Digital News Content - Who Will Survive?
Jinfo Blog

By Penny Crossland

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Media news in recent weeks has been buzzing with new digital ventures of various kinds. First up was News Corp’s eagerly awaited launch of The Daily iPad newspaper. As reported by LiveWire, this new publication is News Corp’s attempt to capitalise on the popularity of the iPad and to demonstrate that money can be made from newspaper publishing, albeit via a new delivery platform.

The Daily had some teething problems around downloading and installing the application, but as paidContent reported yesterday, those glitches have been addressed and the software has been updated. It is still early days, but initial reaction to the newspaper is quite positive. Subscribers will get 100 pages of original content, including photos and video, which some have said is a lot of content to digest every day.  However, subscription costs are only $40 a year or 99 cents a week, so you do get a lot of information and commentary for your money.

The Daily’s USP is its high level of interactivity and the ability to incorporate breaking news. Sharing news however, could be an issue, since original content will be behind a paywall. While the main source of revenue will come from subscriptions for now, advertising will be introduced and will eventually comprise 50% of income. Apparently, the app is free to use until 23 February.

The other big media news, AOL’s acquisition of the Huffington Post for $315 million, centred on content rather than platform. As Business Insider commented, the merger points to the consolidation of the US’s “so-called new and old news media”. It also demonstrates AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong’s belief in contrast to Rupert Murdoch, that the future of content is ad-supported and on the internet, which is where he wants to place his company. Throughout 2010, AOL has been recruiting professional journalists and “citizen reporters”, the latter to provide user-generated content – exactly how the Huffington Post started out. The Huff Post, as a result of the merger will be able to develop content such as video, which will be easier to do with a multimedia parent.

Throughout 2010 AOL was busy acquiring niche digital sites to boost its content strategy: in September alone, it acquired the well-respected technology media company, TechCrunch, Thing Labs, a social media reader and 5min Media, a web video syndication company.

However, is AOL’s strategy really about quality content? A leaked internal AOL document, which should cause Arianna Huffington some concern, has been circulating around various blogs, making the company’s strategy look more like content farm than quality journalism. According to the document, content is not king, it’s SEO that is the way forward for AOL.

Another piece of news, which caught my eye, is about USA Today. The paper has added 2D barcodes to its print edition, which means readers can scan them with their mobile phones to access digital content, including videos and photos. Now that is a true linking of digital and offline platforms. Which of all the above-mentioned ventures will survive, only time will tell.

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