Apple’s plans to funnel more electronic sales of magazines, newspapers and other content through its iTunes store is making some publishers “uneasy,” according to the “Wall Street Journal” (http://macte.ch/kKLCZ).
Apple wants to popularize subscription sales of digital content for the iPad via an upcoming coming new delivery and billing system (well, actually, it’s already here, though only the Daily, which debuted yesterday, is using it). At the same time, Apple is tightening enforcement of a rule governing how some apps for the iPad must handle sales, a shift that affects online books as well as other electronic publications, says the “Journal.”
“Apple’s moves are a hot topic, in part because they could require publishers to share revenue from some content with the Silicon Valley company for the first time,” the article says. “The hardware maker also could require that publishers forgo collecting valuable subscriber data they rely on to market their products, an issue that has emerged as a sticking point in discussions with publishers, people familiar with the matter say.”
Apple’s plan is also drawing resistance from some European publishers. “Bloomberg” (http://macte.ch/QdZl0) reports that Belgian publications say they are troubled by Apple’s behavior after Dutch newspaper, “NRC Handelsblad,” said it was banned from selling or giving away iPad subscriptions outside of the iTunes store from the start of April. The move triggered antitrust complaints by politicians.
“What we’re worried about is that Apple will hijack our customer relationship,” Caspar Van Rhijn, innovation director at Belgium’s largest publishing group Corelio Publishing NV, told “Bloomberg.” “If Apple would force us to use the Apple iTunes store, we wouldn’t know the data of our subscribers, only Apple would have the data.”
