Mark Day in his column in The Australian this morning weighs in on the debate between Google and News Corp. and that Google wants to be seen as a Digital newsagent. What interests me in Day’s piece is not so much his take on the Google / Publisher debate but his acknowledgement of two sides to the debate.
Logic suggests each side needs the other and in due course a compromise agreement will be reached.
Maybe he could talk with his employers about the debate raging among Australian newsagents about the take it or leave it contracts offered by News Limited. News is currently not demonstrating an appetite for compromise.
One example of the changed publisher / newsagent relationship is that newsagents have gone from a model where the publisher carries the financial cost of heavily discount newspaper home delivery to one now in South Australia where newsagents share the cost of the publisher controlled discounts. Newsagents have no real capacity in their model to leverage this in a way which helps fund the steep discount.
While logic would suggest a compromise, both sides need to have an appetite for compromise. Thousands of family run businesses are hoping for a change of heart within News Limited.
Hi,
We are a UK based company called Digitalnewsagent.com and are looking for investors.
The online DNA store sells and promotes digital editions of magazines and books, we also have looked at the business as a physical delivery portal for all publishers.
Any interested parties please contact me at anthonybuden@digitalnewsagent.com.