Are Operations Like Flipboard Scams Against Publishers?

Josh Marshall:

You can’t eat ‘reach’ and we can’t pay salaries with ‘brand awareness’. I don’t pretend to know other people’s business models or strategies. But successful business practices are always about having a close understanding of the costs of what you produce and the origins and mechanics of your revenues and more than anything else the interaction between the two.

“Scam” might be too harsh a word, but Josh raises a good point. In some ways isn’t Flipboard just a magazine that doesn’t pay for the content it displays? (And don’t get me wrong, I like Flipboard.)

★ Friday, 11 October 2013