Eager to hop on the tablet trend, the publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News plans to sell discounted Android tablets with preloaded content.
The announcement, first reported in Adweek, will cost the publisher — Philadelphia Media Network (PMN) — somewhere in the six figures. In exchange, PMN will get data on how consumers are interacting with the tablet version of the newspapers.
Pricing for the program hasnât been determined. The publisher plans to launch with 2,000 tablets in the second half of August. A PMN rep says the brand of device hasnât been decided yet. Initially, the tablets will be loaded with the Philly.com app, as well as digital versions of the two newspapers, which now cost $2.99 per week.
The move is perhaps the boldest attempt by a newspaper publisher to get ahead of the “tabletization” of the category. While there have been iPad versions of The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and The New York Times since last year, most newspapers were initially slow to embrace the trend. Meanwhile, a survey by Prosper Mobile Insights this month found 28.2% of respondents have already replaced their newspaper with a smartphone or tablet.
More About: android tablets, ipad, iPad 2, newspapers, Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer
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