Subscriber Information and Revenue Sharing Seen as Hurdles to iPad Newspaper and Magazine Deals

[cmaier]

Google tracks everything you do and sells it. If they can't get it from apple, they will get it from google analytics

Oh, thank god. For a moment I thought I'd have to live without constant hectoring from publishers about my expired subscriptions.

 

[MacinDoc]

I think you may have already been hit with a chair. The complaint is not the lack of information tracking. The complaint is Apple's refusal to share most of that information tracking. The situation is essentially this: The newspaper companies ask Apple what the demographics will be/are for readership for their paper on the iPad, and Apple responds, "Oh, we can't tell you that, but you sold X amount!" That would be like Best Buy telling Apple how many Macs it sold but telling them jack about who bought it.

This kind of information is the FOUNDATION for product development and customer-focus. Without this kind of information no company would stay in business for long, as they would have no way to track customer preferences and trends. The arrangement, as it stands now is Apple asking the publishing industry to bend over and take it with a smile.

I believe the iTunes user agreement explicitly states that Apple will not share this information with third parties without direct consent of the user. Apple is in no position to disclose this information without changing the user agreement, and one could argue the legality of collecting information from users who had not made an informed consent to the revised agreement.

 

[theelysium]

Greedy Publications

The Media and our President want to point fingers at greedy banks and wall street (when they aren't BTW totally fabricated by them), but I think they have forgotten to mention the most greedy... publication companies. Why do they think they Apple should get less then 30% for distribution when everyone else pays that?

Pay the 30% magazine and book pubs!

Get over yourselves!

You don't get to have my personal information saved in Apple's servers.

 

[cmaier]

The Media and our President want to point fingers at greedy banks and wall street (when they aren't BTW totally fabricated by them), but I think they have forgotten to mention the most greedy... publication companies. Why do they think they Apple should get less then 30% for distribution when everyone else pays that?

Pay the 30% magazine and book pubs!

Get over yourselves!

You don't get to have my personal information saved in Apple's servers.

Because they'd like to stay in business? Maybe you should go research the economics of the publishing industry before you make your pronouncements.