Message to Arthur Shlujjburger (Sulzberger) of NYT.com

Jason recently had a message to Arthur Sulzberger, Chairman of The New York Times, don't be beholden to Steve Jobs and the whims of Apple.  If you value the demographics and data of your subscribers and want to create a relationship with them, you will lose that ability, it will be gone.  Not to mention the control you give them, take a look at the music industry, who steers that ship?  Apple, Amazon MP3, Walmart?

Thank you Kahlil Lechelt (Superfan) for the clip.

Comments

[Damien]

Well what other mediums are working? We all know that the physical paper sales are dropped fast so they need profit from somewhere. Journalism, especially good Journalism, isn't free. We have heard News Corp being ridiculed for putting up paywalls, it doesn't appear to be a model which will be successful.

So what else is there? The iPad allows them to combine the feel of print (i.e the design, way of presenting information) with other forms of content. I don't think an App alone will be successful, they could charge a subscription and hopefully that won't be managed by Apple.

Ironically though Apple are letting publishers have more control over their content on iTunes than Amazon allowed on their store. Amazon were the iTunes of eBooks. DRM, Lack of control to publishers and it only played on their devices. Few people called Amazon out on it, because they are Amazon. To see the initial reaction be aimed at Apple is bizarre since it's the reverse of the digital music sales (where Amazon came in and helped out the music industry).