CAIRO: Will Apple ban popular newspaper apps from the iPhone App store?
UPDATE: Rob Curley of the Las Vegas Sun tells me that he is worried about his news app being banned. (full quote further down)
Update No. 2. The Guardian reports that “The International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) is considering making a complaint to Apple over the computer firm’s request that German publisher Axel Springer censor the naked girls on one of its iPhone apps.”
The Web is sparking with news that Apple has banned, without advance notice, many thousands of apps that contain nudity or suggest sexual themes. If you are a newspaper or magazine publisher, this action by Apple might make you rethink your mobile media strategy;
Even for publishers who’s most racy content is the odd photo of people wearing swimsuits.
The New York Times’s David Pogue dismisses this new content ban by Apple.
But think about it for a second: Hasn’t The New York Times been known to publish photos of people in swimwear, too? Hmmm. Yeah - where is that line exactly, Apple?
Would fashion swimwear or fitness instructor photos be enough to get an app banned from the iTunes store or will there be different rules in place for legacy media publishers making the leap?
And who could really argue against Apple banning against x-Rated apps? As a dad I am glad to have smut filtered within the friendly confines of a family friendly iTunes store.
Will traditional publishers who publish sexy content in their apps be tossed out of the App store as well? An app developer may choose to focus ONLY only on bikinis in their App whereas a news publisher could argue that it can’t justly cover society by ignoring topics like this in theirs.
Apple may soon find serious trouble telling some developers that they can have skin in their app content and certain others that they cannot.
A publishing kiosk is a complex world with different rules regarding public decency standards. Steve Job’s recent courting of major newspaper and magazine publishers to go the iPad developer path is going to bring into play all kinds of content filtering issues for Apple. They will have a tough time reconciling publisher’s apps with their new “sexy swimsuit” policy.
Music and films are far easier to separate into “NC-17″ classes than the widely varied output from publishing houses.
BILD means “Picture” in German.
In case law, lawyers like to cite precedent and look for existing practices that establish the quo of status.
Looking for a newspaper publisher whose brand is tied closely with news, sport and sex?
That’s easy. Look no further than the best-selling newspaper from Europe’s most populous nation.
Bild is Germany’s best-selling newspaper. And, yes, they publish nude photos.
Is Bild at risk of having their popular paid iPhone app pulled from Apple’s digital shelf?
Watch the video embedded here. At about 25 seconds in it should be clear that a popular selling point of the 0.79 Euro Bild iPhone App is the “Bild girl.”
The Bild girl by another name is the U.K. “Page Three girl.”
But Bild publishes mostly news and sporting content in their app as well.
However nudity is a strong brand extension for this Axel-Springer title. It is easy to see why,
In print, the Bild girl runs on Page One every day.
In the iPhone app a user can “shake” the mobile phone to see the Bild girl’s clothes disappear. This is the very kind of interactive behavior that other developers claim Apple is suddenly banning them for.
At present the bild.de app is not available in the U.S. iTunes store - but it is still offered in the German iTunes Store.
You will find this link to the app on the Bilde.de Web site.
This either proves that Apple does or doesn’t understand the German market or that they may apply different rules for the traditional publishers that they are now actively inviting into Apple’s swimming pool.
Or maybe Apple will just let Europeans operate under their own App store to different community standards? Maybe that is a smart approach after all.
At any rate, Apple seems to have entered the “content filtering” game with a history of volatile decisions that is going to give more than one publisher second thoughts about investing resources into developing new “native apps.”
TechCruch blog:
Apple hasn’t spelled out its new policies anywhere (our request for more details has gone unanswered). Keep in mind that these rules may not be set in stone — Apple is purposely vague about its policies, and they’re probably still changing.
Rob Curley (Via Facebook comment on my profile page):
This new sexy curve ball from Apple gives added weight to my feeling that savvy publishers should be developing a fuller roster of alternative mobile strategies.
They will be facing an uncertain mobile media market period for at least the next 24 months. Apple is war with Adobe Flash; Google is coming on strong with Android, Add in Notion, inc. Adam and Indian outsourcing companies already lining up to make mobile versions of existing titles and you have a handful.
My advice: “If you first develop “Web apps” for mobile users as opposed to native apps, as a publisher you become immune to the whims of the Apple store Apps policy regarding revenue share and content approval.”
Alas, ‘Web apps vs. Native apps’ is a topic for another blog and more visits this month.
Full disclosure: Axel-Springer (Bild’s owner) is a new media training and consulting client of mine - but I don’t work with the Bild teams.
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