The Times paywall...the answer to the publishing problem?

In my humble opinion, the publishing industry has been in trouble for a while. People thought that with the launch of the iPad everything would change over night. Of course, it didn't. The evolution of technology is just that, a slow rethinking over time of how science can help is in our everyday lives. As technology catches up with our great ideas, more sophisticated gadgets and machines slowly emerge, driving down prices of previous iterations. What's my point? Well, the publishing industry has been waiting around for technology to emerge. The Times has finally picked up on the fact that it's not necessarily what you read their newspaper on, it's about usability.


Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. One big problem has been that people are used to reading newspapers. We've grown up learning how to handle and fold, to avoid getting the ink all over our fingers. Another problem is that when the internet was born, newspapers decided that putting their content online for free was a good idea. Such is the evolution of man that barely a decade later we can't believe the publishing industry are going to charge us for said content, even though we've been paying for newspapers all our lives. Disgraceful!


Or is it? Let's remember that it's not really about the content. I have tried roughly four gazillion RSS reader apps for my iPhone, plus various newspaper apps, and on the whole they have been disappointing. By charging for content, the Times has been able to clean up it's act instead of relying on dwindling subscriptions to fund a low budget website. The website looks like the newspaper, and that for me is the biggest selling point. The evolution of the newspaper layout has taken hundreds of years to perfect, and it's now online. 


The first time I logged into thetimes.co.uk I felt immediately at ease, like I had been reading this website all my life. Because I had. So publishers, your content is fine. The key to your success is usability. Sort out how to put your readers at ease and you'll find yourselves back in the game.