Apple to announce iPad / iTunes newspaper subscriptions
There finally may be some movement on the issue of how to monetize electronic newspaper subscriptions, with Apple closing in on deals that would allow subscriptions to newspapers via iTunes.
In an epic recreation of Nero playing his fiddle while Rome burned to the ground, the fate of the newspaper business (and thus that of professional journalism) has been hanging in the balance while newspapers seek a new business model. So far, while newspaper after newspaper has gone broke, news organizations have clamored for new ways to make money while stubbornly refusing to let go of their old ways. The battle between Apple and newspapers about who owns information about people with newspaper subscriptions has been typical of the long series of impasses involved in this issue.
It would appear that there is some movement on this problem, citing a report quoted in a CNET article. This report apparently comes out of the San Jose Mercury News, which is one of the papers involved in discussions with Apple. Although there is some lack of clarity in the report, it says that Apple will still take between 30 and 40 percent of the revenue from sales in its iTunes App Store, though there has been some movement on who owns the information about subscribers. Part of this involves the newspaper apps having an “opt-in” feature like some mailing lists, which would allow the newspapers to sell longer subscriptions, thus satisfying the subscriber data ownership issues.
The same mechanism could be used, obviously, for magazine subscriptions. It is assumed that these subscriptions would be aimed at the iPad, given the large size of the publications in question. It is not yet known whether or not iTunes subscriptions could be purchased and used on non-Apple devices or if other organizations, such as Amazon with its Kindle, would have to cut separate deals with the publishers.
Related Posts:
