Publishers’ Savior or Entozoan: The Perils of Technology
January 5, 2010
David Carr’s “A Savior in the Form of a Tablet” in the January 4, 2010, hard copy of the New York Times on page B-1 reminded me of Jacques Ellul and his discussion of technology in La Technique: L’enjeu du siècle. The basic idea is that technology has some upsides and some downsides. The catch, according to Father Ellul, is that if the downside is really bad, the fix is more technology. Rinse, and repeat. It may be tough to get tech out of the system. Hence, keep the entozoan in your mind’s eye. It will be in your tummy out of sight but “there”.
Once technology bites, the remediation may be more technology. Source: http://img.tfd.com/wn/EF/60B01-parasite.gif
Mr. Carr focuses on the hopes of publishers for Apple’s rumored “tablet”. Not only is he pointing to a future in which those younger than the average purchaser of the Kindle buy and read magazines, he is by his own admission an optimist.
If you poke around a bit, you will be able to locate quite a bit of information or disinformation about the alleged Apple tablet will come to the rescue of the struggling world of traditional publishing. Some examples plucked from my trusty Overflight file on this subject include:
- The Washington Post’s “Hey! Look behind You!” The point is that tablets offer an opportunity to traditional media giants.
- NewsFactor Network’s “Apple’s Tablet May Come with Content Subscriptions” which translates to hard cash right now, folks.
- And Media Bistro’s uplifting “Apple Tablet Rumor of the Day: 30/70 Split with Publishers”. If accurate, Apple will give publishers more dough than publishers allegedly pay writers. Wow. Let the good times roll.
The music industry and probably the television industry may have a different view of the implications of a tie up with Apple or any other company that moves to a position of near market dominance. The music crowd has learned that Apple is pretty much a big dog in the tune-filled kennel. Even some TV execs with ultra bright smiles have learned that Apple and other companies in its position can be insensitive to the needs of the high fliers in the television game.
Here’s a thought, just a thought from the addled goose.
Let’s assume that the alleged tablet is real. Further, let’s assume that it takes customers from several different segments. Are these folks the magazine-reading type? Apple seems to appeal to a younger, more hip crowd. In fact, some of the most loyal Apple device customers may be found in places like Google. Microsoft, with an estimated 25 to 35 percent of its employees using Apple iPhones, can be safely excluded.
The tablet sucks in lots of buyers. But what is the projected demand for for-fee content on this alleged Apple tablet. My rough guess is that most of the buyers will be interested in Web surfing, video, and some Apple apps. I am not sure that my digital buying habits will change when I get an alleged Apple tablet. I think the Kindle device sucks, but I like the Kindle app on my iTouch. I don’t buy magazines in hard copy or digital form any longer for three reasons:
- The information I seek is generally not in hard copy or digital magazines. You can read the triggers for this Web log and see that I rely on industry stories, news releases, and company Web sites. I just referenced the hard copy of the New York Times, but I don’t like the online New York Times at all. I use the paper version. I am 65, remember?
- The information in magazines is stale. Here’s an example. Several years ago we subscribed to Future Publishing’s Net magazine. The magazine in 2006 had useful articles and included a disc with some interesting and little known to me software. When I dropped the subscription last year, the Net magazine content was way behind what I could find easily online. The Web became more timely, and the Net magazine became too slow and, therefore, uninteresting to me. Good bye to my $200 annual subscription.
- The baby boomers are heading to the rest home. The lads and lasses behind this cohort are not into reading books and magazines at the rate my grandmother and grandfather read them. I noticed that my parents stopped reading magazines and books as they aged. I still chug along, but I think that the demographics are working against traditional media. Book stores are looking like gone geese because most books sell to a couple of hundred thousand people. The rest of the US population struggles along without a dependence on books and magazines.
Magazine readers are rich and older. Books and newspapers are similar. What if Apple tablet buyers are really young and don’t expand the market? Source: http://www.mediainfocenter.org/magazine/mac/demographics.asp
What this means is that if Apple or another company sucks in the customers, those customers may not make the market for books and magazines larger. The Apple or whoever concentrates the market and we get a replay of the iTunes video.
In short, today’s hopes creates tomorrow’s “problem”. A bit of a Gordian knot for traditional media. The white knight may be a combination of Andrew Carnegie and JP Morgan, two guys who took care of themselves first and then sort of chilled out.
A Gordian knot. Source: http://c2.api.ning.com/files/j2Rt6xrxQvd4X142DvH46mGI33tVpowUvzbh*SoB4WyF-7N29C0omG5*5ikELTZNRsGcMfZX8ZFZA6mPRzaKPEGzbJrE*hK2/Gordian.jpg
The Gordian knot may be a small component of a much larger problem: perhaps the straitjacket?
Stephen E. Arnold, January 7, 2010
A freebie. No one pays me to write this wacky stuff. I must report this to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
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