Subsidized Samsung Tablets With ‘Tribune Company’ Digital Subscriptions

The Chicago based Tribune Company which owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and the Baltimore Sun have decided to use the popularity of popular Google Android based Samsung Tablets to gain new subscribers.

The company, which also owns superstation WGN and two dozen local TV stations along with web properties that include Careerbuilder and Cars.com hopes to strike a deal with Samsung that will allow for free or highly subsidized tablets for customers.

A secondary rumors says the company is currently working with Wireless carriers, that move could allow Tablet customers to receive 3G connectivity at discounted prices.

The Tribune company is using the program to boost digital subscriptions, the company current offers free iOS and Android apps, along with a Mosaic app for Windows 7 tablets.

The program according to Geek.com has not moved forward at this time because not everyone at the company is as optimistic about the success of tablets for media subscription purposes as CEO Eddy Hartenstein.

While advertising for digital content apps has proven to be difficult, the cost of producing paper editions of newspapers also continues to increase while advertising revenues are falling for print copies, making it a good time for the Tribune Company to try something new.

The Tribune Company wouldn’t be the first media network to offer subsidized Samsung Tablet devices for their customers the Philadelphia Media Network which owns the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News started offering Android tablets to their customers recently to much fanfare by readers of their digital productions.

Would you be willing to subscribe to a Tribune Company publication if it included a Samsung Tablet? Would it need to be free or would subsidized be enough for you to start buying?