Guardian's Mobile App Takes Off
Jinfo Blog

13th January 2010

By Nancy Davis Kho

Item

The Guardian UK today released news that in the first month since its launch, the Guardian Mobile App has been downloaded nearly 70,000 times (http://digbig.com/5baxqc). Readers paid £2.39 in order to purchase the app, which showcases news, comment, features, photo galleries and audio from guardian.co.uk through a range of features, and offers personalisation as well. More information on the Guardian App can be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/iphone. So the Guardian is finding a market for an paid app that makes mobile access for its online content more user-friendly; that's a good sign that consumers are willing to pay for convenient access. But for now, Guardian App users will be able to access all the content they want, for free. That's in direct contrast to the Financial Times' approach, which makes the FTMobile app free, but charges for access beyond the first few free articles. (Watch for a 2-part review of the FTMobile app in an upcoming LiveWire post.) How will this affect traffic to the Guardian's ad-revenue supported web site and, more importantly, circulation of its print product? Presumably, some of the readers downloading the app are doing so in order to not have to pay for the paper and bring it on the Tube. Now, for the less than one one-tenth of the cost of an annual print subscription, they'll have it the content they want on their smartphone. With publishing under such dire threat, it's really hopeful to see large newspapers and periodicals experimenting with ways to give readers easier access and more value add in the form of personalisation, speed of access, etc.. But it has to be a cohesive strategy, one that doesn't rob Peter (print) to pay Paul (digital), or at least comes up with some substitute revenue streams . Tim Buckley-Owen wrote a useful roundup of mobile access pricing from business information providers in November http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27212 ; it's clear that content on the go has the potential to help publishers make up ground lost in giving away content for free on web sites. Under its Guardian App FAQs the Guardian says 'We are committing to offering a core level of service for the one-off charge but that doesn't rule out the possibility of charging for extra functionality at some point in the future.' I wouldn't be surprised if that future came very quickly indeed.

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