Steve Jobs on Paywalls: News Needs New Business Models
This clip is an excerpt from a longer recording: Steve Jobs on Flash and Tablets: Why Apple Chooses.
What Jobs talks about
Jobs responds to a question about the projected failure of the paywall by agreeing that news organizations are in dire straits. He says he supports helping news-gathering organizations find new ways of expression so they can be paid and keep their editorial operations intact.
When pressed for specifics, he says, "It's complicated." The exchange is brief, but it points to a larger concern about how journalism can survive financially in the digital age.
An interviewer or host asks questions, and Jobs speaks briefly throughout.
In his words
“I'm all for.”
“Great.”
“It's complicated.”
“Steve! Oh my god!”
“Steve!”
Key points
- Paywalls alone may not be a workable answer.
- News organizations need new ways to be paid.
- The goal is to preserve news gathering and editorial operations.
- The problem is complicated and not easily reduced to a simple fix.
Full transcript
And with the projected failure of the paywall, we're in dire straits. We really need your help. To help news gathering organizations find new ways of expression so that they can afford to get paid, so they can afford to keep their news gathering and editorial operations intact, I'm all for. Great. Can you elaborate? Give us any specifics? It's complicated. Steve! Oh my god!
Steve!
Transcribed from the audio with OpenAI Whisper. Timestamps link to the video above. Errors are possible.