How Publishers Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Zite's Aggregator

waderoush writes "In March 2011, personalized-magazine startup Zite got a cease-and-desist letter from a group of 11 media giants outraged by the way Zite's popular iPad app 'misappropriated' their news articles. By August 2011, Zite had become part of CNN, which is owned by Time Warner, one of the organizations behind the C&D letter. Zite's brief clash with the media establishment, followed by its swift assimilation into the same establishment, is emblematic of a larger story unfolding in the media business: the grudging acknowledgement by publishers that readers want to access their content in new ways. In this article Zite CEO Mark Johnson explains how the startup mollified publishers (by presenting articles in 'Web view' mode rather than a stripped-down 'reader mode'), why CNN bought the company, and how it strives to make reading more enjoyable while still respecting publishers' business models."

Re:About the Summary

[Charliemopps]

Sorry, no... you're wrong. Things are different now. Publishers don't seem to get it, and neither do you. The publishing industry is DEAD. They're walking corpses. They used their money to buy out this company and convert them to being "friendly" to their century old business model. Good for them. Unfortunately, they missed the other 1000 software packages and websites doing the same god damn thing. If you've got money in the publishing industry you're a fool. It's not "Right" to help these companies live in the stone ages.

I know you're going to ask me "How are they supposed to make money then" Well, that's not my problem. All I can tell you is, they can't make money they way they always have. It's done. If they can't figure it out they'd better figure out how to make toasters or something, because I doubt they even have 10 years left.