Newspaper, thy death is near
Within the next few weeks, Apple and media giant Rupert Murdoch are expected to unveil an iPad-only daily news magazine app that, if successful, will eventually spell the end of dead-tree journalism. The Apple/Murdoch marriage has the potential of doing for newspapers (the print version) what iTunes has done to CDs, and Netflix streaming is doing for DVDs - making them virtually obsolete.
Within a relatively short time, nearly every daily newspaper will mostly abandon their print editions in favor of web-based or app-based news delivery. You'll still be able to get the print edition. But they'll be viewed like vinyl record albums - admired by purists who'll pay a premium to possess them. And home delivery will be a quaint memory of a simpler era, like the milkman. Everyone else will be be jacked in to their iPad or other tablet to get their news.
What's significant about the "The Daily" is not so much the iPad-only delivery system or the gee-whiz graphics and technology that will undoubtedly come with it (check out Virgin's "Project" iPad magazine for an idea of what's in store). No, the most significant aspect of the Apple/Murdoch news app is that people will actually have to pay for the content (rumored to be 99-cents a week, paid through an iTunes subscription). This will usher in a whole new mindset as other news sites rapidly move to paid content and correct a major blunder that the news organizations made in the early days of the web - giving away their primary product for free, which essentially reduced daily newspapers to the electronic equivalent of weekly give-away shoppers.
This switch to paid content is long overdue, but not wholly unexpected. As far back as May 2008, I blogged that newspapers would be wise to adopt the iTunes model for paid content, exactly what the Apple/Murdoch venture is going to do (followed quickly by The New York Times). This won't solve all of the newspaper industry's financial woes ("The Daily" also has key sponsorship from heavyweights like Verizon, Macy's and Pepsi). But it will start to change the expectations of the consumers that news should be free. What other industry could survive by giving away their primary product? This assumes, of course, that newspapers will actually produce something worth paying for - a big "if" in many cases. So this change to paid-only content could have the effect of dramatically improving the quality of the content, not a bad trade-off.
Here's more evidence that news on printed paper is on its way to the grave. My 80-year old mother, a voracious reader, told me last weekend she wants a Kindle.
If they're not already, newspaper publishers everywhere should be running as fast as they can from their print edition dailies and moving quickly to paid electronic versions - and figuring out a way to replace the ad revenue that is surely to be lost in the process.
One final point: many of the stories about "The Daily" still refer to it as a "newspaper." There's no paper in the newspaper of the future. We need a better word.
GRAFTOPIA: Thanks to a reader of this blog for recommending the book Graftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids and the Long Con that is Breaking America by Matt Taibbi, a writer for Rolling Stone, which I quickly downloaded to my iPad. It's a great, fun but depressing read. If the average person could even begin to understand the complex machinations by Wall Street that led to the collapse of the housing market and nearly brought the world's financial industry to its knees, there would be far more outrage. The people behind this scandal - many of whom are still in business or in Obama's cabinet - are nothing but thieves and petty grifters. Taibbi makes the whole thing more understandable than most writers, and his sense of outrage is higher than anyone's, which is why more people need to read this book.
Within a relatively short time, nearly every daily newspaper will mostly abandon their print editions in favor of web-based or app-based news delivery. You'll still be able to get the print edition. But they'll be viewed like vinyl record albums - admired by purists who'll pay a premium to possess them. And home delivery will be a quaint memory of a simpler era, like the milkman. Everyone else will be be jacked in to their iPad or other tablet to get their news.
What's significant about the "The Daily" is not so much the iPad-only delivery system or the gee-whiz graphics and technology that will undoubtedly come with it (check out Virgin's "Project" iPad magazine for an idea of what's in store). No, the most significant aspect of the Apple/Murdoch news app is that people will actually have to pay for the content (rumored to be 99-cents a week, paid through an iTunes subscription). This will usher in a whole new mindset as other news sites rapidly move to paid content and correct a major blunder that the news organizations made in the early days of the web - giving away their primary product for free, which essentially reduced daily newspapers to the electronic equivalent of weekly give-away shoppers.
This switch to paid content is long overdue, but not wholly unexpected. As far back as May 2008, I blogged that newspapers would be wise to adopt the iTunes model for paid content, exactly what the Apple/Murdoch venture is going to do (followed quickly by The New York Times). This won't solve all of the newspaper industry's financial woes ("The Daily" also has key sponsorship from heavyweights like Verizon, Macy's and Pepsi). But it will start to change the expectations of the consumers that news should be free. What other industry could survive by giving away their primary product? This assumes, of course, that newspapers will actually produce something worth paying for - a big "if" in many cases. So this change to paid-only content could have the effect of dramatically improving the quality of the content, not a bad trade-off.
Here's more evidence that news on printed paper is on its way to the grave. My 80-year old mother, a voracious reader, told me last weekend she wants a Kindle.
If they're not already, newspaper publishers everywhere should be running as fast as they can from their print edition dailies and moving quickly to paid electronic versions - and figuring out a way to replace the ad revenue that is surely to be lost in the process.
One final point: many of the stories about "The Daily" still refer to it as a "newspaper." There's no paper in the newspaper of the future. We need a better word.
GRAFTOPIA: Thanks to a reader of this blog for recommending the book Graftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids and the Long Con that is Breaking America by Matt Taibbi, a writer for Rolling Stone, which I quickly downloaded to my iPad. It's a great, fun but depressing read. If the average person could even begin to understand the complex machinations by Wall Street that led to the collapse of the housing market and nearly brought the world's financial industry to its knees, there would be far more outrage. The people behind this scandal - many of whom are still in business or in Obama's cabinet - are nothing but thieves and petty grifters. Taibbi makes the whole thing more understandable than most writers, and his sense of outrage is higher than anyone's, which is why more people need to read this book.
Posted by Dennis Bailey at 1/21/2011 10:12 AM 
Categories: News media
Tags: newspapers apple news media Rupert Murdoch Graftopia
Categories: News media
Tags: newspapers apple news media Rupert Murdoch Graftopia
Well Dennis after reading Graftopia do u now love Greenspan for the damage he has done to our Country and helping his own ego - what an Ass who did not know a thing about Economics.
glad i referred the book to you to make your blood boil.
john d.
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