Media Observations
FTC to investigate Apple
Since Gerri Knilan’s first post on the iPad, the Federal Trade Commisson has decided to launch an investigation into Apple’s policy of not allowing makers of competing devices to gather data from their ads on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. This data is considered indispensable, because it reveals how effective the ads are, and by extension how much companies can charge for them.
Gerri mentioned the iPad’s exclusivity—long an Apple business practice, dating back to the introduction of the Macintosh—as a potential reason that the computer and personal electronic giant’s new iPad device might face resistance. And now the FTC is providing that resistance, at least in the form of an investigation to determine whether barring competitors like Google from gathering ad data is unfair.
To me, this is more of the same from Apple, who in recent years has sought complete vertical integration of the user experience for its products. It’s no surprise that they want to restrict competitor’s access to ad data, effectively rendering competitors ad’s worthless and impossible to price.
I just don’t see this kind of monolithic approach working in 2010, when choices for consumers are limitless, and competitors are plenty. Apple has become the talking head from their famous 1984 Macintosh commercial:
What the heart wants
Car and Driver editor-in-chief Eddie Alterman opines on the iPad in the July issue, and makes a good point: no one really knows what the end result will be when it comes to media on the iPad. Says Alterman, “The device’s full impact on the media business won’t be clear for a while…As Woody Allen once infamously and lecherously confessed, ‘The heart wants what it wants.’ Well, media platforms are just as perverse.”
Size doesn’t matter?
More from the pop auto literature: a letter to the editor in the August 2010 issue of Four Wheeler:
I was disappointed to receive only 98 pages with Four Wheeler when my Diesel Power magazine came with 186 pages. That is a ridiculous difference since for the same price of my Diesel Power subscription I am getting half the magazine with you.
The editor’s response:
The actual size if the magazine is dependent on the number of pages of advertising we generate each month. Diesel Power has more pages of advertising, so naturally, it’s thicker than outs. Then again, what’s really more important—quantity or quality?
The (Magazine) Empire Strikes Back
Five major magazine publishers launched an advertising campaign in April they say is designed to fight back against the notion that the magazine medium is on its death bed.
According to a press release from the leadership of Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, Meredith Corporation, Time Inc. and Wenner Media, the ads will feature:
headlines such as, “We Surf the Internet. We Swim in Magazines.” And “Will the Internet Kill Magazines? Did Instant Coffee Kill Coffee?” These will be accompanied by iconic images lifted from the pages of America’s best-known magazines. A second phase, which will start appearing in June issues, will embed multiple cover images from widely recognized publications into the ad’s text to convey key phrases.
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, magazine publishers are buoyed by a recent bump in print advertising sales and data from Mediamark Research & Intelligence showing a 4.3% increase in magazine readership over the past five years.
The press release states the ads will reach 112 million readers a month, while the WSJ story says the total value of the ads is more than $90 million.
One such ad features Michael Phelps:
Another substitutes popular magazine titles for words:
A YouTube video features the CEOs of the five companies explaining in their own words their rationale for the campaign:
Is this a desperate last gasp? A long-overdue statement of the facts? Or are they missing the point about the future of magazines altogether? (And is it a little odd they’re promoting the virtues of magazines to people who are already reading one?)
In my next post: industry reaction, and my thoughts.