

Comment moderation is enabled and your comment will appear as soon as I have approved it. That said I will only reject spam comments and comments that would get me into any legal problems as a result of publishing them. Any off-topic comments are also unlikely to be approved.

I really do appreciate your feedback. Thanks again.