The Tablet Times

It would appear that Rupert Murdoch will launch an Ipad/Tablet only newspaper - Paul Carr savages it, as is his wont:

“Rupert Murdoch To Launch New National Newspaper”.

As headlines go, that’s up there with “DeLorean To Unveil New ‘Gull-Wing’ Car”, “Freddy Laker Reveals Trans-Atlantic Airline Plans” and “Charge! says Light Brigade” – reading it, you assume either there’s been some kind of historical glitch in your RSS reader or that someone is making a wry joke about extreme business hubris. Surely no-one, not even a dyed-in-the-wool newspaperman like Murdoch, would be stupid enough to launch a new national title in the current climate.

But no – the story’s true, albeit with a technological twist that makes the move sound only 1% less suicidal: Murdoch’s new paper (launching ‘by the end of the year’) will be available only on tablets like the iPad. And readers will have to pay to view it. Oh, Rupert, you crazy old lunatic.

Love the crack about the Light Brigade....

This is an easy shot, but I would hold off with the snark just yet. After all, its not as if the current approach is of Free! or extremely low priced Ads is particular effective. Give News Corp their due, they are at least trying new things out.

Personally I don't think the web paywall will work (except with the WSJ) as there are just too many alternative sources. But the idea of specialist media for a mobile device (where people are more used to paying and there is a likely to be a premium on easy-to-use services on the limited capabilities of tablets, as their is for Apps on smartphones). Now as Paul notes, the initial aim may be a bit off:

Murdoch hopes that his new e-daily will ‘reach readers who increasingly consume their news on the go… offering short, snappy stories that could be digested quickly.’ Says the man himself: “We’ll have young people reading newspapers… It’s a real game changer in the presentation of news.”

Now where have I heard that before? Oh yeah. I heard it back in London, in 2006, when a company by the name of News International launched a new free daily newspaper called ‘thelondonpaper’ (punctuation theirs – the paper was aimed squarely at the ‘web generation’ who, like their 7th century counterparts, are too busy for spaces between their words).

But one of the commentators makes a good point:

I think Mr Carr doesnt get Wall street mentality. Mr Murdoch’s reader base are investors, wall street ypes, who earn like 300k a year and could care less about spending $17 a month to read the WSJ without annoying ads, and iPads are apparently super popular in the financial circle. So calling him a “lunatic” is stupid atleast and rude at worst

That is probably just the punt that Mr Murdoch should be making in my view.

Overall, it may not work, but then again it just may...... and if it does I suspect the payback is far bigger than the investment in repurposing NI content for a tablet.