Why A Publisher’s Tablet Is A Terrible, Terrible Idea

CNN is onto a leak that The Tribune (the owner of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Baltimore Sun to name just a few) is on the verge of releasing its very own tablet. WHY??

Many current and former Trib employees have spoken to CNN on the condition of anonymity about the new slate from the newspaper company. It’ll run Android, and it will be pre-loaded with software for viewing Tribune media in the tablet-owner’s home town. The idea behind it, I can only guess, is that newspaper sales are down, ink prices are up, and tablets are cool right now. This seems like a last-ditch effort to keep subscribers.

The plan, according to the leaks, is that the Tribune would subsidise a large portion of the initial cost for the tablet, or possibly give it away for free!. There is something similar to logic behind this idea as the fairly high sticker price of tablets that most of us don’t really, actually NEED has kept the number of tablet owners in the US to 8 per cent (according to a Pew Research study), but still, do we need another tablet whose only differentiation is that you can have this newpaper’s app on it? Especially when you can already get what would seem to be the same newspaper app for an iPad?

I get it. You want to incentivise readers to stay with you, and you’re willing to give them a cool present to do it. Why just just subsidise an existing tablet, though? Why spend the money on R&D while you’re firing your writers and editors? Do we really believe that a newspaper company — specifically, a newspaper company that’s in bankruptcy court — is going to push innovation here? I’m thinking no. I’m thinking a lot of no.[via CNN]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.