Well it seems the local media has been paying attention, consumers want new and exciting ways to absorb their content. The Australian Newspaper say they have developed an application specifically designed for the iPad that will be available in May. With the iPad launching late April in Australia, its sure to be one of the first, if not the first major Australian publication to publish their content via the iPad.
"The iPad is a good device for us and well-suited to the kind of content we produce" – said Nick Leeder, Deputy Chief Executive.
Leeder went on to say the Australian iPad app would likely attract a monthly fee. This raising the question of wether consumers are willing to pay for news, considering there’s an online version available for free. This could be accessed easily via Safari on the iPad, so why would someone pay a monthly subscription ?
No doubt the Australian iPad application will be a slicker user experience with a rich user interface, but is that really enough? The best way to guage the answer to this is to watch the Wall Street Journal subscriptions as the iPad goes on sale next Saturday in the US. They plan on charging US$17.99 or close to $20 Australian per month for the WSJ.
I hope The Australian and other Australian news publications price their iPad versions much more aggressively. The dead tree version only costs A$6.95 per week, so with the reduced cost of digital distribution, there should be plenty of room to move.
More @ The Australian
