Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of News Corp has announced this weekend that the company will launch a new national digital newspaper, one that will offer short, “snappy” stories and be available to tablet and smartphone users.
Says the CEO: “We’ll have young people reading newspapers. It’s a real game changer in the presentation of news.”
Murdoch hopes the new platform will transform the way people read news, especially on tablet devices, which are gaining popularity.
The paper will operate under the guidance of the New York Post, one of News Corp’s most profitable papers.
There is no timetable yet, but analysts anticipate a launch by Christmas.
Since the launch of the Apple iPad tablet in April, advertisers have increasingly looked to digital devices as a way to connect with users that have slowly but surely moved away from print news. Research firm Gartner anticipates 10.5 million tablets will be sold this year.
Result for: newspapers
A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project has revealed that 61 percent of Americans now get their news online, although local TV remains the most popular method of getting the news.
Overall, 50 percent of Americans read local print newspapers, and 17 percent read national papers. 59 percent of Americans get their news from online and offline sources, with only 2 percent getting their news exclusively from online sources.
Figuring out where users get their news is not as easy, however. 65 percent do not have a favorite site, and 80 percent use 2-5 sites for their daily news. 56 percent use portals such as Google News, Yahoo News or AOL, and younger users follow specific news organizations or journalists via Twitter and Facebook.
18 percent listen to daily podcasts from the news organizations.
What are people searching for when they go online? 81 percent looks for the weather, 73 looks for national events, 66 percent look for health events, 64 percent look up finance or other business. Rounding up the top 5 is international events, at 62 percent.
Pics via RWW:
Result for: newspapers
Following media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s note that he may begin charging for online content for all newspapers in his empire, the New York Times has begun floating the same idea.
The Times has been hit particularly hard by the global recession as well as the decline in ad revenue for traditional media, and over the past five years has seen its stock price drop 90 percent. Currently, the NYT does not charge for online access to its content, but asks all guests to register one time.
In 2006, the company started the TimesSelect service, which forced users to pay extra to access archives and opinion columns but the service was a failure and in late 2007 the entire site was re-opened for everyone, free of charge.
A NYT staff writer, Jennifer Lee, via her Twitter page has discussed what occurred during a meeting with shareholders and explains that the company is currently “exploring a new online financial strategy” that would implement membership levels. Each level would have different access to content with obviously the most expensive having full access to the entire site.
Perhaps more notably, is the company’s reflection on the failed TimesSelect service. They believe the service itself was sound (had over 500,000 subscribers) but failed because of poor marketing strategy. TimesSelect to make a comeback in 2009?
