Ruminations of a young Australian on the state of the world, the state of his country and the state of all of us. Updated regularly with links and articles. This is a learning process for me, I apologise in advance for any percieved lack of quality.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
For the last decade and a bit, print media has been fighting a losing battle with its arch-nemesis, the big bad internet. But last year it seemed as if their prayers had been answered! A saviour was born, come to revive their dying industry. The iPad was going to revolutionise print media, and whats better, consumers were going to pay for things again!
A year later, and it doesn’t really look like thats happened. There’s been a few attempts, like Rupert Murdoch’s The Daily, which, while having some really good content is hindered by a crappy experience, abundant with bugs and crashes. I’ve tried quite a few digital magazines and newspapers, from The New York Times to Wired Magazine to my previous favourite, Flipboard, which did a fantastic job of curating content from all over the place. But none of these apps/magazines/newspapers solved the big problem. Until now.
Fairfax Media, who owns Australian newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, just released new apps for both papers, and they are seriously good. I’ve only had the chance to try the SMH app, being a sydneysider myself, but I’ll work off the assumption they run on the same engine.
The app is smooth and well thought out, easily one of the slickest iPad apps I’ve ever tried. It gives you pretty much complete access to the daily paper, with live headlines updating in real-time, as well as weather and sudoku. You also get access to all of the included magazines, like Spectrum, Money and Good Weekend. Photo galleries and video are also implemented superbly, providing quite literally a seamless experience.
“How much does it cost?” I hear you ask. At the moment, nothing. The app is completely free until December, thanks to Telstra, who are kindly sponsoring the app until then. After December, the app will cost $8.99 AUD a month, with a discount for print subscribers. I personally think that this is the best feature of the whole thing. The price. It is incredibly reasonable and reflects the fact that pushing digital content is cheaper than printing physical copies.
My one major gripe is that the ads aren’t as smooth as the rest of the experience. I don’t mind seeing ads, especially if it means free (or cheap) content, but don’t let them detract from the experience.
Basically, the new SMH for iPad app is so good, it makes me excited to read the news everyday, and I know that come December, I will happily pay for a subscription.
