• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, September 12, 2011

The Philadelphia Media Network, which publishes The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, is pioneering a new approach to selling both digital subscriptions and tablet computers. The company is marketing discounted tablets, carrying the Android operating system, bundled with digital subscriptions.

To begin, PMN is selling 5,000 of the low-cost tablets, manufactured by ARNOVA, bundled with "apps" from its flagship newspapers. Sales begin Tuesday morning on a first-come, first-served basis. The companies moved from planning to execution with remarkable speed, as the unusual initiative was only unveiled in July. After a beta test, a full-scale launch is planned for November -- probably on "Black Friday" after Thanksgiving.

In announcing the plan for bundled sales of tablets and digital subs, PMN CEO Greg Osberg promised it would "break ground in the industry, which has been struggling to maintain revenues as consumers gradually shift their reading preferences from print publications to computers, smartphones and other digital devices."

He added that the tablets will be "deeply discounted" and will come pre-installed with a total of four applications for reading news and viewing other news-related content from the newspapers. Subscription sales to the newspapers will also be discounted. The Philly newspapers have introduced Apple iOS apps in recent months.

The plan to bundle discounted devices with discounted subscriptions is meant to target "younger readers who don't have an iPad and are cost-conscious" according to Ken Doctor, a newspaper analyst with Outsell Inc.

This isn't the first time a content producer has ventured into consumer electronics territory. In 2010 Hearst Corp. invested in Skiff, a company founded to create both hardware and software for consuming content across a variety of devices, which was later bought by News Corp. The Skiff e-reader won praise for its large, thin "e-Paper" touchscreen (a quarter-inch thin, 11.5-inches on the diagonal) and high resolution. Retailers Amazon and Barnes & Noble have both sold substantial numbers of their own proprietary e-readers.