According to an announcement made at the All Things Digital conference the Australian’s iPad app has had 4,500 downloads just one week after its launch.
My immediate thought was how many of these are getting a special deal but still, that is 4,500 potential customers lost to newsagents! You would need many newsagencies to sell 4,500 Australians a day.
It is priced at $4.99 a month. That is much less than buying a physical newspaper. Is printing and distributing that much of a cost to a newspaper, or is this just an introductory offer?
Consider the economics of the offer. A home delivery of the Australian and Weekend Australian for a customer for a 26 weeks subscription $180.70, an iPad app for the Australian for the same period is about $30.00 (26 weeks x 7 Days /365 Day x 12 months x $4.99 Monthly subscription).
Clearly, you would need more than an Australian subscription to pay for the iPad but it does show the problem in technology that newsagents face now.
