Rupert Murdoch has hailed Apple’s iPad as the saviour of print media, with The Australian newspaper launching a subscription-based iPad App when it launches in Australia.
Publishers and journalists alike have lined up behind Apple’s new iPad, promoting it as the next ‘big thing’ and the device that will save their newspapers, and jobs in the future. Others are less optimistic, and can’t see the ‘walled garden’ approach working for media apps on the iPad (or iPhone for that matter) when there is such a wealth of freely available ad supported content already online.
News Corporation’s Rupert Murdoch however is strongly behind the walled garden approach and hopes his relative market dominance in Australia, the UK and the USA in the newspaper industries will allow him to charge readers for content online, either on the newspapers websites, or via an iPad/iPhone application.
Rupert Murdoch has launched a spirited defence of putting up paywalls around his newspaper websites, while embracing the game-changing potential of Apple’s iPad. The News Corporation chairman hailed the device as a possible saviour of the newspaper industry.
‘When they have got nowhere else to go, they will start paying if it is reasonable. No one is going to ask for a lot of money,” Rupert said.
Rupert Murdoch has strong praise for Apple’s iPad, with the News Corporation boss hailing the device as a possible saviour of his newspapers and the industry itself.
The Australian newspaper plans to release their own iPad subscription app to coincide with the release of the device in Australia. This is consistent with News Corporation’s plans overseas by walling in their premium content newspapers first, such as the Wall Street Journal in the USA and The Times in the UK.
It is assumed as part of Murdoch’s overall strategy that these iPad Apps and walled gardens around his other publications like the regional tabloids in Australia and news.com.au will follow as the company tweaks their online content strategy with The Australian.
