Hm, You Don’t Say?
November 21st, 2006 by Justin
In Steven Levy’s “The Perfect Thing” which is all about the conception and dominance of the iPod, he chornicles the Herculean task Steve Jobs had before him in trying to get the five major music labels on board with the iTunes music store. In short, it took a strong man like Apple to force the Big Five into the future of their business.
The print industry has a lot in common with the pre-iTunes record business. The difference, of course is that newspapers don’t have a Steve Jobs to drag them kicking and screaming. This is specifically illustrated on the heels of the new Yahoo deal:
There is some worry that today’s announcement may further fracture the industry. In a note released by Merrill Lynch, analysts Lauren Rich Fine and Justin Post raised that question: “We also wonder if the Yahoo partnerships splinters the newspaper industry, precluding newspapers from forming a national, industry-wide consortium and migrating onto common platforms.”
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Archives:
Critical Acclaim:
— Tom Scocca, New York Observer
— J. Michael Robertson, Media Studies Department, University of San Francisco
— Shelly Smith, Comedienne of The Brothel
— Will Leitch, Deadspin.com
— mute_everything, MBF Commenter
