It’s the million-dollar question. Will Apple, the iPad and the iTunes business model save journalism and magazines? It’s uncertain. Whether or not you believe Apple knows something about selling “content” to the public, the debate will need to be discussed by virtually every publishing company in the country. Will they go the iTunes route or is there another path to compete in the digital age?
There’s an interesting debate going on at Gigaom after Steve Jobs’ recent appearance at the D8 conference last week. The Apple CEO said, “I think people are willing to pay for content. I believe it for music and video, and I believe it for the media.” The question is how to get readers to pay for the material they’ve become accustomed to reading for free online.
From the article: “The vision of an iTunes that served up paid-for newspaper and magazine content to millions of adoring readers has captivated the traditional media for some time. One of the most eloquent pleas for such a model came from New York Times media writer David Carr last year, in a column entitled “Will Someone Please Invent iTunes For News?†Carr described Apple’s success in selling music, and then said he hoped that someone like Jobs would come along and convince “the millions of interested readers who get their news every day free on newspapers sites that it’s time to pay up.â€
