Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Evening Pilot isn't for everyone

EP touches the community
The Virginian-Pilot’s launch of Evening Pilot, or EP, raises some interesting questions for readers and media critics.

Let us assume, for the moment, that The Pilot will be delivering fresh, quality news to your newspaper, online and to your tablet (but only if you own an Apple tablet).
Did you digest that assumption?

Let’s move on then, so I don’t waste your time.

EP's goal is to deliver interesting, unique and engaging content six days a week for our growing tablet market, said editorial cheese, Denis Finley. (The Virginian-Pilot, Sunday, August 4, 2013)

Finley kept up the tenor of his pitch, which was persuasive, congenial and inviting.
Every weekday at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 6:30 a.m., EP will showcase stories, photos and more that we have carefully selected for the tablet audience. Look for the same dynamic presentation in EP that you have become accustomed to in The Virginian-Pilot.
Our world is changing rapidly, and digital news sources are quickly becoming the norm for a large segment of our population.
That's why we added five city sites to PilotOnline. We hope you will read The Virginian-Pilot in the morning, check PilotOnline on your computer or mobile app for breaking news and then sit back and enjoy EP at the end of a hectic day.

So what’s missing?
The cost isn’t mentioned in the pitch (which was plastered on the front page of The Pilot, Sunday, August 4, 2013) But, supposedly, existing Pilot subscribers won’t have to pay anything for EP. (sounds like ET; maybe The Pilot marketers should have included a cute, wild-eyed and child-like creature with the article; or maybe they did)

You must own an Apple tablet for you to get EP. How many people in Tidewater own an Apple tablet? For that matter, how many people own a tablet or e-reader?

Finley promises (that’s sales-speak for “we haven’t gotten any agreements yet from the other companies, but we’re negotiating prices”) that EP will be available on Android and other tablets, sometime.

So if you don’t own a tablet, an Apple tablet, mind you, you are excluded from in-depth, thoughtful news.

Now that’s serving the community.

So if you don’t own a computer or a smart phone with web access, you are excluded from breaking news.

Now that’s serving the community.

Go to the library then, fool.

So if you really only have money to buy a newspaper and not these other contraptions, you won’t be getting the full portfolio of Pilot news.

Now that’s serving the community.

But I am afraid this isn’t about delivering fresh quality news as is about delivering the same news, in different iterations, multiple times a day.

This isn’t about the community.

This is about reaching advertisers on multiple platforms, so The Pilot can charge multiple prices or a “bundling” of prices. (Cox and the cable companies started this trend.)

And this isn’t about journalism.

This is about ad revenue.

Published by Indie News Network LLC


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