News Corporation: the smartest guys in the room?
Apple’s invention of the iPod and iTunes in 2001 revolutionised the music industry. While music companies – still sometimes quaintly referred to as record labels – struggle to sustain profitability due to illegal downloading, Apple has got very rich indeed by selling the hardware (iPods/iPhones) and providing the distribution means (iTunes) for music without having to worry about the risky time consuming and expensive business of paying for musicians to record music and promote their wares in the hope something may be commercially successful enough to turn a profit.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation wants to be the new Apple. The Australian’s Caroline Overington couldn’t resist boasting about News Limited’s “cool new toy” to her company’s rivals at last week’s media140 conference in Sydney. All the signs point to News Corp launching that much vaunted – but never successfully implemented – holy grail of a user friendly device that enables consumers to read online news they want, when they want it, on a relatively cheap subscription basis. Basically, an iPod for news with an iTunes-like gateway allowing users to pick and mix the news they’re interested in reading.
Two possibly insurmountable obstacles stand in News Corp’s way.
The first is the free availability of public taxpayer funded news services, hence the reason James Murdoch launched an attack on the UK’s “dominant” BBC last month claiming that “dumping free, state-sponsored news on the market makes it incredibly difficult for journalism to flourish on the internet. Yet it is essential for the future of independent journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it.”
The second is, in some ways, even more problematic for News Corp. They’re just not very good at the internet thing. Sure - Rupert may have learned a few new tricks from selling financial news from his newly acquired Wall Street Journal to those who invest in the stockmarket but News Corp still shows signs of just not being able to deliver the goods online. And there’s been a recent example right here in Australia.
A few weeks ago MySpace Music was launched in Australia. Rupert Murdoch, the man who has been slammed by so many for having the audacity to try to make money from online content he’s paid people to write (with some exceptions…), suddenly decided to give content away for free. We can all now listen to an extensive selection of music via News Corp’s MySpace social media website. Initially this seems to be a fantastic proposition but there’s a problem. Far from being user friendly, MySpace Music’s interface is horribly and frustrating clunky. It’s not anywhere near as good as the likes of Spotify (unfortunately not available in Australia yet).
The promotion of the concept has also been dire. Despite the local News Limited newspapers dutifully trying to spruik the *ahem* cool new toy that is MySpace Music by publishing a survey of politicians’ listening habits (Joe Hockey likes Nickelback?! Say it ain’t so, Joe!) and laughably claiming politicians are “scrambling to join the site” (way to get down with da kidz…), it’s pretty much sunk without trace. Two (2!) fans turned up to a free Wes Carr MySpace Music gig recently. Wes Carr may not be everyone’s favourite singer but when only two people turn up to a free gig you have to wonder how competently it was promoted. MySpace Music has appointed Australian independent agency Bulldozer Inc for strategic communications with the account said to worth US$3 million in media and marketing. But it doesn’t matter how much money they spend to sell the sizzle. A shit sausage is still shit.
But here’s the really scary part. News Corporation is possibly every other commercial media companies’ last, best hope to save their own skins. Rupert has hinted he’s happy to speak to his rivals about forming an alliance so their content can also be made available via the iRupe (or whatever it’s eventually called).“We should be talking to Fairfax about a structure for charging for content online,” states Rupert in an interview published in today’s Herald Sun (ironically, not available online!). It’s a smart move. Fairfax is interested. The ACCC may protest but what’s wrong with media companies collaborating on a delivery model to benefit all and provide a service that will allow consumers to decide what news they want to read?
It’s just worrying that News Corporation’s reporting, especially its political analysis, is so biased. And it’s so antagonistic toward anyone who questions their motives it’s possible they’ll stymie their rivals’ content by not offering a level playing field. With great power comes no responsibility.
Let’s hope News Corp is successful in its bid to save the media industry from itself by being so innovative and kind enough to ensure everyone profits from providing online news.
I, for one, welcome our new media overlords.
