Philadelphia Newspapers Will Soon Include An Android Tablet With Digital Subscriptions

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While digital subscriptions for newspapers may not be as popular as some media companies would have hoped for, it is refreshing to see some trying new ideas. Enter this latest from the Philadelphia Media Network, who happen to be the publishers of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

The idea, to sell Android tablets that include a subscription to both newspapers. Sounds like an interesting idea, though given we are still not all that sure how well digital subscriptions for tablets are doing in general, it does make us wonder how successful this will be. That being said, the Philadelphia Media Network is not going to be jumping in full force.

In fact, they are going to begin with a smaller pilot program with 2,000 tablets being sold. Or maybe more accurately, 2,000 tablets hopefully being sold. That aside though, there are still some details that are not yet known. First — which tablet they will be selling with the digital subscription. And second — how much this will cost.

Of course, to play devils advocate here, the first may not be as important. As much as we in the geek and early adopter crowd like certain models, it may be the case that an Android tablet is an Android tablet when you are buying it like this. In terms of the price, nothing specific was given, however it was suggested that they are trying to get the content and tablet pricing to be half off as compared to their regular retail price. In other words, this could be a decent offering.

The pilot program is expected to begin in the second half of August and if all goes according to plan, will launch on a full scale later in the year. In addition to the newspaper content, the company will also be selling advertising on the homescreen and providing varying content based on the person doing the reading.

We are a bit skeptical, however we were also a bit skeptical of the ad-supported and slightly discounted Kindle and that seems to have been selling rather well. Who knows, maybe this model of selling a tablet at a deep discount along with a digital subscription will do well. In the end, there seems to be some important details still missing here, but that aside, it does seem like something we should be paying attention to.