Apple Really Does Want to Save Old Media

Tablet aims to reinvent newspapers, mags as iPod did music biz
By Caroline Miller,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 21, 2010 10:20 AM CST
Apple Really Does Want to Save Old Media
Apple CEO Steve Jobs speaks at an Apple event in San Francisco, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Apple thinks its new tablet could revolutionize print media and television the way the iPod revolutionized the music business. The company has been in talks with top book, magazine, and newspaper publishers, the Wall Street Journal reports, as well as television companies, to bring their content to the device. Unlike Google, Steve Jobs sees his mission as helping content providers repackage and sell their wares, rather than giving it away for free.

Jobs is “supportive of the old guard and looks to help them by giving them new forms of distribution,” says a source close to the Apple CEO. “What drives all these changes is technology, and Apple has an ability to influence that.” Of course, music companies have complained that iTunes is too powerful a gatekeeper. TV companies are already annoyed that Apple wants to cherry-pick and sell only top content. (More Steve Jobs stories.)

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