News

The Media, Smart Phones & The Web

The Guardian recently released its very own iPhone application costing a lean £2.39. This enables users to read the paper on the screen of their iPhone or other smart phone device, with some sections neatly cached for offline browsing and segment news stories depending upon the readers’ topical interests. It allows the user to tag favorite articles and news content and enables the user to quickly and efficiently finds other similarly related articles.

Currently, there is no facility to purchase extra content, advanced access to particular stories and the facility to browse through an archive of historic news articles. I would imagine that The Guardian’s marketing and technical team has already outlined these particular features as suitable (and paid for) additions to the app.  Presumably these updates will occur soon, as users choose to view content through the application, rather than buying a physical copy of the newspaper itself.

The Guardian is widely regarded as being a technically savvy publication, and currently amongst several other media groups to release a smart phone product. The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph and Time Magazine have all recently developed and deployed applications of a similar nature for the iPhone. Each publication will be scrutinising the software of their various competitors and the industry will gradually move towards a standardised feature set. This will define what newspapers will look like on our iPhone’s and Blackberries in the future.

This emerging market is too lucrative and compelling for traditional print publications to ignore. Despite Apple’s stringent regulations and developer guidelines, publishers will need to find a suitable way of keeping up with this technological growth curve in order to restore declining sales and readerships. Those publishers who cannot accept Apple’s rules and regulations have a variety of other mobile platforms to choose from including Symbian, Windows Mobile and Google Android. The launch of the Guardian iPhone application is symbolic, in that it takes the paper one step further towards becoming a provider of content to multiple web based and mobile devices, rather than just a newspaper with a website.

The Guardian is helping to redefine the way newspaper content is distributed across the web. It is taking a refreshing and alternative approach to the likes of News International (publishers of The Times and The Sun), who have opted to prevent Google trawling site content in favor of ‘paywalling’ specific items of content. The problem with this approach is that the web has changed everything. Newspapers are no longer viewed as a primary product for generating profits. The web is not just a new publishing platform. It’s redefining the way newspapers are purchased and sold and the times are changing rapidly. What makes this interesting, are the different ways in which each publications’ choose to join the smart phone race. To pay or not to pay? That is the question…

Why does this make the Guardian a smart player in the battle for smart phone dominance? It makes them clever because they recognise that only a small portion of their content is totally original and exclusive to them.  Just because News International choose to charge for news articles does not guarantee that the user would not be able to find this information elsewhere on the web.  We live within times of hyper connectivity and the smart phone has given the reader the upper hand. Even if content is original, this exclusivity will only last a very short period of time. The commercial model that has sustained some of the worlds oldest and most profitable news content providers and publications has now been eradicated and is gone forever. If users are unwilling to pay for the news itself, it begs the question, what are we prepared to pay for?

The Guardian iPhone application is priced in a convenient and affordable way. It enables the user to make an impulsive purchase without considering any potential cognitive pitfalls. It is helping to centre and position The Guardian brand as a technological leader in this space and represents a tremendous leap of faith into a vast, uncompromising and quasi-commercial abyss. It starts to present a vision of what new content would look like when purchased on iTunes and how the user would pay for it.

The overall culture and dynamics of purchasing news content through a smart phone is vastly different from that of a laptop or traditional desktop PC. People refuse to purchase content online not because they are unwilling to spend, but because they are intelligent consumers and can see that paying for it is simply not a necessity. News International has taken a brazen and greedy approach to commercialising that defies everything that the Internet and web culture stands for. This is a strategy that may come back to haunt them, should they pursue their plans to block Google and charge readers for new and seemingly exclusive news content.

Rather than resisting change and fighting the consequences of advances in technology, News International needs to recognise a few basics. For starters, viewing news on a smart phone provides the reader with a quick fix. The reader can quickly and easily view content headings and synopsis’ in a flash whilst on the tube or at the airport. Viewing the news via a newspaper, laptop or desktop PC is an entirely different ball game. This should be reflected in the product offerings presented by each of the major global news publishers. Rather than complaining, The Guardian has acknowledged these less than subtle differentiations in usage and catered for the ever-changing needs of the modern smart phone owner. 

The Waracle web and mobile development team are currently in the process of installing a new forum and integrated social network for The Herald Times Group. Wetoc V2.0 will enable them to generate additional advertising revenue, engage new and existing users and provide added value for advertisers. Wetoc V2.0 is a comprehensive social media platform with lots of sticky user features such as forums, profiles, groups, blogs, video and more. If you are interested in developing a web based social media platform, or a mobile application for iPhone or Google Android, please do not hesitate to contact us directly on (01382) 529528.