French publishers team up against Apple

A GROUP OF RIVAL FRENCH magazine and newspaper publishers have joined forces to try to stop Apple from dictating the terms of their distribution.

According to Reuters, Apple's tight control over media content on its Ipad is being threatened by eight French publications, including the newspaper Le Figaro and sports daily L'Equipe.

Publishers are growing increasingly frustrated over what they consider Apple's rigid terms and high commission of 30 per cent.

The French publications have got together to launch a digital kiosk so they can sell individual issues on the Ipad, and they plan to soon add subscriptions and bundled offers.

They have also decided that they will not sell their products on Apple's own Newsstand Kiosk without key concessions. Apple plans to launch Newsstand next month.

"In the Internet world, we face actors like Apple, Google and Facebook that are infinitely powerful, much stronger than us publishers," said Pascale Pouquet, the head of new media for France's second-biggest daily, Le Figaro.

"It just made sense to us to try to establish a more favorable power dynamic to try to have more equal relations with them."

Since Apple started selling subscriptions in February, the media industry has won some concessions. In June, the fruit themed toy seller dropped a controversial plan to make the media offer their lowest subscription prices in its online store.

Last month, Apple booted UK financial newspaper, the Financial Times (FT) from its App Store.

The break came after the FT said that it was in a standoff with Apple over its subscription model, which saw the latter take a larger share of fees, 30 per cent, than the FT liked. In June the FT launched its own web application that can run on any tablet, and that must have been the last straw for Apple. µ