Check out the PressReader iPhone app from Newspaper Direct, a distributor of digital newspaper and magazines. It delivers full reproduction digital copies of newspapers to the iPhone and Blackberry. The app works with publications sold through the PressDisplay site. the app is free. each newspaper issue costs US.99cents. Watch a demonstration of it working:
News junkies with an iPhone or Blackberry will love this. While I don’t expect this app to reduce print sales, it is another step in that direction. The more newspaper stories consumers on digital devices like the iPhone the more attention publishers will give to this distribution channel over print.
This is another factor newsagents need consider when planning for the future. I am sure advances like PressReader are part of what News Limited will consider in the review it undertakes here in Australia over the next two years.
There is no doubt that how we access and consumer news will dramatically change in the next few years. Our businesses, retail and distribution, have been built on a print only model. We have not positioned ourselves to be part of a digital model. My concern is that newsagents are not educating themselves about the moves I write about.