I am a fan of the Flipboard app and have written about it here before. It takes content from sources you nominate and aggregates them into a ‘magazine’ of your own. Oprah took it mainstream by loving it on her show.
Last week, Taptu was launched. Like Flipboard, Taptu lets you create your own ‘magazine’, drawing from sources all over the web. Rather than having to go to site by site, you can use Taptu to bring a range of content on topics which interest you together.
Years ago I wrote that we will move from a world where we pay a few dollars to access aggregated content, like a magazine or newspaper or similar online, to a model where articles are sold for a few cents online. This is why I think the paywall debate, while interesting, will become moot as consumers show that they want to purchase by interest and not aggregator. This is a fundamental shift we will see from print to digital. Content will become king. the better the content the more valuable.
Tools like Flipboard and Taptu which facilitate the consumer aggregating content based on interest will bring closer to reality publishers of content getting a few cents for content for which they have already earned income in another medium or through another platform. As this rolls out, publishers and even authors selling original and sought after content for a few cents per article, good journalism and writing will be seen to have more value rather than the obsession with free which many have today.
So, in addition to the disruption of better mobile devices – the iPad2 and sea of new tablets following, the iPhone and sea of smart phones following we have smart content aggregating apps like Flipboard, Taptu and others which will further disrupt the print model. This will affect print sales. We would be kidding ourselves if we believed otherwise. The only question is one of timing.
I look at magazines as presenting good opportunities for smart, engaged, newsagents for the next two to three years and possible/probable opportunities up to five years – due to a shake out in the distribution channel and other factors. Beyond that who knows.
On a day to day basis I focus on the opportunities . On a business investment perspective I invest on the basis of the three to five year view. This is why we should stop building old school design shop fits, expensive shop fits. We invest too much capital, especially in the circulation areas of our shop fits. Now is the time for us to get the price of these areas down to the levels of what supermarkets pay. otherwise, we will find ourselves with expensive capital off of which we cannot get the necessary return.
Newsagents, go play with Flipboard and Taptu and see for yourself what the magazine of this decade looks like.
I am planning a 2011 workshop series on this and related themes. I will announce dates after Easter. I want to encourage newsagents to talk more about the future.
