WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

I told you a few days ago.

The analysts’ estimates from a few weeks ago were: 0.99 | 0.824 | 0.70 (High | Mean | Low).

So … again and again, these analysts (of what?) don’t have any clue about what’s going on in the market.

For the quarter that ended Sept. 30, Apple earned $904 million, or $1.01 per share, compared with $542 million, or 62 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Apple’s fourth-quarter revenue totaled $6.22 billion, compared with $4.84 billion in the same quarter last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 86 cents per share on $6.07 billion in revenue for the period.

You just have to have an iPod, a Macintosh or an iPhone to know more than these poor experts.

As I said, the iPhone is one of the most dramatic developments for the future of journalism.

It’s the first multimedia tool that’s really handy all the time – all the news, in text, sound and video.

And it comes with no instruction manual!

You buy a toaster and you get a 50-page manual.

You buy an iPhone and you can use it in minutes with no problems and no manual.

Apple should give away some iPhones to these poor analysts, perhaps then they will get it!

I am leaving this Wednesday for Europe and I’ll have two iPhones in my suitcase for two of our European consultants who live in countries where the iPhone dosen’t work yet.

But they can’t wait, they can’t!

Amazing, amazing!

Casa Editorial El Tiempo signed yesterday its financial and strategic partnership with Planeta, a Spanish multimedia group that will control 65% of Cada Editorial and 40% of City TV.

PRISA, publisher of El Pais wanted to buy El Tiempo but Planeta paid more and accepted that the editorial control of the Colombian company will remain under the Santos family.

Luis Fernando Santos, President of Casa Editorial El Tiempo was the dealmaker for this excellent move.

INNOVATION thinks that this sort of deal will happen more and more in the Latin American market.

Many family-owned newspapers need cash for future investments if they want to become competitive multimedia groups, and not just mono-media companies.

Foreign media investing will be a must.

And not just by Spanish media groups.

What about Napster, G+J, Edipresse, Handelsblatt, RCS, Springer or News International?

The Latin American media markets are booming.

INNOVATION has recently done media market profile analysis for potential European and American investors.

(Picture by Héctor Fabio Zamora, El Tiempo)