At the D8 conference Steve Jobs remarked that perhaps the news industry needs an iTunes type model for news. He went on to say that we need news outlets so that we don’t become a “nation of bloggers”. Agreed.
The question then is does Jobs mean that we really need an iNews, or was he simply using that to illustrate the point that news is lost and needs a common strategy that they can band around? I of course think that Jobs meant the latter: news outlets need to band together to create a common and standardized system by which they will make money off of their content.
The reasons iTunes works so well for music is because you can get everything at one place for the same price. Just because Ke$ha is more popular right now than Bob Dylan, doesn’t mean her music costs more. Everything in one location for a standardized price. Makes sense. So why hasn’t news done this?
What is stopping the major news outlets from coming together and saying that starting next week we have to pay $5 a month for a subscription to a news site, every news site is now $5/mo and that is that.
I know what is stopping them from doing this: ego.
There is no way that the Wall Street Journal and New York Times are willing to charge their customers the same price that The New York Post charges – no way.
Ego: that is going to be the news industries downfall.