USA Today Moves to Subscription Model

By Bill | April 16, 2010 | 5 comments

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USA Today’s CEO, Craig Dubow, told investors today that they would switch their free iPad app to a subscription based pricing model in July. Currently iPad owner’s can download the USA Today app for free from Apple’s App Store.

USA Today has an exclusve sponsorship deal with Courtyard by Marriott which currently allows them to offer the app and content for free. This will come to an end once the sponsorship deal is over in July.

During the Q1 earnings call, Dubow went on to say the USA Today app had been downloaded over 175,000 times, the app is currently one of the top 10 free iPad apps available in the App Store.

No word yet on the what the new iPad pricing will look like after the partnership with Courtyard by Marriott ends.

[via mocoNews]

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CCD Man

Well, hopefully they will charge an amount that is appropriate for the content offered vis-a-vis the paper version. The other publications seem to think they can get away with charging more for less just because it is in an electronic form. That is not going to fly and it will kill the only thing that might save their already failing businesses.
JannyMac

While USA today has one of the most usable news readers for the iPad I don’t see myself paying for their content. The same content can be fetched on the Internet, in many cases faster. They may find that a sponsored approach generate more revenue when it comes down to it.
Scott G. Lewis

The app has a terrific interface, but the pqper is not known for having the most comprehensive coverage. And the app seems a bit thin on top of that. I suspect most of us will move on.
http://joseq.com JoseQ

The main reason it has been downloaded so much is because it was there on day one, and also because it’s free. Some developers seem to forget the iPad also has the Safari browser and there are enough news sites out there for me to go out and pay to get news from a single source. If they want to capitalize on their app, do it from advertisers, not readers.
H

So long USA Today.