PUBLISHING TRENDS

The impact of the Internet on publishing Google's Book Print project New services Pricing models, advertising, and textbooks

 

The impact of the Internet on publishing

 

In a Ball State study, the Internet in all of its incarnations beat out reading print materials in all forms in every age bracket up to 65 (Carr).

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/10/technology/10carr.html

 

The Internet has already shaken up the traditional way that information is found and viewed but far more radical changes are possible with the way that research is published (Smith).

http://www.researchinformation.info/rimayjun05djmodel.html

 

Some of the newest journals are only published in digital form online (Villano).

http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10564

 

Average Americans spend more time online, on the phone, punching the remote, the radio and the game console than they do sleeping -- a total of nine hours a day (Carr).

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/10/technology/10carr.html

 

According to Library Journal, "Random House Inc., the world's largest trade book publisher, announced an online "pay-per-page-view" effort, just before the online retailer Amazon.com made a similar announcement, shaking up the world of e-content and raising questions about the role of libraries in providing such access. Random House said it will negotiate separate agreements with vendors in this arena, but has outlined some key components for each deal: books will be available for full indexing, search, and display, but downloading, printing, or copying will not be permitted." (Random House)

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6281010.html

 

 

Google's Book Print project

 

Publishers and authors are suing Google over its Book Search program (formerly called Google Print), which lets users search for terms within volumes. Although users will see only a few lines of text related to the search term, Google is planning to digitize entire copyrighted works from the collections of three university libraries. The publishers and authors contend that without their approval, that is a violation of copyright laws. (Wyatt)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/books/19goog.html

 

Google's general counsel said the company's service allowed users to find books that are in libraries but no longer in bookstores, and that would otherwise go undiscovered by most potential readers (Wyatt).

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/books/19goog.html

 

Some believe Google's contention that its search program might somehow increase sales of books was speculation at best (Wyatt).

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/books/19goog.html

 

Google's primary purpose in creating the Book Search service was to promote its arsenal of search engines, the main source of the company's $5 billion expected revenues this year (Wyatt).

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/books/19goog.html

 

According to the Library Journal, “librarians and library users alike are starting to use Google Book Search.” However the reality is that it is still difficult to find a physical library book based on the ‘Find it in a library’ link. (Google Book Search: Not So Easy to Find the Library Link)

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6290431.html

 

New services

 

A paper is static and it's hard to multi-task while reading a paper. With other media, users can experiment with a variety of services in the background and have multiple sources of information streaming simultaneously. For a paper users must sit down and focus all attention on it. The same way the iPod solved problems for the music industry, a similar device may open the way for pay-for-digtal print services. (Carr)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/10/technology/10carr.html

 

Media vendor OverDrive recently announced their library kiosks that allow patrons to download best-selling unabridged audiobooks directly to their mp3 players, offering them a high level of convenience and service. (OverDrive)

http://www.overdrive.com/news/pr/20051214.asp

 

The DJ model proposes that the traditional centralized academic journal publishing model, based around the publisher, could be replaced with a decentralized model using cooperating, independent agents carrying out the necessary activities without the need for a central publisher (Smith).

http://www.researchinformation.info/rimayjun05djmodel.html

 

Publishers are applying print-on-demand methods, and such printing is starting to change their business. Xerox, IBM, and others now sell machines that in minutes can churn out single, bound copies of paperback or even hardcover books. The output is virtually indistinguishable from that of traditional printing presses. (Romano)

http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub106/ebooks.html

 

Consider if the line between the Web and printed matter were erased by a device for data consumption, not data entry -- all screen, no baggage -- that was updated constantly: a digital player for the eyes, with an iTunes-like array of content available at a ubiquitous volume and a low, digestible price. (Carr)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/10/technology/10carr.html

 

Perhaps the most tried and tested form of electronic publishing still revolves around the Portable Document Format file, or PDF. This is the file format in Adobe Acrobat document exchange, the 10-year-old technology that has become the de facto standard for electronic documents on the Internet. (Villano)

http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10564

 

Audiobooks are achieving a significant share of the market. According to RapidSolutions, “audiobooks are capturing nearly 10 percent market share in the United States”. Apple iTunes makes approximately 10,000 audiobooks available at their online storefront. With the introduction of new software from RapidSolution the problems associated with Digital Rights Management copy protections could be a thing of the past. (Audiobook Popularity Growing Rapidly, DRM Problem Intensifies: New Tunebite Version Helps)

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=103873

 

Publishers are implementing a range of strategies, partnerships, and experiments with delivery and packaging

Publishers now see e-books as incremental sales to computer-savvy adults and the next generation of readers. A publisher's ultimate responsibility is to get the work to the largest-possible audience and the Internet has that potential. Adobe Systems has by far the largest share of the digital publishing software market. (Romano)

http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub106/ebooks.html

 

In higher education, innovations in electronic publishing, print-on-demand, and continuing education will continue (Outsell).

http://www.outsellinc.com/subscribe/FutureFactsIndustryOutlook.htm

 

At some institutions, business students no longer submit hard-copy term papers to professors, but load PDF versions to and from a secure server (Villano).

http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10564

 

SafariX Textbooks Online allows students to purchase a print edition textbook, or purchase the same course-critical content by subscribing to a digital version delivered online. Pearson calls these digital versions WebBooks; the technology allows students to print pages, make annotations, take notes, search the full text, and add bookmarks to organize their studies. Today, the service boasts more than 300 titles (Villano).

http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10564

http://www.safarix.com

 

SafariU -- O’Reilly, the tech book publisher, has sliced and diced its content into useful chunks so teachers can assemble a custom book and order prints, all in a do-it-yourself Web environment (Outsell).

http://www.outsellinc.com/subscribe/FutureFactsIndustryOutlook.htm

http://www.safariu.com

 

Extensible Markup Language (XML), a form of content coding that is accessible by any device: personal computers, laptops, PDAs, and even some cellular phones, is becoming a new standard in Web development (Villano).

http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10564

 

The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) was established to advance the industry by establishing standards for e-books (IDPF).

http://www.idpf.org

 

IDPF tallied e-book sales of $3.23 million for the first quarter of 2004, a 28 percent jump from the same time a year ago. While these figures are merely a blip on the radar screen of the multibillion-dollar book publishing industry, they indicate that once publishers are ready to pump the market with digital content, students and other readers may respond more favorably than skeptics would like to think. “Whatever happens in the textbook space, the sky’s the limit for electronic publishing.” (Villano)

http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10564

 

Pricing models, advertising, and textbooks

 

As iTunes has demonstrated, there is a vast swath of consumers who are willing to pay for what they want and avoid the moral taint of unauthorized use. (Carr)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/10/technology/10carr.html

 

Information does not necessarily want to be free. Rather, information wants to be found. (Wyatt)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/books/19goog.html

 

Daily newspapers are cutting back on their core products, in reducing both staff and the space allotted for news (Historic Newsroom Cuts).

http://now.outsellinc.com/now/2005/12/historic_newsro.html

 

Newspapers, once supported with local ads and classifieds, are facing a situation in which they have too many staffers producing a minimal amount of content per person. An average reporter was once supposed to write 75 column inches a week. This is around 375 words a day for a five-day workweek. Most bloggers do more than that, although those 375 words should be high-quality. (Dvorak)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1860817,00.asp

 

Publishers are moving into rich data, lead generation models, and new online advertising and branding models. But continued growth is hampered by the failure of print ad revenue to shift to online as fast as audiences have moved there. (Outsell)

http://www.outsellinc.com/subscribe/FutureFactsIndustryOutlook.htm

 

Because there is no scarcity of ad space on the Web, Web publishers cannot charge nearly so much for a banner ad on a page with millions of hits as they can for a double-page spread in a national paper (Carr).

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/10/technology/10carr.html

 

Ad revenue per user is higher in print than online –- an imbalance that is inevitably on its

way to a correction (Outsell).

http://www.outsellinc.com/subscribe/FutureFactsIndustryOutlook.htm

 

A study released by the California Public Interest Research Group indicates that the average university student now pays upwards of $900 a year for textbooks, a 50 percent increase over the $650 that students paid in 1997 (Villano).

http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10564

http://www.pirg.org/calpirg/

 

Individual industry participants, in their pursuit of profit, collectively drive up the price of textbooks (Beal).

http://www.bus.lsu.edu/academics/management/faculty/bbeal/papers/Brent_D_Beal_Textbook_Pricing_1998.pdf

 

Current statistics indicate that the demise of textbooks might not be so far off. The Association of American University Presses (www.aaupnet.org) recently reported overall sales in the textbook industry decreasing by 1.5 percent in 2003, after of a 0.3 percent drop in 2002 and a 2.6 percent drop in 2001. And as textbook sales decrease, textbook costs appear to be rising sharply. (Villano)

http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10564

 

The United States textbook market has shrunken drastically. Publishing companies such as Reed Elsevier are moving strategies to focus on countries like China that are growing rapidly. Reed predicts that in the next five years that 50 percent of their operations will be online and eventually they will be a totally digital operation. (Goldsmith)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=a.B_SXPHTVHc&refer=europe

 

Textbooks no longer have a monopoly on the education market (Villano).

http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10564

 

Publishers use tactics —- including publishing new editions frequently without making significant

content changes —- that drive up the cost of textbooks for students. (Fairchild)

http://www.pirg.org/highered

 

Textbook publishers artificially inflate the price of textbooks by adding bells and whistles to the current texts, and force cheaper used books off the market by producing expensive new editions that barely differ (Villano).

http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10564

 

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