The ad on page 10 of the media section of The Australian yesterday should focus the minds of newsagents on the new world in which we now live.
The photo of a iPad featuring The Australian on its screen resting on a front door mat is a play on the quintessential image of a home delivered newspaper in the same situation. News Limited is not Robinson Caruso in their approach. Publishers across the world are promoting the iPad as an alternative to their print product and home delivery specifically.
The arrival of the iPad and its promotion as a new distribution channel should not surprise newsagents, but it will. The advertisement in The Australian is just the first steps of promoting this new distribution channel. I’d be doing the same if I were them – leveraging the old distribution channel to promote the new.
At some point, newsagents will become upset about the new distribution channel such is the ignorance in some quarters about what has been an obvious goal among publishers for years as I have discussed here many times.
Our focus needs to be on our model for the future, a model which recognises the disruption caused by the iPad and the devices which will follow. The answer is not for us to sell newspaper subscriptions for the iPad as some newsagents are proposing. The suggestion reflects ignorance of how the new channel works.
While publishers (magazine and newspaper) are telling newsagents that the iPad will not impact retail and home delivery sales, I think they will. Not so much in the next two or three years but certainly beyond. This is why it is essential we focus on our businesses today. If you need motivation, pull out The Australian from yesterday and turn to Page 10 of the media section.
I think you are right Mark. The iPad will effect our newspaper and magazine sale over time. I have been using my iPad since Friday, and enjoy reading the Australian on it. Its true the iPad is a great experience.
I tend to disagree that the iPad will impact on home delivery sales.
The people that get newspapers home delivered want “Paper”. Otherwise they would just be reading news on their pc/laptop/mobile/iphone etc.
Yes eventually these people won’t exist. But I’m sure only a single digit % of people that get home deliveries would cancel them for an iPad subscription.
Blake,
Id say that most people that have their newspaper home delivered get it for convenience. Reading the news from a web browser is not a comfortable experiene for many people (may wouldnt know know how to get their news via the web). The iPad begins a new chapter in the delivery of electronic media. It opens it up for the masses in the same way that devices like Tivo made the PVR an accessible tool for Americans. It makes the process simple and intuative while still retaining enough similarities to print (the shape and newspaper column style) to not scare people too much.
Im sure if I stood next to our newspaper stand with an iPad, and demonstrated to our customers how easy it was to operate, i’d sell a bundle (especially to miners going to work – the device would be perfect for them).
Most pople don’t want ‘paper’, they want to feel comfortable with the format. The iPad will do this for many.
Jarryd, I agree with you. Reading a newspaper on a pc, mobile even an iphone is a very different experience to the IPAD. My belief is that it will hurt retail sales more than delivery.
I think that those that like the feeling of a newspaper will continue to have it delivered, eventually that generation of customers will dwindle and longer term delivery has its own challenges.
But consider you are about to hop on the train/plane/bus/tram I could grab a paper on the way to or from work and attempt to read it on crammed public transport, or I can click and single button and have it on a manageable device where I don’t need to stretch in from of other commuters to read it.
Retail newspaper sales are challenged as it is and this is another reason for a consumer not to visit a newsagency during the day. This is why we need to look at other things we can do within our stores to drive foot traffic.
It’s true that some people who buy a paper only to read the news might eventually prefer to use one of these devices. Still, its a big investment. How many times though, do our Sunday customers say “I only buy it for the TV guide”, or on Saturday, I only buy it for the crossword. Papers will continue to evolve to suit the reader also. Remember when Current Affairs shows used to actually report on current affairs? Now they are nothing but 30 minute paid advertisments. Not saying that print newspapers should become “Junk” like that, but you get the point.