It’s been a quite week or two for Apple Tablet (iSlate, iTablet, etc.) rumors. This latest one is big and may make waves in the publishing industry. It’s a possible partnership between The New York Times and Apple for what could be journalisms savior. As CNET reports:
The newspaper is expected to announce in coming weeks that it will institute a metered pay plan in which readers would have access to a limited number of free articles before being invited to subscribe, according to a report in New York magazine that cited sources close to the newsroom.
Yes, The New York Times will spearhead the future of the paper business. New York Magazine:
The Times has considered three types of pay strategies. One option was a more traditional pay wall along the lines of The Wall Street Journal, in which some parts of the site are free and some subscription-only. For example, editors and business-side executives discussed a premium version of Andrew Ross Sorkin’s DealBook section. Another option was the metered system. The third choice, an NPR-style membership model, was abandoned last fall, two sources explained. The thinking was that it would be too expensive and cumbersome to maintain because subscribers would have to receive privileges (think WNYC tote bags and travel mugs, access to Times events and seminars).
Not too long ago, Conde Naste showed around their iTablet App. Then, we thought this could be journalism’s savior if done right. It appears we don’t have to worry as Apple and its new little friend from New York. But it wasn’t a simple decision by any means. The Times have a global audience and is considered a global paper and would be just a delighted in gaining more readers when all other papers embraced the subscription-based model out of financial necessity.
As other papers failed to survive the massive migration to the web, the Times would be the last man standing and emerge with even more readers. Going paid would capture more circulation revenue, but risk losing significant traffic and with it ad dollars. At an investor conference this fall, Nisenholtz alluded to this tension: “At the end of the day, if we don’t get this right, a lot of money falls out of the system.”
Thanks to the financial crisis and a deep recession in advertising money, the idea of asking online readers to pay won out. (Read more of it and the interesting comments from readers at New York Magazine.) The only problem left is convincing readers to part with their money for news from the Times as opposed to getting their news from search engines as usual. That’s where the Apple iSlate comes in, whch also gives us an idea what kind of device the Apple Tablet will be. Kindle killer anyone?
[via cnet, digitaltrends]
January 18th, 2010 at 2:34 am
Won’t work. I won’t pay, like most others. If ads are going down due to the recession,
do you think customers, who are the at the lower end of the recession, will pony up?
C’mon.
January 18th, 2010 at 2:52 am
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January 18th, 2010 at 3:38 am
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January 18th, 2010 at 8:00 am
It will be tough to charge for news when there are so many free source on the net.
January 18th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Journalism is alive and well; there are any number of commentaries and news sources available for the asking online. Even this comments section can be considered a form of journalism, all of us are offering an opinion as we see the world.
What the Times is bemoaning is exactly that fact, or more clearly, that people are no longer paying them to get news. That is the model they want to save, not “journalism.”
The fact that there may be Times-preferred content on an Apple device will certainly appeal to a particular audience, it will probably even snare a few. But, like all devices that are paired to particular entity for branding, it will do nothing for most everyone else.
January 19th, 2010 at 4:19 am
[...] tending the wounded with rudimentary tools. Medical journalists find themselves helping out. Apple Tablet and the New York Times to Save Journalism? It’s making waves in the publishing industry – a tie-up between NYT and [...]
January 19th, 2010 at 7:13 am
Looking forward to this tablet
March 1st, 2010 at 3:30 am
[...] Vanity Fair In a deal that I personally foresee as mutually beneficial to both parties, Conde Nast just announced its intention to take “leadership position” on the new Apple publishing [...]