Guardian Launches Paid-for News App

Britain’s Guardian newspaper has joined the ranks of the App Store by launching its own newspaper app, but the big news isn;t that the app is available, rather it’s that it isn’t free! Up until now most of th large newspaper brands have offered their iPhone apps for free e.g. the New York Times, the Telepgraph, etc. The Guradian has chosen a different route though and has decided to ask customers to stump up £2.39 as a one off cost. It’s a bit of a gamble because customers have been so used to free news and there’s no doubt industry watchers will be paying very close attention to how well the Guardian does with this app given that many in the news business are getting set to start charging customrs for online access to their content. For their part the Guardian isn’t going for a subscription model with this app, rather it’s a one off charge that is obstensibly to offset the setup costs associated with the app. They say that Android and Symbian versions will be released in due course.