iPad News: Apple, Publishers Clash on Subscriptions

Posted Dec 27, 2010 at 9:27AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: iPad News Tags: apple, ios, news, tablet

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We’ve been hearing rumors for months that iPad apps for numerous popular magazine and newspaper titles will become available for subscriptions at the iTunes Store. Now the reasons for the delay have surfaced. According to Peter Kafka at MediaMemo, Apple and the publishers are “still miles apart” when it comes to the terms for how to sell subscriptions. The main issue holding up a deal is personal data about subscribers—publishers want it but Apple doesn’t want to give it. Rumor has it Apple wants publishers to accept an opt-in form that would let subscribers choose whether to allow access to a small amount of information, like name, mailing address and e-mail. The publishers want more, like credit card data that can be accessed to gather demographic information about subscribers. Since magazines use demographic info about their subscriber base to sell advertising, this is a very big deal. There’s another problem—money. Apple wants is usual 30% take on an apps but publishers desire a more favorable split. This deadlock has been going on for a couple of months, and publishers are growing impatient—so impatient that they may be taking their business to Android or Google instead. None of this affects Rupert Murdoch’s new title the Daily, which has been designed in partnership with Apple and could be announced as early as next week.

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