There has always been a problem with out of date subscription data, often incomplete and just inadequate for the publishers. It is costing the industry dearly as telemarketers do not have a clue whether the subscriber is in subscription. So they are ringing up people who are still subscribing and avoiding many out of subscriptions. Clearly it is a mess that needs to be fixed.
In Victoria, it appears that we are getting close to fixing this. Although I am sure there is much to do on News Corps side, our part is almost done. Our clients are now sending weekly automatically subscription data to the publishers.
It has been a massive project that has costed News Corporation as they have paid for many newsagents to update their computers, modems and software. It has been surprisingly difficult to get so many systems up to send the data automatically particularly the DOS sites. But now I am sure that we should be able to solve this subscription mess in Victoria.
Once it proves itself in Victoria, there is a good case to set it up in other states as the technology is now available.
