As I’ve said before many times, Apple and Amazon are not friends to subscription publishers. They either don’t understand the subscription publishing model, or, understanding it, they want to undermine it. <\/p>\n
The problem is that subscription publishing relies on a relationship between the publisher and the subscriber. It’s not a one and done thing like buying a book. <\/p>\n
Apple and Amazon insist that the subscriber is their<\/i> customer, and that simply doesn’t work for the publisher. The problem is not the 30 percent remit! It’s the subscriber information. <\/p>\n
What subscription publishers need is a platform on which to post their digital content where they can retain the relationship with the subscriber. It’s really a simple thing, but apparently nobody wants to do it. <\/p>\n
Evernote would be a good model. Evernote has a great platform for viewing content online. All they would need to do is add a “my subscriptions” area, where the subscriber could add the login information for all his publications. Evernote would authenticate the subscriber with the publisher’s API, and the publisher would provide the content through a feed. <\/p>\n
Simple. Elegant. Perfect. <\/p>\n
But Evernote won’t do it because it would spoil their relationship with Darth Vader (aka Apple). <\/p>\n
It’s a shame, because this Evernote concept solves a couple real problems. <\/p>\n
First, it gets publishers out of the software business — where they do not belong. Publishers are in the content business. They can’t be worrying about tweaking their technology every time somebody comes out with a new phone or tablet, or changes their OS. <\/p>\n
Second, the reader doesn’t have to download a different app for each of his publications. He simply has a place where he keeps all the stuff he wants to read. (In this example, Evernote.) And … there it is. Easy. <\/p>\n
Third, it helps Evernote because all the publishers would be promoting them, and their software would become the default reader software. <\/p>\n
Still … nobody’s doing it. Oh well. <\/p>\n