Nathan Parsons' Blog

An interesting article in the Province today, talking about mobile app usage and users’ willingness to pay for those apps.  I think it has become so expected that everything we consume online should be free, that when it comes down to receiving the exact same content in a different format, it still doesn’t seem right to pay for it.  The article gives a few examples of this, namely that 34% of American adults pay for some form of news on a daily basis, with the majority of these being print newspapers. 

I think it all comes down to Napster, honestly.  When you can get something for free, why pay for it?  Newspapers are hoping to stop their freefall in terms of subscription losses by replacing it with online subscription fees.  But we have seen before that this will not work.  Online content is readily available from numerous sources, and print publications will need to focus on better distribution to increase advertising revenues to make up the shortfall.  By bringing news directly to people on their mobile devices, you would think this would be enough to increase distribution, but I sense that the change in consumption medium will only make a small impact.  Publishers will need to create a stronger community as well, creating a seemless merger of all platforms from which they distribute their content in order to create the maximum effect and the greatest brand loyalty.

http://www.theprovince.com/technology/Americans+slow+local+mobile+apps/4435496/story.html