Chattanooga Times Free Press is in the midst of a huge transition from print to digital distribution, with the publisher aiming to provide its subscribers with iPads and the digital version of their newspaper by 2022.
Starting Monday, select subscribers will be sent an iPad and the daily newspaper in digital form. Chattanooga Times Free Press will move customers in phases and reduce print and paper delivery over time. The goal is to have this completed by mid-2022, with the exception of the Sunday paper, which will still be delivered in print medium.
iPads will be given away to those who continue to subscribe and pay $34 a month. It’s estimated that the publisher will be spending around $4.4 million on the device. Training and marketing efforts, as well as one-on-one training sessions held at subscriber homes, community centers and hotel conference rooms will be held.
The digital version will have exclusive content, such as text to speech, video, extra images and more.