To the point: The bird in the hand
Without wanting to dwell on an open wound: Print publishers have put themselves in an uncomfortable situation through their initial Internet strategy of making valuable print content available for free online, thereby effectively rendering it worthless.
Readers were less and less willing to pay money for information, and the advent of free newspapers only reinforced this trend.
For quite some time, this mistake was noticed and attempts were made to turn things around. Some content was only freely accessible to subscribers or disappeared entirely behind a paywall. However, very few media consumers were willing to pay for something they could have for free. But they felt the need to read media content not only in print form, but also on the screen. And they did so when and where it was convenient for them. The advent of ever better mobile devices reinforced this trend.
After the introduction of the iPhone and later the iPad, media companies began to think about how to meet this need and make money first. Apple was suddenly seen as the savior of the press. Axel Springer CEO Matthias Döpfner even said shortly after the iPad was introduced: "All the publishers in the world should sit down once a day, pray and thank Apple CEO ¬Steve Jobs. He is saving the publishing industry with the iPad. This is the beginning of a new era." Soon it sounded quite different.
The App Store business model, which let Apple earn 30 percent of all content sold, pissed off publishers. The European Newspaper Publishers Association recently called for free access to the iPad. In a statement, it said that Apple should not dictate a business model to publishers; publishers wanted to negotiate directly with customers, present offers on online and print packages, and generally decide independently on payment modalities.
Apple introduced a new subscription service this week. Publishers are to be allowed to offer subscriptions to their content both inside and outside the App Store in the future. They can determine the price and the duration of the subscription. They will also gain theoretical access to customer data, as Apple wants to give customers the choice of submitting their data when they sign up. However, the 30 percent commission remains unchanged. So what now? Should publishers swallow the toad in order to generate revenue rather than lose it thanks to a simple payment system? I think so.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
