French publications try to talk Apple down from 30%

Sometimes it seems Apple’s 30% royalty rate has become just one of those facts of life. Nobody has had much luck trying to talk Apple out of it; even companies as large as Amazon have ended up having to pull their in-app store links.

But a consortium of French publications seem to expect they’ll have better luck. Reuters reports that eight such publications, ostensibly “fierce competitors” under normal circumstances, have put aside their differences and are trying to negotiate with Apple.

The papers want a reduction in the 30% commission rate, and also access to customer data, and have already signed on with Google’s Android marketplace subscription kiosk at a 10% commission rate and with the access to the data they desire. If they are unable to come to terms with Apple, the papers may choose to launch their own HTML5 application, as the Financial Times did, rather than make their papers available through the “Newsstand” store that will be part of Apple’s iOS 5.

(Found via eBookNewser, AppleInsider.)