Rupert Murdoch

On Friday I opened my Los Angeles Times to the Business section and was slapped in the face with two articles.  The first – News Corp. Plans National Newspaper for Tablet Computers and Cellphones. The second was Google Accuses California of Rigging Bidding Process for E-Mail Contract.  Wow!  Old Media meets New Media, barfight soom to follow.  What a real demonstration of how the media world is changing.

It appears that Rupert Murdoch of News Corp is planning to create a stand-alone digital newspaper to be aimed solely at iPads, other tablets yet to come, and mobile phones.  This will be a paid subscription service, but no pricing was announced. Drawing on resources from Murdoch’s Post and Dow Jones entities.  It would also have stand-alone staff to create the content for this new product.  The big question – is there a market for a stand alone subscription based product?  Especially one aimed at a younger audience that has been raised on “free.”  I don’t see either of my resident digital millenials subscribing.  Free is still the best price for a generation who really knows nothing else.

The other article on Google complaining about how the RFP was written by the State of California who is searching for a way to modernize their email system.. Having had multiple government contracts, I can testify to how hard government bureaucrats are to do with.   To expect that they would actually not do something directly in line with what they are already familiar with is dreaming.  They build their specs in the RFP directly in line with Microsoft’s Outlook.  Google offers a wholly different solution, and one that smaller and more local governments have just started to adopt.  Even the City of Los Angles has adopted the Google G-Mail system, but not without problems, many of which did not get worked out in the RFP process.

This really resonates with me as a Californian.  Recently we were told that the State could not revise a system to quickly change state workers payroll.  Having spent years and millions on trying to ‘update’ their system – all for naught.  Can’t do it.  The lesson – it’s time for some bold new solutions.  For the state – it’s time to lift their heads to the Clouds, and get it out of their rears.  Bold solutions are needed – now!