« Meet Thelma Arnold | Main | Bastard apps »
People like old media
August 09, 2006
The LA Times reports on how a couple of big U.S. newspapers, the Dallas Morning News and the New York Daily News, are experimenting with including multimedia CD-ROMs with their Sunday editions. The CDs allow the papers to extend their content, and their advertising, onto the computers of their readers - and to provide a bridge between their paper and online editions. According to the Times, Dallas Morning News executives are "pleased with initial results since they began in April to pack [the] discs into the Sunday paper once a month. 'It was a gamble for us to do this,' said Bernie Heller, vice president of advertising for the Morning News. 'I'm not ready to say it will definitely pay off in the long run or that my advertisers will embrace it. But so far it looks really good.'"
The tech-forward crowd finds the idea of distributing CD-ROMs silly. Snarks Techdirt: "A bunch of newspapers have decided that if one bit of old media (newspapers) isn't enough, why not two? That's right, they're going to start shipping CDs with the morning newspaper, sort of like computer magazines from a decade or so ago ... If this content is so valuable, and is going to be viewed on a computer anyway, why not just put it online?" The skepticism is warranted, but it's also worth remembering that most people aren't tech-forward. There can be big rewards for using "old media" as a bridge to "new media," as NetFlix discovered when it used the drab old U.S. Mail as a bridge between its online DVD rental site and the homes of customers - at a time when a lot of Web 1.0 entrepreneurs were losing their shirts (or their investors' shirts) by trying to deliver video over the Net.
There's another thing to keep in mind: People love freebies, particularly ones that take physical form. Last year, British newspapers began distributing DVDs of old movies in some editions. Though the films "were not the freshest offerings," Variety reports, "buyers don't seem to care. On a single Saturday in October, the Times added 220,000 sales with 'The Last Emperor,' the Daily Telegraph got a 170,000 spike from 'Whistle Down the Wind' and the Independent sold an extra 85,000 copies with 'Wings of Desire.'" I'm doubtful that CD-ROMs will have the same pull as DVDs, but I don't begrudge the papers the experiment. "Old media" often has more appeal than new media types realize.
Advertisement: Are you ready for "The Big Switch"? Nicholas Carr's new book "is the best read so far about the significance of the shift to cloud computing," says the Financial Times. Fast Company calls it "compulsively readable." Order now from Amazon.com.
Comments
You're right Nick - everyone likes a freebie. But if you're going to use a CD then why not point to the online edition as part of the CD content so that the rags can seed online efforts and offerings. Important to remember there is a cost of production and distribution.
As an aside, tip-on CDs have become a standard method of distribution for demo and try before you buy desktop software in the UKs consumer space. It seems to work as there's little shortage of takers.
Posted by: dahowlett ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.roughtype.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 9, 2006 09:08 AM
People might enjoy freebies at first, but just ask AOL how old it gets. The same AOL who is ditching CDs, btw.
Regardless, this is a bad idea from a business perspective. Why? The CD, and its ads, can maybe be viewed by one, maybe at the most a family, full of people. It cannot be shared, except for physically passing the disc on, losing your own copy in the process.
Put that same content on-line and the music and video multimedia (haven't heard that in a while) is not only reachable by hundreds of thousands, but can be easily shared as quickly as an e-mailed link or blog post. There is the potential for a vast group of targeted advertising viewers.
Posted by: Steven at August 9, 2006 09:50 AM
i'd be interested in getting more details on whether the CDs are just digitized content or whether there are ways to jump from the CD to the web. if this is the case, the CDs could be a user-friendly way for newspapers to extend their digital reach and encourage more people to check out web properties. as for the tech crowd's dissing of CDs, what do you expect from people stoked about blu-ray?
Posted by: Mark Evans at August 9, 2006 11:30 AM
Mark, According to the LA Times piece, "Users can navigate from the disc to other websites, including the newspaper's online edition and advertisers' home pages."
Posted by: Nick Carr at August 9, 2006 11:48 AM
The CD producers, IMedia, have a new-media feel:
IMedia posted a net loss of $572,000 in 2006 on sales of $1.4 million, an improvement over the previous year, when sales reached just $446,000 and it lost more than $4.2 million.
Hopefully this will be their turnaround. I like the idea, as large downloads can be annoying even on my DSL -- and most of the US is still dial-up.
Posted by: Sid Steward at August 9, 2006 07:36 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
The Atlantic article:
Is Google Making Us Stupid?"
Nick's new book:
"Future Shock for the web-apps era" -Fast Company
"Ominously prescient" -Kirkus Reviews
"Riveting stuff" -New York Post
Greatest hits
Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians
The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock's avatar
Flight of the wingless coffin fly
Other writing
The end of corporate computing
Nick's last book:
Order from Amazon
Visit book site