(Update: The Guardian has a story that the Financial Times will introduce a pay-per-view model next summer, while looking at whether any FT.com should be free.)
With Apple apparently scrambling to introduce a tablet computer by early next year, a bigger issue to consider is whether Apple can save the newspaper business much like it has come to the rescue of the music industry.
For years, newspapers have done a terrible job of embracing the Web and reconfiguring their business structures to the new economic, advertising and readership landscape.
Even as dozens of newspapers close or became Web-only entities with skeleton staffs, the industry still hasn’t figure out how to be vibrant and viable. For many newspapers, their only salvation will be charging for online content – something Rupert Murdoch intends to introduce next summer.
So where does Apple fits into the mix, and why could it save newspapers from themselves?
Before Apple launched iTunes, the music industry was flailing to deal with the growth of P2P and the fact consumers didn’t want to pay $20 for a CD with one or two good songs.
Apple and Steve Jobs corralled the music labels by convincing them there was a better way by giving consumers a user-friendly online music-buying service. Begrudgingly, the labels agreed with Jobs’ vision, and the rest is history.
For newspapers, the Apple Tablet has the potential to provide a new, user-friendly model to reach consumers, including younger consumers who don’t read newspapers any more.
With Wi-Fi/3G access, a large screen (10″?) and Apple’s design brilliance, Apple could roll out an iNewspaper service that was either subscription-based or ad-supported.
With hardware design to read content, the Apple Tablet would give newspapers an exciting new platform to deliver content when and where consumers wanted it.
With Apple’s support, newspapers would have a solid economic model as a key element of the iNewspaper service as opposed to trying a wide variety of different models.
The iNewspaper service would be easy to use, intuitive and compelling, which would encourage consumers to maybe even pay for content.
What do you think? Can Apple save the newspaper business to the same degree it has helped the music industry?
11 Comments
<Even as dozens of newspapers close or because Web-only entities>
Finger slip. Presumably you meant "become".
I think there is a great potential here, however, the price of the tablet might be a sticking point.
I'm afraid you've missed the entire reason why print is dying — lack of trustworthy content. Many newspapers just use the same wire stories from the AP, Reuters and the rest; when they don't do this, they present the information with a slant that people have been sick of for a long time. People have other options now and they're using them.
Put another way, the newspapers have lost the technologically aware (which spans all age ranges); they have lost the youth; they have lost the college crowd; and they've lost most people under 40. If you're taking bets, these are impossible odds to beat.
I would argue that the appetite for content that offers perspective, insight and context is valuable, and it's exactly the type of content that newspapers need to focus on delivering, while leaving the news to AP, Reuters, etc.
A platform won't save the information publishing business.. Moving to a facilitation business model and recognizing the news isn't theirs, its ours, may do the trick. However, AP and Murdoch et al would need to give up control, and the entire economy, not just the information publishing business, as we know it, now, is the antithesis of that.
If a technical publication pretending to some degree of being savvy can think for a moment that a gadget will save an industry dying from multiple, chronic, complex causes, it is in a single moment marking its naivete and symbolizing the failure of "content providers" to come to terms with the fact that in order to report on the world, you actually have to know something about it. Which is one reason so many are refusing to pay for most bogus "content."
I also think that Apple is about to revolutionize the newspaper/magazine business by making this the killer app on the tablet. All of the other pieces necessary for this to happen are already in place.
Newspaper/magazine subscriptions could be handled by an electronic news stand (similar to the iTunes Store) and would allow Apple to get a cut (or all) of the money. Because the subscriptions would be ongoing, Apple would use the subscription funds to subsidize the cost of the tablet and would account for that income over time, much as they do for the iPhone. In effect, Apple becomes your newspaper delivery boy.
Apple is building a $1billion data farm in North Carolina that I think will be the primary hub for the news stand. Actual delivery of a newspaper/magazine for the appropriate period of time would be handled by an RSS type feed.
On your tablet, the newspaper or magazine would be formatted to fit into a Cover Flow type of presentation. Modified Cover flow would allow you to scan various sections of a newspaper (much as we do with a physical paper) and then a tap would bring up an article that you wanted to read. Modified Cover Flow would allow you to scan the various covers of a magazine to select the one you want and then allow the pages to be scanned scanned to select the articles you want to read.
Using Modified Cover Flow will allow newspapers and magazines to format the content the way they normally do complete with advertisements and using the equipment they have in place (except for the presses/paper). Thus the revenue stream for them will remain unchanged as will their workflow.
Get ready!. Apple is about to revolutionize print publishing for the second time.
Clearly, you and I are thinking on the same page.
With user-friendly hardware and a service that's accessible and intuitive, I believe some people would pay for content.
Well technically it could be done as you think it might but you just cannot ignore the endemic problems of newspapers – readership is in decline and has been for years. How many teenagers regularly read a newspaper? Look at the newspaper demographics as it tells the story. It isn't the medium but the content that is the problem and until that is dragged into the 21st Century newspapers are scrap!
Yes, I think they can save the newpaper industry if they are not too late. I purchased a tablet PC (the monitor folded back to look like a book) 4 years ago and subscribed to newpapers via http://newsstand.com. I hated putting the newspapers in the recycling bin every day whether I read the paper or not.
The Tablet PC worked well for a while then the stylus broke and I refused to pay $100 to buy a new one and I decided to skim the free newspapers online albeit less frequently.
It was a pretty good solution while it lasted even though the Tablet PC weighed 6lbs! I would welcome a light tablet computer and better pay-per-use subscription models for newspapers (such as Sunday only New York Times subscription).
Not sure if Apple could do it but Amazon/Kindle and other knock-offs might be able to. A tablet computer is a niche computer that would be too expensive to use for reading. The Kindle on the other hand is getting better and cheaper. Competition will push the price down further, which will open up the appeal and demand.