A whole new way of reading the news
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.
