Rupert Murdoch says iPad may be savior of newspapers

Rupert Murdoch, head of the massive News corp. whose holding include the Wall Street Journal and FOX, told the National Press Club in Washington that the iPad may just rescue old print-and-delivery-bound media:

"It may well be the saving of the newspaper industry", by making it cheaper to distribute content to a broader audience, Mr Murdoch said. He expected the iPad to have eight or nine competitors within 12 months."There's going to be tens of millions of these things sold all over the world," he said.He said it would also help bring down the costs of newspaper publishing because "you don't have the costs of paper, ink, printing, trucks".

Unfortunately, neither the iPad nor any piece of technology can rescue old media from the old world thinking of its out-of-touch leadership -- the people who want to charge as much or more for iPad versions of their newspapers and magazines despite the lack of physical media costs, and who want to merely transplant text from static paper to dynamic displays with no creative thought or understanding of the new medium.

I

Who and what's going to save newspapers from that?

[Australian via Gizmodo]

Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.