MercuryNews is reporting that Apple will soon announce a plan for subscribing to newspapers with the iPad. While Apple did not comment, the MercuryNews speculated on Apple’s deal with Roger Fidler, head of digital publishing at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Fidler believes that Apple take up to a 30% cut of subscriptions on top of 40% of ad revenue.
In exchange, the newspapers’ developers will be be allowed to provide customers with a way to share statistics on just who they are. The opt-in feature will allow Apple to share user demographic data with the publishers, which they could then direct towards their marketing efforts. “[Publishers] want the data of their customers so they can integrate it into their circulation database so they know who their customers are,” said Fidler.
It’s all speculation, so don’t get excited just yet. Time, Inc. has recently been frustrated with their attempts to implement a mutually-agreeable subscription model in the App Store, and part of their complaint was over retrieving the very data speculated on by Fidler.
[Via MacDailyNews]
TUAWRumor: Apple will announce newspaper subscription plan originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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