People often ask me if I think whether print media (books, magazines and newspapers) is going to die out with the birth of e-zines, e-readers and the likes. They continue to tell me: “… Because you know, you can’t actually take a laptop onto the beach and read a book” and in some bizarre cases “… I’d rather take a physical magazine into the loo than my lappie” (really, who would even contemplate this?) So now the obvious question is, will the iPad place the final, ultimate stake into Print Publishing’s Heart; will you take the iPad onto the beach (taking into account a battery life of up to 10 hours) or other less desirable places like the ‘facilities’?
I’m definitely not techie enough to comment on the iPad’s features (I’ll leave this to the Gizmo’s of the world) but I do want to bring up some points from a publishing point of view. Most people see the iPad as another Apple gadget (yes, its cool but why doesn’t it have a camera and why is there no multi-tasking?) but I see the ‘KA-CHING’ factor to it. Suckers have been giving away content for free over the Internet, largely due to the demise of the print industry. I think we all agree that you rather read the news on your phone than buying a bulky newspaper, and what one does, all follows. In comes Steve and have thoughts (no doubt) along the lines of, how can we harness this at Apple World and turn it into a damn profitable business (drumroll) may I present the iBook store.
The idea is simple, as Apple did with the iTunes store, the iBook store will give you the opportunity to purchase books, newspapers and magazines. Rumor has it that 70% of the revenue will go to the publishers and 30% to Apple (making Amazon and Kindle team shake in their boots), once again Apple determines the pricing for the publishing conglomerate as happened with iTunes. Let me put it another way, who would ’sell’ their book through Amazon’s Kindle now if they got anything less than 70% of the revenue? So lets sum it up, the iPad gives you interactivity (flipping pages like a real life book), display in colour and you earn (apparently) 70% of total revenue. Nice.
Now the iBook store is this funky little bookshelf display where you can touch the book you want and purchase online, but what does this mean for the media industry? In a nutshell, publishers will probably loose their customer databases (and direct marketing tools) as customers turn to the iBook store to purchase goodies. Customer database versus income, hmmm hard decision. And what does this mean for advertisers? Do they go to Apple and ask for the stats on the most popular magazines (according to online sales) and then advertise in those? Is this a more accurate and less bias way to go about it? If readers have to start paying money for The New York Times online (and I’m sure Apple will make a pretty enough deal with them to persuade them to join the store that is called iBook), will this by implication give the publishing industry a steroid injection of note?
When you have to start paying for something, you automatically start choosing content more carefully meaning publishers will have to bring their A-game to provide the best possible content for their readers in this (perhaps once again) competitive industry. I personally feel that it will give the industry that much needed stab it so desperately needs but at what cost, we can only wait and see.
Two words, however, come to mind. Ultimate control. So I wonder when ‘iHome, iBank, iSchool and iUniversity’ will arrive…
Posted via email from Chew magazine
