May 09
10
How to Defend Your Empire, or Not
Most empires not based on Religion only last the lifetime of
the empire builder.
Historically, very few last more than a hundred years –
unless the urge to procreate and defend the empire is instilled in all the peons
through the fear of heavenly retribution.
News Limited is a publishing empire.
Unfortunately, News Limited doesn’t happen to have a flashy God
to invoke FUD, it relies on one Man; Rupert Murdoch, the mainstay of
technological and publishing innovation for fifty years.
With TV stations, Cable Companies, Newspapers, Periodicals
and Radio Stations, News Limited has chiseled (read editorialized) a niche for
itself on the global pollster stage.
Now suddenly, Klingons appear off the starboard bow, dressed
as Internet users. Those vile,information hungry, apolitical, “more input please Stephanie”
never satisfied geeks.
But is the Empire dead? Or just reconfiguring itself.
Rupert has outlasted most in this game. Convincingly some
would say, and managed to amass a tidy sum for his pension plan.
What do men do in their old age? When the desire for flirtatious
young women leaves the mind – allowing clarity of thought and singularity of
purpose, they turn to politics.
Could it be that that Rupert is more concerned about Obama’s
win than one would assume?
The music industry blame p2p users for their demise. But we
have discussed that the demise of the music industry is not a forgone
conclusion – they just had to change their business model slightly and accept a
lower profit margin based on the fact that users only wanted single songs from
iTunes and not the whole album.
News Limited appears to be doing the same thing. “We print
an entire newspaper – why aren’t people happy with that?” [Sic – Editor].
“Why do they just want to read a single story? We offer
annual subscriptions.”
In other words, comrade Klingons…. Either buy the whole
package, including the unasked for mind numbing political rhetoric or – go without.
Search engines are the enemy of the subscription model.
Search engines allow users to focus on key words and based on an algorythym
that has taken the search engines 14 years to perfect, deliver the content that
is most likely to be relevant for the user, Irregardless of political rhetoric,
Rupert’s promises to the Liberal Party, the Republicans or the Tories
So if an old man can’t play politics anymore using his shiny
publishing toys – what can he do?
Well, the popular alternative [think P2P and the RIAA] to politics is litigation.
During one’s lifetime, one learns a few tricks. Like which
lawyers will take something to the wire and use every means to win.
Rupert is now blaming Google for offering him a zero sum
choice. Either convince the Yahoo Board of Directors to give me their shares or
I will board your ship with every lawyer I can find.
(Yes – I did say that – Convince Google to tell Yahoo to lie down and be boarded.)
If I was Yahoo, I would be buying tires encrusted with sharp objects [Cash Bonus Payments to Directors and one off extraordinary Dividend to Shareholders – and a 10 for 1 share split triggered by takeover - leaving the treasury in a minus state] to hang over the side to stop the legal pirates from boarding my search engine ship.
But then if I was Google – I would probably start making the same preparations in case the Yahoo thing doesnt go so well.
Hmmm Pirates – I seem to have heard that somewhere before.