Casey Johnston reporting on this stupid decision:
>Trying to access the paper via the Safari browser on the iPad results in a redirect page that points them to the app, as well as a few other basic services.
and:
>As a Murdoch publication, the NY Post appears to be getting pushed in the direction of The Daily, which exists only as a paid app on the iPad. The NY Post app costs $1.99 to download and gets the customer 30 days of access; after that, it’s $6.99 for one month, $39.99 for six months, or $74.99 for a year. By comparison, The Daily is free to download, and costs 99 cents a week or $39.99 for a year’s subscription.
I can just picture how this happened:
Old Media Guy (OMG) emails young middle manager (MM) in charge of the iPad app to say: “I thought building this iPad thing was going to make us millions like those Birds guys?”
MM: It is taking off a bit slower than expected, but the market is very new.
OMG: What are *you* going to do to fix this problem?
MM: I think *our* best course of action is patience.
**2 Days Later**
OMG: I was talking to my nephew and he said we could just block people on the iPad from visiting our website. That would force them into buying our iPad app. Let’s do that.
MM: Sir, we certainly *could* do that, but I strongly recommend against it. Here are some reasons why (Reader’s choice: add in three reasons that are logical here).
OMG: How about we just block them and see what happens.
MM: Yes sir.
At least this is how I imagine stupid decisions get made.