Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Amanda Blair on Adelaide radio station 5AA. It was one of the most enjoyable radio interviews I have ever experienced.
Amanda loves magazines and she loves newsagencies! For half an hour we talked about magazines from the top selling titles to the obscure. We discussed what is unique about our newsagencies and why people love to shop with us.
We also talked about the magazine experience versus reading on a device like the iPad. Talkback callers joined in to, talking about the magazines they love. It was a warm and positive experience.
For half an hour yesterday on South Australian radio, newsagencies were the subject of a love in. There should be more of this!
I don’t believe that new media delivered by iPad etc will have anyhere near the impact some of the pessimists are expecting.
There are 3 key factors. The telcos (eg Telstra, Optus etc) are the deliverers of the data that these devices upload as news and information. This sector is notorious for its overcharging , poor customer service and generally shoddy business behaviour.
All they offer is an alternate delivery method, and so far they have done a pretty pathetic job. We can and should engage them adversarily. Online newspaper subscriptions combined with mobile broadband network costs (which you need for iPad)are still not as cost effective as home delivered or outlet purchased newspapers.
The second point is advertisers. I know from my own recent experience as a marketing director at a major corporate just how reluctant advertisers are to give up classic media. Over years they have accumulated data and knowledge bases which give them a deep undertsanding of the effectiveness of classic media. Advertisers are still very skeptical about the effectiveness of advertising in online newspapers and will not commit big budgets to it while newspapers continue to have powerful circulations.
Finally there are the issues that you mention here. The amenability and convenience of paper media far outweighs the electronic devices. Paper can be shared, it can be kept for later, you only pay for it once, it can be read anywhere anytime…and it doesn’t break or get flat batteries.
Sure, the new media devices are a challenge but they are not insurmountable. The world will not change from black to white overnight. In fact it will take many years for just a slight grey tone to emerge.
Kevin,
You speak as someone who cleary doesn’t understand new mobile media.
Yes the telcos are the gateway to mobile data. Yes mobile data is relatively expensive. But as more people adopt the service the price will drop (just as it does in every other market). Telcos get a bad wrap because they’re huge corporations dealing with a very large numbers of customers. Statistically they are bound to have more complaints than other companies.
If a publisher is only offering an alternate delivery method then their publication is bound to fail online. To be successful online you need to change the way in which you present news, be it with audio visual elements, search and content customisation, hyperlinks, instant Twitter-like feeds, user interaction and commentary, social network integration … and the list goes on. Print media offers none of this.
To say new media is not as cost effective is absurd. I’ll take your premise that online news will be subscription based (I don’t actually believe this will be the case with most mainstream media). An in-store purchase of The Australian costs $525.20 per year (52 weeks). My mobile data costs me $12.42 per month and a subscription to The Australian iPad app cost $4.99 per month. That works out at $208.92 per year. $316.28 less than the print version.
As consumers continue to move to online news consumption advertisers will have no choice but to move with them. Advertisers follow consumers, not the other way around. Besides, online media provides tools for more accurate measurement in real time that give far more data than that of print media.
Just like print media, electronic media can be shared, kept for later and read anytime anywhere. While it may not get flat batteries (which is rarely a problem with new energy efficient devices that last for days) paper certainly does break. Ever seen someone spill coffee on their newspaper?
No one is suggesting that the change will take place overnight. But to fight against it is counterproductive.
BTW I wrote this on my iPad while reading tens of free news feeds.
Also, with online ads (not sure if its the same for the iPad) but there’s lots of add-ons and filters which can block the ads, so you won’t ever see them.
You can only do this with newspapers by sticking stuff over the ads.
Aaron at the moment with the iPad you can’t block ads. But it’s early days.
News Ltd did not appear to have much of an issue getting four foundation advertisers to stump up $250K each tyo advertise in The Australian on the iPad.
Jarryd I think my newspaper will be of more use than your iPad after a coffee has been spilt on either.
@Jarryd; Unless you’re a uni student where the price is something like $20 for a years worth, including weekend delivery.
But wondering does the iPad have any form of DRM for saved content?
Kevin, There were some similar flexibility, ease of access etc arguments used in 2004/05 when music retailers and public publishers were discussing the likely impact of the iPod.
Mark
Thats true but it’s not necessarily directly comparable. With old music media the consumer still needed to use a device to play the record, disk etc. iTunes simply delivers a file on line instead of a piece of hardware from a shop.
It’s real advantage and where it really caught the old style didtributors sleeping is in single track (as opposed to album) delivery.
How different would things be if the music industry had reacted to this specific consumer trend much earlier.
This is an interesting debate and it essential to have it.
I read too much doom and gloom about the impact electronic media will have on the sales of newspapers and magazines. I agree that it will have an effect (eg look at the change in classifieds) but it does not have to be a disaster.
There is still time – because of the Telcos hegemonic practices and the general lack of advertising efficacy in electronic media – to take the offensive, work with the publishers and adapt our business models to a new future.
This doesn’t ONLY mean looking for alternative retail merchandise to put into our stores but we can and must get better at selling (as opposed to delivering) newspapers and magazines.
Yes, I understand your point. Given the history of the newsagency channel, I see it as important that newsagents don’t see upside from the iPad and other devices otherwise complacency will lead to no change at all.
I guess anyone rading this blog regularly will see how I view magazines today – I obsess about them and do everything possible to drive sales.
Aaron,
Yes, huge discounts to subscription prices make print media more cost effective for the consumer (again, assuming that new media will be a user pay system). But I’m confident that most uni students are going to get their news online anyway. Publishers can’t inflate circulation numbers with massively discounted supply packages forever.