Apple is buying Texture, the digital magazine distributor, says the headline. Okay. But the subhead says, “A message from Apple to big publishers: We like you.”

No, no and no. When will publishers ever learn?

I suppose the message is “we like you” in the sense of “we like you for dinner.” It certainly doesn’t mean “we want you to stay in business.”

The business strategy of Facebook, Apple, Netflix and Google (collectively “FANG,” which is quite appropriate) is “all your customers become our customers.” That’s been the model all along with all the digital publishing platforms, and it’s a bad deal for publishers, who rely on building and monetizing an audience.

Texture fits in perfectly with the FANG strategy. The consumer creates an account with Texture to get access to the publisher’s content. The publisher gets a few pennies and loses the relationship with the customer.

Bad deal.

By the way, I predicted that NextIssue / Texture wouldn’t work.