Comments on: UK Times’ Paid Take-Up ‘Very Encouraging’, Murdoch Says http://paidcontent.org/2010/08/05/419-uk-times-paid-take-up-very-encouraging-murdoch-says/ The economics of digital content Fri, 24 May 2013 23:44:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: David Richard Tobin http://paidcontent.org/2010/08/05/419-uk-times-paid-take-up-very-encouraging-murdoch-says/#comment-79744 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:46:21 +0000 http://paidcontent.wp.gostage.it/2010/08/05/419-uk-times-paid-take-up-very-encouraging-murdoch-says/#comment-79744 I’m betting that the vast majority of those who have authorised a Times paid subscription are not actually spending their own tax-paid ackers from their own sky-rocket. That makes the early adopters easier prey – less resistant to the spending commitment or critical of the value offered. If the Times wants a volume of private subscriptions they may have to sacrifice the “good price” achieved with this small pool of early applicants.

Tablets like iPad undoubtedly will change the market but if print was just invented today it would be hailed as the most astounding concept and customers would be ready to pay for media delivered in that format (as they indeed are – its not just habit). It’s the format people value first; its quality, desirability, functionality and usefulness. Not so much, frustratingly, the actual content. So if a smart-phone/tablet’s inclusive user tariff came ready packaged with a media subscription bundle of relevance I can see less resistance to a private user committing to a medium term premium spending commitment.

Or they could just up the attractiveness of the content to the point where it became uniquely desirable.

On the basis that print is fundamentally ‘clunky’ and costly to produce and distribute the goal should be for digital subscriptions, in good time, to exceed the print marketplace substantially.

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