Tag Archives: digital editions

paidContent:UK: iPad plans from Spectator and FT

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paidContent:UK looks at plans from two UK publishers readying their iPad editions ahead of the device’s US launch this weekend.

Digital editions provider Exact Editions is involved with The Spectator’s iPad launch, which will adopt a freemium model, Exact’s co-founder told pC:UK.

Elsewhere the Financial Times is preparing a sponsored FT iPad app. Launch sponsor Hublot will subsidise a two-month free access period. After this, the app will revert to the same model as the FT’s iPhone app, which is feel to download, but charges for access to more than 10 articles.

iPad news: would you pay more?

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The Wall Street Journal have announced that they will charge $17.99 for their iPad edition. As reported by FishbowlNY, a subscription to both the online and print version of the Journal costs $2.69 a week, or roughly $10.76 a month. And yet, the paper wants to hike that cost up 67 per cent for a subscription to the iPad edition alone.

The move raises questions about the comparable value of print and digital editions. More specifically, of print, online, and what we might call enhanced digital editions, like those being designed for the iPad format.

Given that online news content is largely free (although the Journal’s is not), but print news content is largely charged for, we might automatically value digital editions less, and assume that they will cost less. In announcing that its much-publicised iPad edition will probably be cheaper than its print magazine, Wired magazine has followed this way of thinking.

But does the potential of the iPad to offer an enhanced experience of multimedia content, interactivity and social sharing, not to mention the device’s status as a groundbreaking way of delivering news, in turn offer publishers an opportunity to value it higher than the print product? Or, in the case of the Journal, a subscription to both print and online?



image by curious lee

MEN’s paid-for digital edition actively targets football fans

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HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk reports that the Manchester Evening News has launched a paid-for digital edition of a Manchester United souvenir supplement, produced using PageSuite‘s technology.

Readers can pay £1 for the 42-page supplement, which includes extra video content and interviews in its digital format.

As paidContent:UK points out, labelling the digital edition launch as a paywall experiment may be taking things too far. But it seems the MEN isn’t just uploading the printed version to try and sell it online, but is instead actively targetting Manchester United fans with a voucher deal.

PageSuite told Journalism.co.uk that the MEN is forwarding voucher codes for a 20 per cent discount on the digital edition to specific supporters clubs around the world – a different code for each club so it can track the response – and the clubs are giving their code to their registered members.

Dangerous Precedent: ‘Ebooks – the bigger problem’

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Ben Hammersley, editor at large of Wired’s UK edition, is part-way through a series of posts looking at ebooks and their potential for magazine publishers.

In part one he makes suggestions about the internal changes that must be made to a magazine editorial process to make it ready for ebooks.

In part two he deconstructs some common assumptions about the production of digital magazines.

Full series at this link…

Organ Grinder: Against the odds Tindle’s model for paid content is working

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As local UK newspaper group Tindle Newspapers announced plans yesterday to introduce pay walls to around 40 of its websites, an experiment trialling the charging system on six of its titles was hailed a success by the publisher.

The system uses digital edition software PageSuite and interestingly enough charges the same price for the e-edition online as the print edition of a title.

“That runs counter to the conventional wisdom that reader expectations and the lower distribution costs of the internet mean online charging should represent a hefty discount on the price of the print product,” notes Chris Tryhorn.

Amongst the trial papers, 350-400 paying online readers signed up on the Tavistock Times’ site, compared with a circulation of 14,000, reports Tryhorn.

Against conventional wisdom, deceptively simple, but perhaps more in line with what readers are willing to pay for when it comes to local news?

Full post at this link…

MSN UK signs up with PressDisplay to add newspaper e-editions to site

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MSN UK will now feature its own version of PressDisplay.com, which provides an archive of digital editions of newspapers and magazines, according to a press release from earlier in the week.

PressDisplay, which is owned by newspaper distribution firm NewspaperDirect, features e-editions of titles including the Times, Guardian, Washington Post and the Australian.

MSN PressDisplayThe new feature on the web portal will be branded as MSN PressDisplay and will give users free access to the front page and two stories from any publication on the day of print. To access more stories and back issues, users will be required to register with PressDisplay and offered subscription offers, starting at 79p to buy a credit to view another article.

The service offers different packages for personal and corporate use including greater access to archived editions, for example, the £79.95 ‘Corporate Unlimited’ lets subscribers go back up to 60 days in the archive.

Titles can be searched by country, language or browsed alphabetically, and search preferences can be saved by individual users.

The service is compatible with iPhones, Blackberry and eReaders, the release said and also offers interactive features – such as the ability to comment on articles and share them via social networks or email.

“Together we have been able to deliver innovative features which give consumers access to a huge number of publications on the great NewspaperDirect interface. At a time when the survival of newspapers is being questioned we see this as a great outlet for newspaper content,” said Peter Bale, MSN executive producer, in the release.

MSN UK also recently launched its local news and information site MSN Local.