Of Relevance

By now it’s old Twitter news that the team behind DailyMaverick.co.za is launching a daily newspaper, the iMaverick, which will be available for the iPad as of August 15.

The deal goes like this: for R395 per month for 24 months, you get the daily “newspaper” as well as an iPad2. Think of it as a cellphone or data contract. If you do the most basic of maths, and disregard interest etc, the subscription works out to about R8,75 per day, plus you get the iPad.

On the face of it, R395 sounds like a lot of money. But that’s only because we have this perception that stuff on the web should be free. Unfortunately, that isn’t a very sustainable model. The iMaverick team will produce a daily newspaper that is well over 100 pages each day. There will be at least 5 times as much content as in the free, website version. There will be top writers, a top editorial team and a first-class reading experience overall.

To put things in perspective, the Business Day costs R11.50 per day, and there are about 37,000 copies sold/delivered each day. The readership is in the region of 90,000. A lot of the “news” is from syndicates, news agencies or press releases. The DailyMaverick has about 100,000 readers, but is free. All content is original, and revenue is from advertisers.

Still, just because I know that the iMaverick is worth paying for, does not mean that 25,000 people will agree. (That’s the number of subscribers iMaverick is hoping to get in the first 12 months).

Who are the most likely subscribers going to be? I think pretty much anyone who pays for the Business Day and who is a daily web user will want to read iMaverick. Given that that is mostly the corporate market, I don’t see price as a stumbling block as long as consistency in quality and perceived value is delivered. But I also don’t think that offering the iPad as part of the deal is a draw card. Chances are the potential reader already has an iPad, or can easily buy one for cash (They are only R4400).

So who is going to get excited by the deal? People who cannot afford to buy the iPad, but really want one. Maybe the option to buy it over 24 months will be attractive, but paying an extra R211pm for the privilege of getting iMaverick might be a stumbling block in itself, especially for the price sensitive folk. (How many of them are paying the R218pm fee to read the Business Day online? Not 25,000 that’s for sure.)

What I would have done differently: The Maverick team announced iMaverick over two months before launch, presumably because they want to see the response and the uptake. But if that is the reason, I’m afraid they might be bitterly disappointed. They really should have announced the subscription price without the iPad. And to sweeten the deal, they should have had a special pre-launch subscription for 12 months: say R180 p/m with credit card monthly billing. That way, they could really assess whether the venture is viable, and calculate their burn rate (more) accurately. And, assuming a positive response, they could then take those numbers to advertisers, thus shortening the cycle for successful sales of inventory.

I would also have milked the “help us help you” part of it. The one thing DailyMaverick has is a loyal following, made up of readers who are looking for a quality online local read, and are struggling to find it elsewhere. I would have appealed to them for support far more strongly, along the lines of “Look. South Africa needs this. We can make it happen. But we need to know you will be prepared to pay for it. Sign up now, so we know we are appealing to your tastes and needs with this offering. And in return, look forward to a stupendous read in two months time”.

In the meantime, enjoy this video!

Disclaimer: I occasionally write for The Daily Maverick, and the editor is a good friend of mine. I am hugely excited by iMaverick, and wish it the best of luck!