- Complained here about the pricing of this recently.
- So, a Straits Times subscription is now priced as follows :=
- Print edition only : SGD 24.65 per month
- Both Print+Online editions : SGD 26.65 per month
- Online edition only : USD 27.99 = SGD 36 per month (vs existing/old price of SGD 8.50 per month).
- In other words, it is cheaper to subscribe to BOTH the Print+Online editions and stop delivery of the Print edition, than to order the Online standalone.
- No logic in this (saving trees, delivery costs, etc).
- Attached screen shot of ST App ratings from the Apple iTunes store. Clearly much customer dis-satisfaction with SPH.
- 1-star ratings 126/151 = 83%.
- 1-star ratings percentage would be even more emphatic if not for their mysterious disappearance (reset to zero) when SPH released an updated version of the App.
- 2 weeks have passed since the launch of the paid App. By now, SPH should have received enough feedback to realize how idiotic they have been in their understanding of their own customers (although how they could have come up with the above ridiculous pricing in the first place is beyond comprehension).
- Lets see what action, if any, they will take to put this right.
- Even the PAP is trying to change. Can SPH ?
2 comments:
Hmm, really shows up their sloppy old and new media strategy thinking.
SPH's newspapers, other media, and print ad businesses have been stagnant and maybe even growing slower than the wider GDP growth (always not a good sign) for some time now; the slack has basically been taken up by their property development business and (real estate) investment incomes for some years now, ever since they lucked out and made that fortuitous decision earlier in the decade to vote down calls to sell off Paragon during the dismal pre-2004 property slump years. I remember they had some low-ball offers on the table then.
Best decision the company made; Paragon turned out to be a huge cash cow in rental income as well as with large upgrades in valuation boosting their books almost year-to-year since 2004. And so, started their foray into the property business. Alan Chan and gang never fail to remind naysayers of this during investor meetings, but the charges of core business focus drift always crop up.
Of course it helps when you have a monopoly on media licenses and the market is entirely captured already for you. All they worry about in their newspaper business really, is the price of newsprint(the paper they print on). When you are so molly-coddled in a 'Rent-seeking' business, there is less exposure to real competition. I guess it shows up in their media and pricing strategies...
It's such a shame because SPH have come up with what I thought was a very good App but have shot themselves and ruined this for users with their pricing.
Most of the people in the iTunes Store have complained about frequent crashes and ad pop-ups in the iPad/iPad version of the paper. However, I had been reading the iPad/PDF version, which basically is a high resolution scan of the actual newspaper and had much enjoyed the experience of pinching and zooming into and out of the bits of the paper that I wanted to read. No screen freezes and annoying pop-ups there.
Watching with interest to see how SPH responds to user comments, if any. Then we'll see the kind of company they really are.
Post a Comment