MocoNews has a long article on this today. It’s worth reading the whole thing:
Grzegorz Piechota, the European president of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association—which represents some 5,000 members in 80 countries worldwide—told us that the INMA will be meeting with the European Online Publishers Association and the magazine association FIPP in a invitation-only roundtable on February 17 in London, to compare notes on Apple’s new subscription charging rules, and talk about what to do next. …
From the point of view of the INMA, so far the takeaway is not very good:
“Some say they feel betrayed.” Piechota notes that newspaper publishers at first welcomed the iPad with open arms. “They believed that it would be a great way to access content from newspapers and magazines. So they hyped the iPad, and many of them invested in apps for it. By promoting these apps, they promoted the device. Publishers in fact helped to make the iPad successful on the market.” …
Publishers in Belgium and France are taking the matter to the authorities, making requests that Apple be investigated by antitrust watchdogs, although Piechota realises this is a costly process that could take years to resolve. “Legal action is the least wanted solution. It is slow and will damage the relationship between Apple and publishers. The first thing is a dialogue. As publishers we need to know what Apple is playing at.”
So now Apple is doing to the publishers what they pushed publishers into doing to consumers. Pardon me while I indulge in a little schadenfreude.
This anti trust bluster looks like a lot of hot air. Apple own their device. They own their software iOS. The publishers signed a contract and Apple have not changed the contract. The contract does not affect other competitor’s devices.
That is not to say the contract is a nice one. It seems quite restrictive. But I suspect there is a lot more to this than the publishers claim and the whle thing will play out over the coming months.