Many of you may have recently seen a tweet from New York Times asking its followers:
"Would you pay to read online version of NY times?"
With respect to India – Times of India, Hindu, Hindustan Times everyone of them faces this problem.
I suspect Indian newspapers to not make more than a million dollar per annum (or even lesser) in terms of ad revenues for their e-version.
Comparatively NYtimes, WSJ make more money through their online version, but so far the online revenue is too small to begin to compensate for the losses from print advertising.
Very obvious reason for such a scenario is that not many want to pay for their newspaper. Let it be physical or virtual.
I have not read a physical copy of NY Times or WSJ. But my experience with traditional newspaper is that the content is too generic. Even connoisseurs of news would not read up more than 50% of the content in it. News can be more targeted and the content generated can be better utilized.
So here are some suggestions, which can improve users experience.
Why not have a personalized version of newspaper?
Some version of the same e-paper can have more tech news, or more entertainment and sports news or even more news about latest cars. Basically users might need customization in what they read, if they are going to pay.
Imagine yourself reading a TOI with news about the latest mobile startup that has propped up in Uganda or a review on Tesla.
- The advantage of a personalized e-paper is targeted advertising. You can understand what users want and improve your advertising revenues.
- How about best YouTube videos of the day ? or newer/older videos from YouTube that is related to the content.
- None of the traditional newspapers allow users to post content. There might be problems with copyrights, but that can be sorted out if the users experience is going to improve.
Basically, the image of a ‘newspaper’ has to change when it comes online. I do not want a NY times or a TOI newspaper. I want a personalized newspaper that can cater to my likes and dislikes.’MY’ newspaper!
Whats your opinion? would you pay for a personalized e-paper ?
[This guest post has been submitted by one of our regular reader – Ganesan Vijay Srinivas]