iPad will save Print Media and other modern myths

Sunday, April 4. 2010

iPad will save Print Media and other modern myths

Show Me The Money!

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Kevin Anderson on the fluffy thinking by media companies that think the iPad is their Saviour Device:

Those who view their primary business as selling content believe that not only can they charge for it but that they can actually charge the same or more for it, just because it is on the iPad. Time, for example, is charging $4.99 a week for their iPad ‘magazine’.

Scott Karp, CEO of Publish2 and editor of Publishing2.0, put it as clearly as it needs to be put on Twitter:

Paying $4.99 for magazine on newsstand includes cost of printing/distribution. Now you pay for iPad instead, so magazine should cost less.

What do you get for $4.99 a week?

Unique interactivity including landscape and portrait mode, scroll navigation and customizable font size

Oh, I’ve never seen that in a mobile web browser, I say with incalculable levels of sarcasm.

Couldn't put it better (including the snark) so I won't

But of course, we have said it before now...........the slide said above is from the last talk I gave on the subject some weeks ago. Follow this link to the commentary on the slideset.

But to Kevin's point - the most cursory examination of the Schumpeterian creative destruction of the media over the last 10 years (make that 15) will tell you that the hope that a new internet based technology will maintain old media margins is a forlorn one. What is most shocking is that the Old Print Media choose still to believe it.

Posted by Alan Patrick in Dis - Aggregation at 12:59 | Comment (1) | Trackback (1)

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Will the iPad *save* photography? No.
A short video about photography, the iPad and the value of content and context for Ellen Boughn’s talk at Blend Images’ annual meeting prior to the Palm Springs Photo Festival 2010. Ellen Boughn: I asked consultant, Taylor Davidson, to put ...

Weblog: Taylor Davidson (@tdavidson)
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I think the biggest mistake the old media companies have made is to assume that people value 'content' per se. I believe that what people value is subjective, it varies quite a lot, and you need to pay attention your customers. Kevin Anderson's piece has some really good examples of companies thinking seriously about research, business models, and product design.

WH Smith made a highly successful business out of the idea that the best time to sell someone a newspaper is just before they get on a train. You could say "aha! a distribution gateway!" but the most important thing is understanding the customers' perception of value. Kev's old firm The Grauniad made the right call last year when the made sure that their iPhone app works on the Underground.

#1 Gordon Rae (Homepage) on 2010-04-04 16:14 (Reply)

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