Here's a few questions maybe someone has some insight to... how much of my subscription price goes to pay for creating and delivering the physical media that is delivered to my door? How much of a publishers revenue is from subscriptions vs ad revenue? If they could preserve their ad revenue while eliminating the distribution expense, could they also eliminate the subscription fee?
The publisher gets revenue from my subscription, but they also incur an expense to print that newspaper or magazine and deliver it. They can eliminate that expense with electronic delivery, and still include all the same ads they do in print form. That's why I think there is still going to be some method (either a proprietary format or DRM) to ensure that the advertising is delivered with the content. So you can't just block Flash like you can in your web browser.
If we say a typical subscription averages around $2/issue, and if $1.50 of that goes toward creating and delivering the paper copy, they could significantly reduce the cost of the subscriptions. They probably wouldn't, but they could.
McClatchy, which owns 30 daily newspapers, is one of the few major publishers to actually break out online ad revenue from print revenue, and you can get a good feel for how the pieces fit together by looking at McClatchy's last quarterly report.
Revenue. Advertising: $266M (including $47M online). Circulation (subscription and rack sales): $69M. Other: $12M. So revenue is roughly 63% print advertising, 20% circulation, and 13% online advertising. Expenses. Operating: $287M. Payroll: $130M. McClatchy doesn't break out much on the expense side. Operating loss. $70B.
In newspaper and magazine, the circulation -- what you pay for subscriptions and single issues -- is deeply subsidized by the ad sales. A rack sale generates $.50 in circulation revenue and another $1.57 in ad revenue. Taking the newspaper online is super cheap (no trucks, no newsprint), but the revenue is super tiny (pennies vs. $2.07 in ad and circulation revenue).
Good for them, good for consumers, back to the (ahem) drawing board for the presumably proprietary Apple Tablet?
it is NOT back to the drawing board at all. Apple isn't going to release a tablet that is just an ereader. it will be several devices in one. and the reader app created by these folks will most certainly be in the app store. or perhaps even licensed to be built in much like google maps and the youtube app appear on all phones and touches at the moment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MJ Web
Apple supplied the the technology, know-how, and concept. The publishers are in cahoots with Apple. This isn't a preemptive strike, it's a Beta Test.
i am inclined to agree. we haven't seen the store or the software. who is to say that Apple won't be involved in those details
All publications will no doubt be region locked, and checked against your OS version, IP address, birth certificate, fingerprints, and DNA, so that those evil people in England who want the latest New York Times or the US Edition of Time Magazine won't be able to cheat the hard-working publisher out of their rightful international publishing and distribution charges.
Fact is somebody needs to build the underlying delivery, magazine construction and transaction delivery platform and Apple are the only people who have done that in the mass global marketplace.
A 'committee' of newspaper magnets isn't going to suddenly arrive in 2010 and become IT capable at Apple level.
If they want this to work they will partner with Apple - and I reckon already probably ARE!
If they don't they'll create a decade long battleground for badly implemented competing and conflicting delivery and publication standards which will probably end up delivery some sorry-looking flash app by which time Apple will one day just say 'Here you go - free magazine publication app for use with iTunes 'Magazine Stand' and boom - that 'cartel' thing is all over.
Let's be clear Apple has save the record industry - showed them how to monetize content in the digital marketplace in a fair and honest manner - iTunes is a clean hassle free-ad free solution with no trickery to it - best for all if we let Apple do iTunes for publishing.
"A 'committee' of newspaper magnets isn't going to suddenly arrive in 2010 and become IT capable at Apple level."
Newspaper magnets? Isn't that what your wife uses to stick cut out recipes and coupons to the fridge? Is the Apple Tablet going to have that functionality somehow?
It doesn't matter what they do. Paper is taking a beating. Books, comics, newspapers...do any of them sell as much as they used to?
Certainly the newspapers arent' the force they used to be in sales. Why would they be with free online editions?
CD sales? Well, well iTunes is no.1 digital downloads has nailed 'cd's' future to the wall.
£600-800 is going to be alot of money for an e reader. And if the publishers, who've been charging alot of money for regurgitated content for years...think they're going to charge me £5 per issue the same as the paper edition...then they're got another thing coming.
So I guess it's going to be a true multimedia device with an e-reader as one of many strings to its bow.
If Apple sells a gazillion of these 'slates' then the publishers will break rank...crack and offer editions on the itunes store. I don't see them passing up the dough. They need the money.
I'm very surprised sellers of 1s and 0s...still think they can get away with charging the price close to physical media. 200 million people on the internet or more...and scales of economy set to rise in the future. And guess what. They still can't offer a song for 10p or a small amount of money and leverage the economies of scale. I'd actually bother to register an itunes account.
For me, alot of music, tv programs, magazine content is not compelling enough to pay near physical media prices to 'sit on my hard drive' most of the time doing nothing. And I feel that way about physical media. It has to be good to clutter my house space up with it.
For me, unlike a virtual song replacing a 'whirrrrring' cd in my iMac...I just don't see I'm going to have the same emotional rapport with a 'good book' on an e reader as I do the tactile bond I have with a real book.
Maybe I won't think that way in ten years time. But I feel like that now.
I still think the Apple i-slate is going to be a hit. Because it won't be used soley for the e-reading (read saviour) it'll be a big iPod touch that you can casually and comfortable use on your living room sofa.
Lemon Bon Bon.
I second this sentiment. The biggest problem with print media today is that they put out trash. With internet and faster access to information, consumers are in the drivers seat. We will only PAY for good content, it doesn't have to be EXCLUSIVE, but it MUST be good within a certain price range. Newspapers and magazines used to be within that affordable price range for me, (newspaper <$0.75, magazines < $4 on newsstand)...we are now well beyond that price range for traditional print media and for the same informations I get online for free...I no longer care to purchase physical versions. Now they want to sell me the same online/digital version? Are they kidding me?
Another problem with digital products, is that one never feels like owning something even after they paid it. It feels more like you are renting something, this along often prevents me from purchasing digital products. This to me is more the heart of the problem, they need to convince consumers, digital products are as good if not better than physical items.
Traditional print media still rely on advertising revenue model, it's about time someone wake them up. It's NOT working! Expanding to digital distribution is not going change that fact. The storm of change is brewing, I don't think traditional print media is ready or know which direction to take.
I, myself is in book publishing...I find it funny to read about the hype of Kindle, Nook and now, Apple's tablet. Make no mistake, digital products are here to stay but it won't replace old media. iphone/ipod are real and can be seen everywhere because it has practical daily usage, ebook readers is fall behind until they can deliver more affordable models and reading experience. Who knows maybe Apple's tablet can solve a problem others haven't yet.
I second this sentiment. The biggest problem with print media today is that they put out trash. With internet and faster access to information, consumers are in the drivers seat. We will only PAY for good content, it doesn't have to be EXCLUSIVE, but it MUST be good within a certain price range.
I'd like to second that, but in my experience it's just not true. If you want quality, listen to NPR, watch Public Television and read the Christian Science Monitor. Most people don't and they have no interest in making the effort. It's always been this way.
Another problem with digital products, is that one never feels like owning something even after they paid it. It feels more like you are renting something, this along often prevents me from purchasing digital products. This to me is more the heart of the problem, they need to convince consumers, digital products are as good if not better than physical items.
Bingo.
And you're nailed on right about the advertising model they currently have. Do you need advertising if the product is good enough?
The internet is about scale of economies. 200million plus people. You'd think the world's finest brains would have figured out how to use that massive audience to make some money.
It's damning on the print industry and others that they can't let go of their dinosaur past to see what is blatantly staring them in the face. It took Steve Jobs to hold up the mirror to the music industry. And even they still don't quite get it.
The iSlate is coming (we think) and it's going to be interesting how much of it is going to be used as an 'e-reader' given the hype surrounding it and the print industry currently.
Problem is. Print industry is like the music industry. Traditional power bases. Problem for them? The internet doesn't respect power bases. Traditional power brokers are being broken. People can go elsewhere in an instant...massive free content.
I smile at the Times 'power brokering' the consortium of publishers. And look like they're going to try and dictate terms to Apple. Bless 'em. I'll give 'em a point for trying.
Comments
Here's a few questions maybe someone has some insight to... how much of my subscription price goes to pay for creating and delivering the physical media that is delivered to my door? How much of a publishers revenue is from subscriptions vs ad revenue? If they could preserve their ad revenue while eliminating the distribution expense, could they also eliminate the subscription fee?
The publisher gets revenue from my subscription, but they also incur an expense to print that newspaper or magazine and deliver it. They can eliminate that expense with electronic delivery, and still include all the same ads they do in print form. That's why I think there is still going to be some method (either a proprietary format or DRM) to ensure that the advertising is delivered with the content. So you can't just block Flash like you can in your web browser.
If we say a typical subscription averages around $2/issue, and if $1.50 of that goes toward creating and delivering the paper copy, they could significantly reduce the cost of the subscriptions. They probably wouldn't, but they could.
McClatchy, which owns 30 daily newspapers, is one of the few major publishers to actually break out online ad revenue from print revenue, and you can get a good feel for how the pieces fit together by looking at McClatchy's last quarterly report.
Revenue. Advertising: $266M (including $47M online). Circulation (subscription and rack sales): $69M. Other: $12M. So revenue is roughly 63% print advertising, 20% circulation, and 13% online advertising. Expenses. Operating: $287M. Payroll: $130M. McClatchy doesn't break out much on the expense side. Operating loss. $70B.
In newspaper and magazine, the circulation -- what you pay for subscriptions and single issues -- is deeply subsidized by the ad sales. A rack sale generates $.50 in circulation revenue and another $1.57 in ad revenue. Taking the newspaper online is super cheap (no trucks, no newsprint), but the revenue is super tiny (pennies vs. $2.07 in ad and circulation revenue).
Good for them, good for consumers, back to the (ahem) drawing board for the presumably proprietary Apple Tablet?
it is NOT back to the drawing board at all. Apple isn't going to release a tablet that is just an ereader. it will be several devices in one. and the reader app created by these folks will most certainly be in the app store. or perhaps even licensed to be built in much like google maps and the youtube app appear on all phones and touches at the moment.
Apple supplied the the technology, know-how, and concept. The publishers are in cahoots with Apple. This isn't a preemptive strike, it's a Beta Test.
i am inclined to agree. we haven't seen the store or the software. who is to say that Apple won't be involved in those details
A 'committee' of newspaper magnets isn't going to suddenly arrive in 2010 and become IT capable at Apple level.
If they want this to work they will partner with Apple - and I reckon already probably ARE!
If they don't they'll create a decade long battleground for badly implemented competing and conflicting delivery and publication standards which will probably end up delivery some sorry-looking flash app by which time Apple will one day just say 'Here you go - free magazine publication app for use with iTunes 'Magazine Stand' and boom - that 'cartel' thing is all over.
Let's be clear Apple has save the record industry - showed them how to monetize content in the digital marketplace in a fair and honest manner - iTunes is a clean hassle free-ad free solution with no trickery to it - best for all if we let Apple do iTunes for publishing.
Be smart - Go ask Steve...
Newspaper magnets? Isn't that what your wife uses to stick cut out recipes and coupons to the fridge? Is the Apple Tablet going to have that functionality somehow?
I think perhaps you meant "magnates".
Shrugs.
It doesn't matter what they do. Paper is taking a beating. Books, comics, newspapers...do any of them sell as much as they used to?
Certainly the newspapers arent' the force they used to be in sales. Why would they be with free online editions?
CD sales? Well, well iTunes is no.1 digital downloads has nailed 'cd's' future to the wall.
£600-800 is going to be alot of money for an e reader. And if the publishers, who've been charging alot of money for regurgitated content for years...think they're going to charge me £5 per issue the same as the paper edition...then they're got another thing coming.
So I guess it's going to be a true multimedia device with an e-reader as one of many strings to its bow.
If Apple sells a gazillion of these 'slates' then the publishers will break rank...crack and offer editions on the itunes store. I don't see them passing up the dough. They need the money.
I'm very surprised sellers of 1s and 0s...still think they can get away with charging the price close to physical media. 200 million people on the internet or more...and scales of economy set to rise in the future. And guess what. They still can't offer a song for 10p or a small amount of money and leverage the economies of scale. I'd actually bother to register an itunes account.
For me, alot of music, tv programs, magazine content is not compelling enough to pay near physical media prices to 'sit on my hard drive' most of the time doing nothing. And I feel that way about physical media. It has to be good to clutter my house space up with it.
For me, unlike a virtual song replacing a 'whirrrrring' cd in my iMac...I just don't see I'm going to have the same emotional rapport with a 'good book' on an e reader as I do the tactile bond I have with a real book.
Maybe I won't think that way in ten years time. But I feel like that now.
I still think the Apple i-slate is going to be a hit. Because it won't be used soley for the e-reading (read saviour) it'll be a big iPod touch that you can casually and comfortable use on your living room sofa.
Lemon Bon Bon.
I second this sentiment. The biggest problem with print media today is that they put out trash. With internet and faster access to information, consumers are in the drivers seat. We will only PAY for good content, it doesn't have to be EXCLUSIVE, but it MUST be good within a certain price range. Newspapers and magazines used to be within that affordable price range for me, (newspaper <$0.75, magazines < $4 on newsstand)...we are now well beyond that price range for traditional print media and for the same informations I get online for free...I no longer care to purchase physical versions. Now they want to sell me the same online/digital version? Are they kidding me?
Another problem with digital products, is that one never feels like owning something even after they paid it. It feels more like you are renting something, this along often prevents me from purchasing digital products. This to me is more the heart of the problem, they need to convince consumers, digital products are as good if not better than physical items.
Traditional print media still rely on advertising revenue model, it's about time someone wake them up. It's NOT working! Expanding to digital distribution is not going change that fact. The storm of change is brewing, I don't think traditional print media is ready or know which direction to take.
I, myself is in book publishing...I find it funny to read about the hype of Kindle, Nook and now, Apple's tablet. Make no mistake, digital products are here to stay but it won't replace old media. iphone/ipod are real and can be seen everywhere because it has practical daily usage, ebook readers is fall behind until they can deliver more affordable models and reading experience. Who knows maybe Apple's tablet can solve a problem others haven't yet.
I second this sentiment. The biggest problem with print media today is that they put out trash. With internet and faster access to information, consumers are in the drivers seat. We will only PAY for good content, it doesn't have to be EXCLUSIVE, but it MUST be good within a certain price range.
I'd like to second that, but in my experience it's just not true. If you want quality, listen to NPR, watch Public Television and read the Christian Science Monitor. Most people don't and they have no interest in making the effort. It's always been this way.
How else could you explain this?: http://wefollow.com/twitter/celebrity
Another problem with digital products, is that one never feels like owning something even after they paid it. It feels more like you are renting something, this along often prevents me from purchasing digital products. This to me is more the heart of the problem, they need to convince consumers, digital products are as good if not better than physical items.
Bingo.
And you're nailed on right about the advertising model they currently have. Do you need advertising if the product is good enough?
The internet is about scale of economies. 200million plus people. You'd think the world's finest brains would have figured out how to use that massive audience to make some money.
It's damning on the print industry and others that they can't let go of their dinosaur past to see what is blatantly staring them in the face. It took Steve Jobs to hold up the mirror to the music industry. And even they still don't quite get it.
Lemon Bon Bon.
The storm of change is brewing,
The iSlate is coming (we think) and it's going to be interesting how much of it is going to be used as an 'e-reader' given the hype surrounding it and the print industry currently.
Problem is. Print industry is like the music industry. Traditional power bases. Problem for them? The internet doesn't respect power bases. Traditional power brokers are being broken. People can go elsewhere in an instant...massive free content.
I smile at the Times 'power brokering' the consortium of publishers. And look like they're going to try and dictate terms to Apple. Bless 'em. I'll give 'em a point for trying.
Good luck. I almost feel sorry them.
Lemon Bon Bon.