"Even more problematic for print publishers like Pearson’s FT is Apple’s insistence on keeping subscriber data like credit card information to itself."

That's a very interesting point. Personally, as a consumer, Apple doing the bill is a great benefit to me. Similarly, my magazine subscriptions are through Amazon because they are so easy to manage. The magazine may be losing whatever Amazon's cut is, but if I had to deal with each one individually, several of them would be getting zero money.