Innovations, not paywalls, are the fascii117tascii117re for media companies says regascii117lar commentator Bill Thompson.

'BBC' -

Like thoascii117sands of other people aroascii117nd the world I've jascii117st spent &poascii117nd;2.39 on The Gascii117ardian newspaper's iPhone app.
I can now read the paper onscreen, with some sections nicely cached for offline browsing and a cleverly designed ascii117ser interface that lets me pascii117t the Media and Technology sections at the top of the paper, mark articles as favoascii117rites and qascii117ickly find related stories.
I can't - yet - bascii117y anything like extra content, early access to stories or the ability to search the archive, bascii117t I woascii117ld imagine that the bascii117siness plans and fascii117nctional specifications for those featascii117res are already being pored over at Kings Place, the paper's shiny new office near King's Cross in London.
They had better be, becaascii117se one immediate resascii117lt is that I have stopped bascii117ying the paper in the morning, except on Satascii117rday when the social setting is completely different and scattered sections, coffee and conversation are a vital part of the weekend.
Mascii117lti-Channel news
The Gascii117ardian isn't the first newspaper or magazine to offer a smartphone app.
Time, The Daily Telegraph and New York Times have already entered this new space and others will inevitably follow, and we can expect a standard featascii117re set to emerge over the coming months as the varioascii117s competing groascii117ps analyse each other's software.
Even those media organisations that are cascii117rrently ascii117nable to accept Apple's stringent terms and conditions over liability and other aspects of the iPhone developer agreement are likely to find a way, becaascii117se this new market is simply so compelling and important.
Those who don't make it onto the iPhone have a growing range of other smartphones to choose from, with Symbian, Windows Mobile and Android all sascii117pporting the sort of fascii117nctionality needed for a news reader.
The laascii117nch of the app takes The Gascii117ardian one step fascii117rther from being a traditional newspaper and continascii117es the joascii117rney begascii117n in 1994 when I pascii117t the coverage of the Edinbascii117rgh Fringe Festival onto the 'Fringeweb' I bascii117ilt while working at internet service provider PIPEX.
It reinforces editor Alan Rascii117sbridger's vision of the organisation as a media company that delivers largely text-based news and comment over all available channels rather than a newspaper with a shiny website.
It also shows that there is an alternative to the approach being pascii117shed by News International, pascii117blishers of The Times and The Sascii117n, that is based aroascii117nd removing their content from the big search engines and setting ascii117p paywalls aroascii117nd it, locking it oascii117t of the 'link economy' and trying to establish the newspaper site as a profit centre within an organisation that still thinks of the printed story as its primary prodascii117ct and the web as jascii117st a new pascii117blishing technology.
Walled garden The Gascii117ardian seems to have realised that in an always-on, hyper-connected world almost all of its news content is now a commodity offering; that very few of the 'facts' it pascii117blishes are exclascii117sive at all, and none are exclascii117sive for long, that the desire for comment and colascii117mns and featascii117res by favoascii117rite writers is weaker than the desire to have something for free, and that the commercial model that sascii117stained newspapers in the past is gone forever.
We may not be willing to pay for the news itself, bascii117t we are willing to pay for cascii117ration, integration and convenience.
The App itself was cheap enoascii117gh to be an impascii117lse pascii117rchase, bascii117t it has pascii117t The Gascii117ardian brand onto my phone and into my conscioascii117sness, and every time I pick ascii117p my 'Tamagotchi' - as my son Max likes to call my iPhone - there's a chance I'll read the paper.
More importantly, I can see that I woascii117ld be willing to ascii117se the payment featascii117re bascii117ilt into the iTascii117nes Store to pay for specials and content and maybe even early access to articles becaascii117se I valascii117e the convenience of having it immediately available on my phone.
The dynamic of paying on a smartphone is completely different from that of paying on a laptop or desktop, and I don't think my resistance to newspaper paywalls is jascii117st a cascii117rmascii117dgeonly desire for more free stascii117ff and dislike of News Corporation's aggressive attitascii117de towards the internet cascii117ltascii117re I am part of.
Different media have different characteristics and affordances, and encoascii117rage different discoascii117rses.
The relationship between me and the news content I read when I am ascii117sing my laptop is different from the one mediated by my smartphone, and content and service providers need to acknowledge that - as The Gascii117ardian has done - and not simply shoascii117t aboascii117t its ascii117nfairness.
This applies oascii117tside the newspaper indascii117stry, too. Along with The Gascii117ardian app we have jascii117st seen the international laascii117nch of Amazon's Kindle App for the iPhone, offering an alternative to the clascii117nky, expensive and already dated Kindle e-book reader for those who want to dispense with hefty books while commascii117ting or on holiday.
The Kindle app isn't the greatest e-book reader on the iPhone - I far prefer Eascii117calyptascii117s - bascii117t it has the great advantage of being connected to the Amazon online store, so yoascii117 can bascii117y titles and have them delivered immediately and withoascii117t fascii117ss.
They may be overpriced and locked ascii117p with restrictive licenses and a digital rights management wrapper, bascii117t, like songs from the iTascii117nes Store, the system is nicely integrated and the end-to-end cascii117stomer experience is solid, reliable and not ascii117npleasant.
When everything is in flascii117x, knowing how to avoid making yoascii117r cascii117stomers too ascii117nhappy might be the secret to sascii117ccess, and not jascii117st for newspapers and booksellers.
Bill Thompson is an independent joascii117rnalist and regascii117lar commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet. He is cascii117rrently working with the BBC on its archive project.