A new media business model for old media

Apple has changed the world again today.

Apple® today announced a new subscription service available to all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store℠, including magazines, newspapers, video, music, etc. This is the same innovative digital subscription billing service that Apple recently launched with News Corp.’s “The Daily” app.

Read the press release here

Content is not free, it costs money to create good content. It costs even more to create great content. And the people who write well deserve to be paid more.

By allowing content publishers to charge for content, Apple has laid down the gauntlet.

Now, it is now up to content publishers to screw it up … and here are the top three ways there’re going to screw up:

1. Insist on people paying for monthly/annual subscriptions … ONLY, and that too, at the same rate that it sells for on a news-stand.

2. Forget to take into account the stories/writers who’re making them money — so they end up losing the writers to competition, and their subscribers will follow.

3. Think that video is only done by TV channels, so stick to text and images.

I’ve been saying for a while now that the ipad is going to change the way media is consumed, and in turn, the way media businesses are run.

The most interesting change, however, is going to happen in advertising. The ways ads are designed, the way copy is written … everything about an ad is going to go through a sea change.

I am willing to bet most of the old guard in India are going to pass around two, tired, arguments:

1. Not enough people in India use iPads.

2. We know what sells.

Things are getting interesting.

Recovered from the site’s WordPress archive, where it was published on 2011-02-15.