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!

So my partner Craig and I have opened up 2010 with our official release of the The Broadband Bible, which is a 66 page pdf that compares ADSL and Wireless plans in South Africa. All in all, there are 35+ ISPs listed, and about 300+ different plans. And it took a long time to put together. You can download it for free here, or read it below.

I did most of the tabulating and comparing myself, which was an eye opener. It made me realise what a convoluted and confusing industry this really is. In fact, as Craig says, it seems that some ISPs make their living my purporsefully making the plans as complicated and difficult to understand as possible, and hiding from an apples-to-apples comparison.

And from looking at our comparison tables, it is mind boggling to understand how some ISPs get away with charging what they charge. Some prices, for a virtually identical product can be up to five times as high as those of the cheapest provider. When you get over the shock, you start feeling a big bout of disgust.

And although it is (hopefully) true that the more expensive ISPs offer faster speeds (lower latencies) and better customer service, this certainly does not come across clearly in their explanations of the service.

What is most interesting to me though, is how the Internet promises “perfect information” (all information supposedly available online, all easily accessible) yet manages to sustain such price discrepancies, for a basic commodity. Basically what it boils down to is that the theory of having perfect information does not (not even closely) lead to attaining the “Perfect Price”. And why not? I guess the extra layer of what needs to happen with the perfect information (careful analysis, rational decision process) is a challenge many simply are not committed to. Which is why, with pretty websites and confusing language, many ISPs get away with overcharging.

All this highlights a worrying trend: is the online audience expecting to be spoonfed all the time, or will there come a time when easily accessible perfect information will become the standard? Certainly Craig and I are going to continue creating “Consumer Bibles”, comparing specs of products so that the audience can make better informed decisions (our next bibles are the Printer Bible and the Laptop Bible, launching January 21 2010). At the very least we hope this will start a trend of clear reporting by the manufacturers, and indirectly force better prices, and better products.

Download The Broadband Bible for free here, or read below

The Broadband Bible

The gist of it is that instead of tying yourself to a long lease, you simply rent a space for a desk in a big office, and share it with others who are there under the same arrangement. The advantages are obvious:

• You pay only for the space you use
• You share the office with other cool people
• You are not tied to a lease
• You can add space as you can afford it (if your team grows, for instance)
• You often get the benefits of a receptionist, and business equipment
• You have access to good bandwidth, that you for per usage

You can explore the world of coworking by following the links from this excellent wiki on the subject

Well… Gareth Knight, Brett Haggard and myself would like to arrange a space like that for web workers in Joburg. We still have to finalise details, but the space would probably be in the Rivonia/Sandton area, and would cost about R1000 – R1500 per desk, per month. There wouldn’t be a lease, and I’m sure there would be some sort of crowd law that would ensure that everyone is creating a fun atmosphere, that is conducive to producing good work.

Gareth is going to be running a start up, Brett will run Hypertext Media (custom magazine publishing) and I will play around with some new ventures that I am starting soon.

We are trying to gauge the interest of others who would want to participate, so that we know how big a space we need to find. If you are a freelancer, work from home or runs a small company and want to save on office rent and mix with a cool crowd of people, get in touch with us. You can email me at eved AT ideabank.co.za or leave a comment below. There is no obligation, but please only express interest if this is genuinely something you would want to do. Let us know how many people you would be bringing with you, and if you have a finite time for which you need the space.
We would probably get this going from January or February.

Well, there is now :-) I am putting together a “SA Web Bible”, which will hopefully be a pretty comprehensive listing of all the companies in South Africa who offer web related solutions to clients. The “book” will be a .pdf, so it can be downloaded easily. It will also be free, published under a Creative Commons license that will allow it to be distributed freely and widely.

The corporate listings have a cost of R1,500 to be included, which I think is fair, since the companies are going to get huge exposure from this, and are sure to pick up new clients.

The last .pdf book I published got about 3,000 views, and that had a very limited marketing campaign and a very niche audience. I am pretty confident that this could go into the tens of thousands in not too long a time.

The coolest thing though, is that I am including one-man shows and freelancers for free. So if you are a web expert in any web-related field, please submit your details for free inclusion.

There is loads more information on Who Can Help Me.

(I really do want to include as many individuals as possible. If you know of someone else who could benefit from a listing, please let them know! Or if you represent a company who would like to be listed, please get in touch with me).