Catching the early morning train was always an opportunity to unfold the Telegraph, elbow the passenger sitting next to you and read the sports, business and news sections, usually in that order. But overcrowding and a recent 20% increase in the cover price of the Telegraph, has forced a change in my morning ritual and in protest and part necessity, I have succumbed to trial the Telegraph on the iPad and ditch the blackened ink fingers in favour of a smudged iPad.
I was pleasantly surprised that the Telegraph monthly iPad subscription was substantially cheaper than the print version, but quickly irritated to discover that the catch is that you only seem to get half the news. Whereas the Financial Times or Times offer full content of news on the iPad, the Telegraph has for unknown reason limited its content.
The ability to scan the news quickly had always been my contention for maintaining a print version, but on the iPad the design and browsing ability of the FT, in particular, is very good. John Authers, Financial Times, recently illuminated that the FT iPad version offers a versatile and assessable method of scanning all sections of the paper quickly and simply; and he’s right. The additional advantage is that I can now scan and read multiple publications on the train without inflicting any pain on fellow passengers.
Colin McLean, SVM Asset Management, has long contended that newspaper business model needs to adapt to the digital era in order to survive and the iPad provides a commercially realistic proposition to get consumers to pay for content online. My luddite or rather stubborn resistance to move to the iPad has been quashed in the space of just a few days.
It is true that reading is less enjoyable compared with a Kindle, but the visual element and access to multi-media, allowing you to choose to read, view or listen, makes the iPad a definite winner.
With the additional advantage that my FT subscription allows viewing online or on the iPad I am a little bemused why the Telegraph, which has a great website free to all, has not developed a better iPad app or indeed followed the Times and FT’s move to get people to pay for its content and move behind a pay wall?
The fact that News International now claim over 100,000 paying digital subscribers for the Times is vindication of its decision. As national newspaper sales continue to decline, seeking alternative revenue streams is essential for the survival of the industry and it can only be a matter of time before all publications make the commercial decision to move behind a pay wall.
But they had better make sure that the content, design and multitouch interactive experience is up to scratch. There is also the issue of dealing with advertising, which again on the Telegraph app is hugely annoying!
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