December 4, 2003

NYTimes to battle USA Today

The New York Times is going to soon be offer­ing a free ver­sion of its digital-​replica edi­tion to patrons of Way­port, a provider of hotel and travel Wi-​Fi hotspots. (via Poyn­ter)

What does this have to do with USA Today? The Times is going to be get­ting its (dig­i­tal) foot in the (hotel room) door.

USA Today’s strength, I think, has always been its dis­tri­b­u­tion (NOT its con­tent). Go to any hotel and there will be a “free” copy of USA Today wait­ing for you. I say “free” because obvi­ously the hotel is paying for a copy and pass­ing the cost on to you.

It’s a “if you leave it in front of their door, they will come” thing.

Every time I spend a night in a hotel and I have to dig up change to buy a local paper from the rack (if the hotel even has one), I think papers are miss­ing this boat.

I’m glad to see the Times making strides toward com­pet­ing with USA Today’s dis­tri­b­u­tion – albeit with their digital-​replica edition.

Local papers should keep their eyes on this market (esp. cities with a lot of tourism and/or con­ven­tions — yes, I’m look­ing at you Atlanta).

Filed under: Business

Next:
Previous:

Related

Comments