There's an App for That. But a Revenue Stream?
Media brands are jumping onto the iPhone. USA Today? There's an app for that. “The Rachel Maddow Show”? “Entertainment Tonight”? Public radio? Yes, yes and yes, there are apps for those. — Now, if only there were an app …
Context & Ripple Effects
Two months after the New York Times documented the broader apps boom as companies sought space on phones, this piece zooms in on one cohort: media brands. USA Today, Entertainment Tonight, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show and public radio organizations have all shipped confirmed iPhone apps by early August 2009.
What distinguishes these launches from the corporate-app wave is the open question in the headline — the relationship between brand adoption and revenue potential is explicitly unconfirmed, making this a story about strategy under uncertainty rather than about a business model that works.
First-order effects
- USA Today, Entertainment Tonight, MSNBC and public radio each absorb development and maintenance costs for an iPhone presence whose direct revenue path — paid download, ads, or subscription — has not been established.
Second-order effects
- Rival outlets face pressure to match competitors' App Store shelf space regardless of monetization clarity, turning apps into table-stakes branding spend rather than profit centers.
Third-order effects
- If brand adoption continues ahead of proven economics, app stores become the default distribution layer for media companies, forcing the industry to invent mobile-native pricing — per-device or ad-funded — rather than porting web-era models.
The trend: Media brands are racing onto the iPhone ahead of any settled answer on how apps generate revenue, making mobile distribution a marketing expense before it becomes a business.