Posts Tagged ‘rupert murdoch’

Magazines: A new world order and why Rupert Murdoch doesn’t get it!

Having been involved with the magazine publishing industry on and off for years, here are a few thoughts on the impact of technology and the ownership of media. People in publishing are great, they are creative, they know their readers, and they know their advertisers. The medium hasn’t changed since it was invented, that being ink on paper aside from some slight of hand to get the words on the web. Reading a magazine is a tactile experience, it is portable, available on demand when you want it. Some of the best reading is done in the bathroom in my case. What the magazine is not, is interactive, immersive, or a two way communication medium. Editors realize that understanding their readers is the key component to telling an effective story; two way interactive communication makes this easier. Now changes in technology like the impending release of Apple’s iPad will impact greatly how this content is presented. The folks at WIRED magazine (which of course is a technology magazine) get it! Period. They understand what the new technology means to their readers, their designers, editors, sales people and ultimately their advertisers. They are working with partners like Adobe to deliver what is a potentially kick ass content experience that will see people never going back to the old paradigm.

The video below shows how WIRED is tuning it’s iPad application and what they call digital story art.

What is important here is the word art. Art is innovative, creative and according to the general concept definition from Wikipedia “Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions”. Once you see the WIRED video this definition will hit home.

Now the rant about the old school model. The problem I have with magazines is the ownership. Particularly media owners like Rupert Murdoch and his News Corporation and the bunch of douche bags that run Viacom, Walt Disney, Time Warner, Hearst Corp. and so on and so on blah blah blah. By the way WIRED is owned privately by Advance.net, and Advance Publications.

These conglomerates are arrogant and narrow minded, especially Murdoch. Recently he displayed his arrogance with the statement; “content is not only king, it is emperor of all things electronic”..

Declaring News Corp “the world’s preeminent content company”, Murdoch said “devices and platforms are proliferating”. And regarding the iPad; “But this clever technology is merely an empty vessel without any great content,” he said. “Without content, the ever larger and flatter screens, the tablets, the e-readers and the increasingly sophisticated mobile phones would be lifeless.” His point of course is that his companies are the emperors of the content with the likes of the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ is the only paper in his stable that charges for content at this time. Murdoch thinks this “paywall” model will become the saviors of the ink on paper scrolls. This is not likely in the iPad world. Apple will control the channel and Murdoch will get his piece along the way. Word’s on the screen however cleverly written won’t be able to compete once the new interactive model becomes ubiquitous.

What Murdoch owns are the bricks that this empire were built upon but not the people inside his walls. It is the people who are the vessels of this new digital art and they dont need a New Corp. cubicle to deliver it. That is the great thing about the Internet, Mr. Murdoch doesn’t control it, its network, it’s content or it’s users or even this this bloody blog.

There will be no room for Murdoch in this world in ten (maybe five) years unless he decides to change. He’s 78 years old and a billionaire…he’s not going to change and I won’t pay for his crap content.