Sales of newspaper apps for devices like the Apple iPad are cannibalizing sales of physical newspapers, James Murdoch, head of News Corp's operations in Europe and Asia, said on Friday.
Wherelse, in New Zealand APN seems to have a good grasp on the online/offline coexistence concept.
Brendan Hopkins, chief executive of APN, which owns the New Zealand Herald, yesterday told potential investors in its $150 million bond offer that the company was not interested in creating pay-walls.
"In the main we are an advertising company, 80 per cent of our revenue is from advertising."
But Hopkins said the company hoped to build up its iPad application to allow differentiation between premium content and grazing.
APN launched its nzherald application in June and so far 24,000 had been downloaded for free.
Hopkins said he hoped to begin earning $1 million to $2 million from the application next year.
We all know what happens when an online searchers encounter a paywall. If I remember correctly, the number is above 80% of bounce rate. (quotable source needed here. Anyone?)
Instead of paywalling the news item, James Murdoch, why don't you leverage the online space to build up a premium community with more-thorough demographics data and charge the marketers more to advertise to these people? They are prime market and advertisers would salivate over the opportunity to target the exact people that fit their products.
Apples don't fall far from the trees, eh?
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