Rise of streaming services and podcasting drives revamp of Fairfax’s The Guide
Fairfax’s Monday television liftout, The Guide, has had a makeover, with editor Paul Kalina noting the evolution had to happen to reflect readers’ changing viewing and listening habits.
The revamp includes a new weekly page dedicated to “the vast and rapid-fire offerings of streaming services such as Stan, Netflix and Amazon, as well as iView, SBS On Demand and network catch-up sites”, and a new column on podcasts.
Kalina said the need for the evolution of the print edition of The Guide became clear after an extensive survey of readers of The Sydney Morning Herald.
“It was… a timely opportunity to look at how The Guide could be updated to reflect the rapidly evolving TV and radio landscape,” he said in his column today.
In addition, The Guide needs to help readers make sense of the crowded television and content landscape, he said.
“The phrase “golden age of TV” gets used a lot, yet it is hard to think of a time when viewers have had so many and such good programs to choose from, be that on broadcast TV or online,” he said.
He noted, however, that free-to-air television remains “the primary source of our readers’ TV diet”.
The revamp also includes “a fresh, modern design and reader-friendly font”, he explained.