Tasha Harrison

The outcome of Murdoch’s paywall experiment with the Times will have a huge impact on journalism. I have spent a lot of time changing my mind about whether Murdoch is a genius or has lost touch with modern media. Finally, the paywall is here.

Today Murdoch was full of praise for tablets and, inparticular, Apple’s iPad, stating that they are ‘a perfect platform’ to read news on. This is true and it is almost certainly the future for most newspapers once the paper format is extinct. The Guardian iPhone and iPad app is one of the best examples of this.

This leads me to think that Murdoch is actually very clever. He does understand modern marketing and the internet. He also understands business and the need to make money. While many journalists and newspaper owners are happy to watch and hope that it works, Murdoch is busy actually doing it. For someone who had the foresight to be the first to enter the satellite television market with just a few thousand viewers, you have to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to forming future trends.

For more analysis of the data and how it’s going read this: http://www.beehivecity.com/newspapers/times-paywall-more-analysis-of-the-data191807/

Last week I wrote a blog post about how smart phones, and the iPhone in particular, have become the centre of our communications.  One example of a company really taking advantage of new technology and opportunities is Arsenal FC. Before you click away and think that a football team doesn’t have anything in common with your business, think for a moment as the fans as customers. They pay for a product, which is football, and they buy merchandise, which is all associated with the Arsenal brand.

Arsenal probably don’t need to do as much marketing as they do to consistently sell out each game. Their product, the football, is good enough to do that. By communicating constantly with their supporters and offering them terrific services they add value to their overall offering. Which helps when they ask their season ticket holders for £1,000 every year.

This is why the Arsenal iPhone App is such a genius idea. In my pocket I have fixture information, latest news, video clips (so I can show off Cesc Fabregas to my mates), picture gallery, access to ticket news and information about each player (great for solving arguments in the pub). I didn’t even notice paying £2.99 I was so excited.

Its main strength is its simplicity. They haven’t tried to create a community in an app, they’re just giving people the main information. It integrates perfectly with the website, so the news is constantly updating, and it also takes its video content from there. It is almost the perfect app.

Compare this to Manchester United and Chelsea. They’re just not quite there yet, but they are close.