Writers Should Advocate for the Consumer, Not App Developers
One of the things that has always bothered me about many of the writers dedicated to covering all things Apple is their incestuous relationship with app developers. The big problem is that the interests of the developer is often at odds with the interest of the consumer. The developer wants to make more money, but the consumer wants more for his money. Who does the journalist speak for? It should be the consumer.
Oh, the Apple journalists try to justify their chummy relationships with developers as being necessary to get the whole story. They say it makes their coverage better. But don’t be fooled. You can’t serve two masters. At no time has this been more apparent than when covering Spotify’s lawsuit against Apple’s App Store rules.
I’ve been shocked at the coverage that this lawsuit has been getting from all of the big tech websites. This lawsuit is absurd. It is standing on such weak ground that all the Apple journalists should be pointing at it and laughing. They should be criticizing Spotify’s demand for special treatment and pointing out their lack of pricing power due to a broken business model. And yet, they don’t.
I’ve listened to many Apple journalists talk about this case over the past few weeks and for the most part, they seem to hem and haw or take weak positions. They act like guests at a party where the host couple is having a fight. They don’t want to say anything that would make either side angry.
Why is that? I can only surmise that it is because they don’t want to raise the ire of their app developer friends. On the one hand, these journalists don’t want to lose their access to Apple. Those special event invitations are highly prized in their little bubble world. And yet, on the other hand, those special events are full of app developers. These journalists don’t want to end up persona non-grata at the coffee shop gathering. They want to be liked within their little circle.
I find this little 1st world problem disgusting. Journalists owe it to their readers to be fair and honest. It is the readers who pay the bills and to whom writers owe a fiduciary responsibility. Journalists should stand up for the consumer first. And if that means lambasting developers as a bunch of ignorant cry babies who don’t understand how the business world works, then so be it.
To be fair, it’s not just the world of tech journalism that suffers from this problem. Political journalism is in even worse shape. It is human nature to not want to offend your friends. That’s why they call it “peer pressure”.
I wish I could find one thing in Apple journalism today. That would be writing from journalists who openly tout that they don’t fraternize with app developers. I’d love to see a website that made it part of their mission statement that they look out for the interests of the consumer first. I’d love to see a group of journalists so committed to this ideal that they would refuse to socialize with app developers at all. This would prevent any temptation to skew their objective analysis.
If tech websites want to advocate for app developers, fine. Then change your name and sell subscriptions to app developers. Be open and honest about where your loyalties lie and get your financial support from them. You would then be free to attend their little parties and try to be popular with them.
But alas, I don’t see anyone else talking about this other than me. I’m free to be honest because I don’t make my living via writing about Apple or apps.
I’ve been shocked at the coverage that this lawsuit has been getting from all of the big tech websites. This lawsuit is absurd. It is standing on such weak ground that all the Apple journalists should be pointing at it and laughing. They should be criticizing Spotify’s demand for special treatment and pointing out their lack of pricing power due to a broken business model. And yet, they don’t.
I’ve listened to many Apple journalists talk about this case over the past few weeks and for the most part, they seem to hem and haw or take weak positions. They act like guests at a party where the host couple is having a fight. They don’t want to say anything that would make either side angry.
Why is that? I can only surmise that it is because they don’t want to raise the ire of their app developer friends. On the one hand, these journalists don’t want to lose their access to Apple. Those special event invitations are highly prized in their little bubble world. And yet, on the other hand, those special events are full of app developers. These journalists don’t want to end up persona non-grata at the coffee shop gathering. They want to be liked within their little circle.
I find this little 1st world problem disgusting. Journalists owe it to their readers to be fair and honest. It is the readers who pay the bills and to whom writers owe a fiduciary responsibility. Journalists should stand up for the consumer first. And if that means lambasting developers as a bunch of ignorant cry babies who don’t understand how the business world works, then so be it.
To be fair, it’s not just the world of tech journalism that suffers from this problem. Political journalism is in even worse shape. It is human nature to not want to offend your friends. That’s why they call it “peer pressure”.
I wish I could find one thing in Apple journalism today. That would be writing from journalists who openly tout that they don’t fraternize with app developers. I’d love to see a website that made it part of their mission statement that they look out for the interests of the consumer first. I’d love to see a group of journalists so committed to this ideal that they would refuse to socialize with app developers at all. This would prevent any temptation to skew their objective analysis.
If tech websites want to advocate for app developers, fine. Then change your name and sell subscriptions to app developers. Be open and honest about where your loyalties lie and get your financial support from them. You would then be free to attend their little parties and try to be popular with them.
But alas, I don’t see anyone else talking about this other than me. I’m free to be honest because I don’t make my living via writing about Apple or apps.
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