News Corp. is saying “hello” to the new reality of media and the news juggernaut is embarking on a wide-ranging strategy to bring its content to smartphones and tablets like the Apple iPad.
News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch wants to bring digital newspaper content to devices like the Apple iPhone, Android and the iPad in a new way. There’s no launch date for this initiative but the endeavor will be run by The New York Post’s managing editor.
“We’ll have young people reading newspapers,” Murdoch said during the company’s Aug. 4 earnings call. “It’s a real game changer in the presentation of news.”
The company already has a Wall Street Journal iPad app which comes with a fee but the new News Corp. apps could take the free approach and monetize through advertising. The free approach is the best way to ensure a wider audience but many newspapers have had trouble finding the same advertising revenue on the digital side.
The News Corp. iPhone and iPad apps will go head-to-head with a variety of other news organizations. The New York Times and USA Today already have popular apps for the iPhone and iPad but it’s unclear how fruitful these are for those companies’ bottom line.
This may be why these companies are looking for other ways to generate money from apps beyond subscriptions and advertising. The NY Times recently launched a news app platform that can enable publishers to easily create an app without investing the money in a developer. The NY Times will get licensing fees from this and it will be interesting to see if many publishers jump on board.
It’s still going to be tough for News Corp. to adapt to this new media future because the revenue models just aren’t what it is used to to support its large overhead. But the company has to dive into the Apple iPad and mobile app space to be relevant, so let’s see how it can execute.
[Via The LA Times]