Comments on: Nine Questions on the Tablet and the News Industry Future

By: Bottle Cap Chokers

Bottle Cap Chokers — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:10:09 +0000

Thanks for posting. Much appreciated!

By: vox-popPRcareers

vox-popPRcareers — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:27:57 +0000

This was a good post.

I particularly like the point you made about slow journalism. However, the price of the iPad is bad enough. It won’t hit the young crowd because it is too expensive.

By: iPad and the New Five-Fingered Exercise | Stocks and Sectors

iPad and the New Five-Fingered Exercise | Stocks and Sectors — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:46:41 +0000

[...] Part One: "Nine Questions on the Tablet and the News Industry Future" [...]

By: I conti sull’Ipad economia dei media

I conti sull’Ipad economia dei media — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:18:14 +0000

[...] teoricamente offerta dal device della Apple, dunque, a conti fatti non è assolutamente in grado di compensare i mancati introiti della [...]

By: iPad and the New Five-Fingered Exercise | Reaction Radio

iPad and the New Five-Fingered Exercise | Reaction Radio — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 06:49:02 +0000

[...] Part One: "Nine Questions on the Tablet and the News Industry Future" [...]

By: Ken Doctor

Ken Doctor — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:10:03 +0000

Doug; Thanks for the thoughtful analysis. I understand that with IT Managed Services, the news companies don’t have to go to the expense of authentication and e-commerce; are those the additional savings you speak about? Given that news companies still want to make sense of the user data, coming out of the transaction, they’ll still have IT costs (different from the legacy world) related to the “new” reader.

On physical distribution, I believe those are variable costs, essentially paper by paper on a printing and payment to carrier/distributor, but I think your point holds.

One thing I’m not following: “But with electronic distribution if they cut the cost of the journal in half, they cut their distribution costs as well. So their is a huge ability to maximize profits and distribution”. When you say “cut the cost of the journal in half”, what are you referring to?

thanks. Ken

By: Ken Doctor

Ken Doctor — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:45:59 +0000

Jeff: Thanks for pointing out two dumb typos, now corrected. I blame the cold that came on yesterday.

By: Is Steve Jobs Screwing Media With The iPad? (AAPL) « Apple News Daily

Is Steve Jobs Screwing Media With The iPad? (AAPL) « Apple News Daily — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:24:26 +0000

[...] industry analyst Ken Doctor takes a look at the iPad's business model for media companies and digs out an important point: If a print publication decides to charge for an application, Apple [...]

By: Doug Petrosky

Doug Petrosky — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:55:52 +0000

You say that Apple’s 30% of the top of $18/month is similar to the physical distribution costs of the WSJ but you ignore the advertising benefits the iTMS provides and the payment costs that Apple takes care of for WSJ. But even bigger that ether of those things there is a HUGE difference! That $5/month cost of physical distribution is a fixed cost. They sell 100,000 or 100,000,000, distribution costs is $5 per person per month. But with electronic distribution if they cut the cost of the journal in half, they cut their distribution costs as well. So their is a huge ability to maximize profits and distribution.

I can hear the doubters saying if you sold the WSJ for $2/month to 10 times the people, WSJ gets the same amount of money so where is the win. Well, it is likely that there is a sweet spot where cutting the cost in half will tripple sales or cutting it to 1/4 will give 6 fold increase in distribution, but even if it were half the price twice the subscribers, WSJ makes money on Ad’s too. And the more people who read WSJ the more relevant it is.

Bottom line, Electronic distribution at 70/30 split, with the benefits of payment processing, advertising and distribution all taken care, is a huge win for content providers.

By: Henhousefox58

Henhousefox58 — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:42:00 +0000

Jobs is too far left for me to buy any of his Apple products. I really don’t see the need to own one either.