What newspaper and magazine publishers can do to save their business
The publishers have been losing their print business from left to right. Now with the 2010 approaching I think they are just going to get a golden opportunity to save their business.
Rumors on the street is that Apple will release its tablet device in 2010. Whatever it will be called it should be capable to get online and be used as a nice reading device since it is larger than a smart phone. And more importantly, it will set out a trend on more of the similar ones and cheaper ones to be built. What publishing companies can do is to build apps that work best on these devices to display their contents and sell subscriptions. However that is not enough. What they need to do is to give out devices for free (or close to free) like wireless companies do with their cellphones.
I suspect a lot of consolidation will also take place in the near future. As a result, stronger ones become content distributors. A tablet that can be used best as a “reader” is probably the best medium for the future content distribution.