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Chip Griffin hosts Media Disruption. As an entrepreneur, content producer and distributor, and communicator, he brings a unique perspective and insight to the changing media environment. The views expressed here are of the authors and guests and do not necessarily reflect those of their employers or clients.
Chip is the Chief Digital Officer of DCI Group, a Washington, DC public affairs firm. You can learn more about him at ChipGriffin.com.
Clueless is as Clueless Does
by Chip Griffin on August 8, 2009
Here’s a good one. Wendy Davis of MediaPost says that Rupert Murdoch is “clueless” for wanting the names of Wall Street Journal subscribers on the Kindle. She rolls out the phrase “tone deaf to the privacy concerns” as it regards the News Corp leader.
As a reader aptly points out in the comments on the piece, these are subscribers not single copy newsstand purchasers, as Davis attempts to insinuate in the post. Traditionally, periodicals know the names of their subscribers.
Now, that’s not to say that Amazon is obligated to give the Journal this information. Rather, I’m simply saying it is fair game to negotiate it — including using the threat of pulling the newspaper off of the Kindle service.
To think that there’s some obligation to hide subscriber names from the Wall Street Journal for its own product — especially considering it some sort of a “privacy right” — is simply ludicrous.