CAN IPHONE APPS RESCUE PUBLISHERS?
Hardly a week seems to goes by without a newly launched application targeting publishers who want to make their content available on the iPhone. Just this week Woodwing and Newspapers Direct have been marketing their services to magazine and newspaper publishers in Thailand and elsewhere.
It seems like only yesterday that publishers were getting similar proposals for digital editions of their print products. In Thailand at least, digital editions haven't taken off to any great extent, arguably because the relative slowness of the Internet means this form of publishing cannot be fully utilised. Monkey Magazine is just one example where original overseas content had to be adapted because, according to publisher Dom Chotivanich users: ".. found it a bit slow to load on our pathetic Thailand Internet."
So are iPhone applications likely to be a saviour for the print publishing industry? Are you more or less likely to purchase content on your iPhone than online or via a digital edition? Is how you get your content important to you, or will you pay for content you want no matter what how it's delivered?
Have your say. Join the debate and leave a comment.
6 comments:
Even in Thailand the internet will speed up ... probably ... one day.
But that aside, a big plus of working with the iPhone/iTunes setup is Apple have made it just so very simple for customers to spend money buying stuff.
I buy things via iTunes that I would never ever even consider buying online via a normal website. That's not to say I'd ever consider paying anything to read something like the Nation, but if there is some modicum of quality then iTunes should be a platform on every publisher's to-do-list.
Thanks Stuart. I've been in Thailand for 3½ years now and all that time it's been said the Internet will get faster.
Actually, you mention The Nation. I assume from what you said you read it online now for free?
If so, that's exactly the problem facing so many publishers right now. Your visit to the website is not generating revenue (because advertisers are not spending online in a big way in Thailand) yet the content you are reading has a cost to produce.
That's not a criticism of you though ... just a fact that publishers here and around the world need to overcome. And that can only be done by giving you, the reader, something you will pay for because it has value to you.
Consumers all over the world are changing the way they access news. Unfortunately most newspapers and magazines are not responding very effectively. They are just trying to find ways of shifting their existing content onto the internet and getting consumers to pay for it. They have to be smarter than that - including considering the proposition of reducing the size of their operations to cut out loss-making areas - such as print.
In Thailand the situation is even more difficult because Thais don't read much anyway. I have tried some of the Nation's free iPhone apps and immediately removed them because they crash as soon as they open. I certainly wouldn't buy an application from the BK post or the Nation anyway, since the standard of the printed content is so poor.
I would pay for an app which summarised the diverse opinions of blogs and news agencies on current news in Thailand, providing it wasn't subject to government censorship in the style of the Economist.
Leosia, insightful comments as always - thank you.
Sorry, I more used the Nation as an example of something that is of such poor quality I wouldn't ever pay for it -- I worked for that company (albeit not for the main paper) for five years and what they've done with it is nothing short of a disgrace.
I think one of the big challenges facing media is that a lot of readers are casual, ie a friend sends them an interesting story in a paper they'd never otherwise read -- this is where free web content excels as there is no sensible way to monetise this casual traffic other than cpms. The papers should be looking to their regular readers -- the punters who read it day in day out -- and package up value-added/cross branded stuff for them -- the iPhone and others like it are ideal vehicles for this.
At the end of the day, as per Leosia, there is a dearth of quality English newsprint in Thailand and while I'm not a great fan of the asiancorrespondent model, something like that, pulling together quality online writing, would be an app I'd definitely pay for.
I use pressdisplay(by newspaper direct) web version(im too poor to afford windows, mac or iphone) to read print versions of many international newspapers and they load up fine on my < 900 baht/month internet connection, so the excuse about internet speeds is complete BS IMHO.
On a plus side, i was surprised find nation and bkkpost on it.
At pressdisplay you can read the frontpages for free and for $30/month u can read unlimited publications.
Post a Comment