LOCAL print publications may have to follow the example of APN News and Media and look to expand their internet presence in the future, according to the region’s Elliot Newspaper Group manager.
APN is set to become the first Australian regional publisher to make readers pay for its online content by putting up paywalls, instigating a national conversation about whether anyone will pay to read regional news online.
APN Australian Regional Media CEO Neil Monaghan thinks they will, telling ABC’s Media Watch regional press have a competitive advantage because of the uniqueness of their product.
“Those who have struggled with paywalls have ubiquitous content that people can get anywhere… As a regional publisher, as opposed to a generic metro newspaper, our content is unique,” Mr Monaghan said.
“We have 350 journalists and photographers. If a local event doesn’t get covered by us, it doesn’t get covered at all.”
Elliot Newspaper Group mid-Murray manager Rob Duffield said, although an online paywall wasn’t the way to go locally, a number of publications across the region had begun making their editions available for download online.
“From our perspective, our daily newspaper [the Sunraysia Daily] is available online so you can actually subscribe to it, and a range of other regional Victorian newspapers are available for download,” Mr Duffield said.
“I’m not sure that The Guardian’s market space is ready for it yet, although eventually we’ll have to slide across to that service to complement our printed version.”
For more on this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (July 31).
