Comments on: Why The iPad (and kin) Is Unlikely To Yield Consumer Savings

By: Digital Information: Business Models In Flux | WiredPen

Digital Information: Business Models In Flux | WiredPen — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:02:27 +0000

[...] Why the iPad (and kin) Is Unlikely To Yield Consumer Savings - February 2010 [...]

By: kegill

kegill — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:35:06 +0000

Thanks.

You’re right – I didn’t address the bundling/debundling aspect. That the LP was a marketing tool and a way to “bundle” content so that there was more perceived value in the first (expensive to produce) record that came off the press. That’s why a “single” cost so much (relatively speaking) … I am of the “45 and LP” era (big hole/little hole!).

:-)

This was the first time I had thought through the change in the composition of the current revenue model.

I’m moderately more optimistic than you — I think there is a market for a bundled product that is relevant and that contains information not easily found elsewhere. Think convenience — paying for time. And think “exclusive content” — some people will pay for that. (Don’t pretend to know if enough will pay.)

The new market is not going to be as lucrative as having a monopoly on eyeballs, that’s for sure. It’s not going to “save” the current media structure (which is so incredibly top-heavy and atoms-heavy). And you’re right – simply moving the print publication to a tablet delivery isn’t a savior.

I’m worrying, a bit, about all the folks who aren’t connected — of course, I probably shouldn’t be. Those folks are probably getting their news from TV, anyway. :-/

By: yelvington

yelvington — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:22:49 +0000

I think you’re right that we will not see subscription-based newspaper/magazine packaging on the iPad that will save consumers money — but my reasoning is a little different. I don’t think such packaging is going to work at all.

The iTunes store broke the back of the music album model and led to legal 99-cent music, which simply wasn’t possible in a world of physical distribution of compact discs.

But you won’t see something like that happen with news on the iPad, because the disintegration of the traditional news product has already happened.

Subscriptions and single-copy sales are dead on the Web, and the basic “newspaper” product model has been eclipsed by single-item consumption of almost universally free content, driven by search and social link referrals.

In the next 12 months you’ll see many attempts by publishers to collect reader revenue, but they will be marginal in their effects. You can’t put the free content genie back in the bottle.

There’s way too much excitement about the iPad from “printies” who imagine it to be a replacement medium that will enable the old content, presentation, and revenue models to thrive. Not gonna happen.