UPDATED: Apple's iPad will NOT save journalism
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UPDATED: Apple's iPad will NOT save journalism
Today's much ballyhooed announcement of the new Apple tablet has the feel of a story that broke in 2007 -- for weeks already I've been reading stories and getting Twittered link after link of stories from journogeeks about how this portable slate is going to be the savior of newspapers (and let's not forget books!) Here's an example:
Struggling US newspapers and magazines may seek Internet Age resurrection in a so-called "Jesus tablet" -- a computer expected to grab the spotlight Wednesday at a much anticipated Apple event in San Francisco.
A notebook-sized version of an iPod Touch that Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is expected to show the world could try to do for newspapers what iTunes did for music and what the App Store did for mini-programs for smartphones.
What is this "Jesus tablet" (kind of sounds like "Jesus juice," huh?) of which they speak?
We've already learned, from whispers of those in the know, that it's basically a supersized iPod touch with a 10-inch diagonal screen and it may cost about $1,000.
In addition to playing music and video, it's going to display digitized books, newspapers and magazines.
It will have a browser, Wi-Fi, the ability to run Web applications and probably an option to connect through a wireless phone network.
Place me in the "dubious" column. The Apple tablet may prove to be a very useful tool for promoting media, but I doubt it will "save" it, especially the old-school kind of media like newspapers and books. Two things, quickly:
1) Is there really a demand for this thing? Among the small circle of media and techno geeks who cover these things and who live live in a 16-hour-a-day upscale information bubble, and who also have healthy disposable incomes?...Sure. But among the masses?...considering that newspapers still aspire to be a mass medium. I think most normal people -- especially teens and young adults who consume the most media -- want two kinds devices that already exist. They want a "big" (which could be as small as a netbook) device with full computer capabilities, and they want one "small" device for all the rest, a phone-music player-Web surfer-clock-camera. This is a third device, at a size that's just great for a techno-journalist speeding on Amtrak between Princeton and Manhattan, but not for your average iPhone-adled slacker -- which is where the real money is. And no one will pay $1,000, if that's the price.
2) Even if there's consumer interest, the Apple tablet won't save journalism -- because it will be a massive distraction that will keep newsrooms from making the real changes that could keep us in business. I could go on for a couple of thousand words on this, but today I'll try to keep it short. The problem with newspapers isn't really not having the right technology. To survive, we need to change our whole worldview -- finding ways to encourage more dialogue with readers and more community involvement so that local readers feel they have a stake in this thing. And we also need to do a better job at the thing we claim to be already good at -- real journalism that makes a difference. To show what I mean, read this recent expose on the Washington Post to get a feel for how once-great news organizations have drifted so far off the track. If the Apple table has been around in 2003, we still would have screwed up the run-up to war in Iraq, and if it had been invented in 2007, we still would have missed the looming financial meltdown. How many stories we will miss now while the bosses upstairs are waiting for "Jesus" to suddenly deliver all the loaves and fishes of subscribers and cash.
Unless newspapers are giving readers what they need and what they want, it wouldn't matter if Steve Jobs invented a way to deliver the news via brain waves and ESP.
UPDATE: It's an iPad!....sigh.
(Photo: Philly.com via Gizmodo.com)
The General thinks Will should rewind to October 2001, to find similar rantings from pundits barking about how the iPod would not save the music industry. Look how correct they turned out to be.— General_Turgidson- Unless "thatbut" has recently been added to the OED, I think there's a typo in the 8th graf. Good post, though! I tend to agree that a re-focusing of resources on local issues would help mid-size papers' bottom line -- certainly more than trying to compete nationally/internationally. And, ultimately, how many people will be able to afford the tablet, anyway?— tommydbach
- 1. Agreed. Why would I want something that already exists, except a bigger version? 2. "saving journalism" isn't about the medium, its about the content. Take you and your fellow traveler Polman, for instance. You're the biggest political voices here, yet you're both painfully far-left. Some simple math: If only 20 percent of the country considers themselves liberal, wouldn't it make more sense, from a sales standpoint, to cater to the larger independent (40 percent) and conservative (40 percent) "market?" NOW let's assume that the idea of market-based sales for journalism is repulsive to you (which I'm sure it is–and should be). We're left with only one option: TRUTH. Non-partisan, just the facts ma'am truth. That is journalism. Nobody TRUSTS the media anymore, and with good cause. People now flock to outlets which reinforce their worldview (Fox, MSNBC, etc). What used to pass for real, trusted journalistic sources (the NYT, network news, etc) are now-rightfully-considered highly partisan. The Obama presidency has exposed bias in traditional news. The slobbering and worship was---and in many places continues to be---distasteful to the American public. The Internet (copyright Albert Gore), has already succesfuly democratized information- the medium has been decided. To 'save' journalism, journalists need only now to actually practice journalism.— tjm333126
- “The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.” —Martin Luther So Will the scorn of bloggers and new technologies will rise and those whom adopt and adapt surrive.— Fisher
- I think it's hilarious that wingnuts think that political content is responsible for a market trend. Lefties think the MSM is too corporate and was completely uncritical about things like the run up to the Iraq war and even that politicians don't always get pressed with follow up questions. The righties are convinced that the same MSM is in the pocket of the loonie left. So nobody likes the media. Anyway, I don't know how this new gizmo fits in the marketplace. I'm happy with my laptop. I already have an itouch, but I have hardly any apps on it. It's just a glorified and more expensive ipod.— SteveMG
- TJM: "TRUTH. Non-partisan, just the facts ma'am truth". Maybe you should replace Tierney & Co. You nailed it, no bias left or right.— jimmymack
- If the government took over Apple Computer with a huge loan, like AIG or Goldman, I bet Mr. Bunch would be singing the praises of the iPad.— General_Turgidson
- "The General thinks Will should rewind to October 2001, to find similar rantings from pundits barking about how the iPod would not save the music industry. Look how correct they turned out to be." Actually, you just proved my point. It's nine years after that, and a) have you listened to the radio lately?...the current state of pop/rock music is pretty poor and b) the record companies -- unlike Steve Jobs and Apple -- are bleeding money out the wazoo.— will
- I disagree with the author of this blog's take on what's wrong with journalism. The collective news media made large mistakes like the Iraq and example financial meltdown examples throughout its history. That has not changed. Technology is what undermined the newspaper's business model. The fact that it gives away its product for free specifically is the problem. The diluting of the newsrooms was caused by the undermining of the business side. Nobody can say with certainty if the iPad or Kindle will save the industry. I'm not going to say it definitely will. Certainly a lot of other big claims have been made and have fallen well short. But what I like about it is it gives the reader a little bit more reason to want the electronic product, and maybe that's enough to convince them it's worth paying for. I like the fact that you can see the layout of the paper as it appears in the hard copy edition, instead of the way the NY Times app currently looks, with a list of links. Also, we don't know it will be $1,000. I heard the iPad could cost as low as $600 and since it's basically a small laptop, that's pretty good value.— daveb618
- Dave, it's not really "technology" itself, but the competition fostered by said technology. You now have countless 'sources' of information-most of them free of charge. So the question is: Why would I pay for what the MSM says is "journalism," when I can get the same partisan aggregation in various, free places? NOW, if I saw a "product" that was unique (a truly no-bias source of information) I might be moved to pay for something like that. Something that would cut through the clutter and deliver the basic facts and ask the real questions. But why pay for the NYT when I'm already paying for MSNBC, same with Fox News and Breitbart. It's buying a bucket of sand to carry to the beach.— tjm333126
- It amuses me how dense the conservatives are. MSNBC is liberal because it has three hours of "liberals" on it and 3 hours of Scarborough, plus hours of center right pundits and news filtered by giant corporations who see it as part of the PR operation. Fox is conservative because they want to go back to the Confederacy or perhaps the Crown. Newspapers are failing because they have allowed the extreme right to spread FUD and because they are frequently biased, and clearly so. Just like MSNBC, they are weighted towards the GOP/Corporate side with a liberal thought here and there like sprinkles on a doughnut. Newspapers will also fail because Americans no longer read unless it is twitter or txtspk. I know many post graduate degree holders who cannot spell or construct a sentence to save their lives. This is why empires fall.— Dick Hertz
- What will save journalism is actually reporting the NEWS, particularly local news that affects the LOCAL readers of the newspaper. Sure, have a gossip column for those interested in the latest drunken antics of Amy Winehouse or whose sextape was stolen and is on the Internet. But I want to know about local and state corruption, I want to know about the state of the local infrastructure and what's being done to fix it, I want to know who got paid off and who did the paying to get a massive exemption to land use regs to put up a WalMart on a filled in wetland. Comfort the Afflicted and Afflict the Comfortable is what real journalists (or as they used to be called, Reporters and/or Newspapermen/women) do for a living. When Carl Kolchak and Lois Lane are better role models for reporters than Chuck Todd, for example, it's no wonder that newspapers are dying all over the U.S.— Chris Tucker
- Dick, that may have been the dopiest post I've ever read on here. I mean, wow, just wow.— tjm333126
- ---} I think it's hilarious that wingnuts think that political content is responsible for a market trend. {--- Particularly when they opine that newspapers in highly Democratic regions, such as Philadelphia, are losing readers because of their "liberal bias." LOL! Wingnuts and logic. Never the 'twain shall meet.— Talking point sleuth
Comment removed.
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