Your Take MediaShift . What Should Publishers Do About Apple's Subscription Scheme? | PBS

Your Take »

  • Share

What Should Publishers Do About Apple's Subscription Scheme?

Mark Glaser

by Mark Glaser, June 17, 2011

Tagged: , , , , , ,

Online publishers are in a real conundrum when it comes to selling digital subscriptions in the Apple universe. On one hand, there's the popularity of Apple, the App Store, iTunes and the iPad and iPhone -- you can't simply ignore them? On the other hand, Apple is taking a big 30% cut of subscription sales and won't share the data with publishers on who's subscribing to their content. While Apple has loosened some of those restrictions, it's still not an easy process for publishers to play in Apple's world. So what's a publisher to do? Play along with the rules despite the drawbacks? Forget Apple and go for alternative platforms? Do both? Vote in our poll and share your thoughts in the comments below.


  • Report an Error
    @

    The information you supply will only be used to send this email.

  • Share
Check out MediaShift Sponsorship opportunities!

Multimedia

5Across Video Show

5Across: Beyond the Book: E-Books and Self-Publishing

Subscribe

All Episodes »

The Mediatwits

Facebook IPO Mania; Internet Week; 16th Webby Awards

Subscribe

Subscribe in iTunes

All Episodes »

Newsletters

MediaShift delivers the best news on media and technology directly to your in-box.

Best of MediaShift

By This Author

  • Mediatwits #49: Facebook IPO Mania; Internet Week; 16th Webby Awards

    Welcome to the 49th episode of the Mediatwits podcast, with Mark Glaser and Dorian Benkoil as co-hosts. Today is the day for the Facebook IPO, so we've got it covered like a wet blanket. Special guests Debra Aho Williamson of eMarketer and Troy Young of SAY Media talk over the ins and outs of Facebook as it soars into the...

  • Mediatwits #48: Yahoo CEO Under Fire; Pros and Cons of Metered Pay Walls

    Welcome to the 48th episode of the Mediatwits podcast, with Mark Glaser and the Rafat Ali as co-hosts. On this show, we turn to the chaotic soap opera that continues at Yahoo, once an Internet darling on its umpteenth remake. Its new CEO Scott Thompson appears to have padded his bio with a computer science degree that he never received....

  • Mediatwits #47: Positively Dan Rather; Future of Facebook; Rise of Snip.it

    Welcome to the 47th episode of the Mediatwits podcast, this time with Mark Glaser and the Rafat Ali as co-hosts. On this show, Rafat had the honor (and early-morning wakeup call) to interview news icon Dan Rather at 7 a.m. while Rather was traveling by train to Washington, D.C. Rather has a new memoir out, "Rather Outspoken," and talked to...

Stay Informed

Who We Are

MediaShift tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.

Reader Poll