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Publishing News: June 2008
Books and Ebooks Will Find Their Place
Mac Slocum
June 30, 2008
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Publishers Weekly editor Sara Nelson offers a measured, middle-of-the-road response to ebook worriers and enthusiastic analysts:
... just as there are certain books you would rather listen to than read (and vice versa) and some movies you'll rush to the theater to see, there is room in the world for another way to enjoy written narrative. Put it another way: there will always be books you can read in pixels, and others you'll still want to read in the bathtub.
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Copyright Office Catching Up with Digital
Peter Brantley
June 30, 2008
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Another step in the automation of the copyright office. Via Ars Technica:
550,000 registrations a year pass through the Copyright Office, so it's in both the government's and the taxpayers' interest to make the system efficient enough to process those applications in a timely manner. On Tuesday, the Copyright Office will throw the switch on a system called, creatively, the "electronic Copyright Office," or eCO. The system has been in beta for months, and it allows creators to submit copyright registrations and even some actual works directly through the tubes.
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Will Magazines Go Free?
Peter Brantley
June 30, 2008
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Jennifer Armor, audit manager at Verified Audit Circulation, makes the case for free magazines. From Folio:
Because of the increasing price of paper and postage, Armour said, the cost of acquiring and keeping paid circ is becoming too high compared to the revenue it generates, and therefore, consumer publications will eventually move to a controlled circ model. Only magazines with premium content that can't be found elsewhere will be able charge their readers.
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Rhapsody Courts Apple Crowd with DRM-Free MP3s
Mac Slocum
June 30, 2008
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Rhapsody, a digital music subscription service, is now offering MP3 downloads with no digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.
Rhapsody's subscription service remains under digital rights protection, but Reuters says the company is looking to expand its reach into the Apple-dominated music sector by making its downloads compatible with iPods.
Amazon, Wal-Mart and Napster also offer DRM-free MP3 downloads, but to date no company has challenged Apple's iPod/iTunes model. An industry analyst offers Reuters one potential explanation for Apple's dominance, and it has nothing to do with DRM:
[Apple's] success has been due partly to a seamless interface between iTunes and the iPod and because it provides a good user experience, said analyst David Card of Jupiter Research.
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Researchers Develop Dual-Display E-Reader
Mac Slocum
June 27, 2008
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Researchers from Berkeley and the University of Maryland have built a dual-display e-reader prototype that uses traditional book-reading navigation (i.e. page turns, flipping the cover under, etc.). From the New Scientist:
The two leaves can be opened and closed to simulate turning pages, or even separated to pass round or compare documents. When the two leaves are folded back, the device shows one display on each side. Simply turning it over reveals a new page.
The following video shows the e-reader in action:
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The Upside of Publisher Blogs
Mac Slocum
June 27, 2008
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Booksquare's Kassia Krozser explains the benefits of publisher blogs:
Just as authors need to better market themselves and their books, so do publishers. While the audience for a publisher website is diverse -- authors, booksellers, journalists, agents, readers, and more -- talking about books on your website the same way you talk about books in your catalog simply isn't cutting it. In printed material, you have various constraints. On the web, you have the ability to do something special: tell the world what excites you, the publisher, about a particular book.
(Via Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog)
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Content Tracking Tools: Control for Some, Distribution for Others
Peter Brantley
June 26, 2008
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An article in BusinessWeek looks at various uses for content tracking systems, from command-and-control monitoring to partnership opportunities via broad distribution:
Just ask Sarah Chubb, president of CondéNet.com, owner of sites ranging from the Epicurious.com cooking site to fashion site Style.com to WiredDigital, the online arm of Wired magazine. A few years ago, Chub enlisted a team of people to scour the Web for unlicensed content use. Now she has a team that does the opposite -- figuring out how to get CondéNet's recipes, fashion photos, and other content onto up-and-coming blogs and social networking sites. Her team is using Attributor's [content tracking] system not to issue takedown notices but to spot new targets.
"We used to build our sites on the idea that people would come to our home page," Chubb says. "Now, we're consciously trying to put our content in a lot of places. In most of those cases, there's a revenue opportunity for us," she says, adding that she has no interest in using the technology to launch lawsuits. "
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Survey Results: Students Rely on Digital Tools for Research
Mac Slocum
June 25, 2008
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Results from Ebrary's 2008 Global Student E-Book Survey show that students working on research projects use digital reference tools more often than print materials. From Publishers Weekly:
Respondents say they use Google and other search engines as well as e-books more than print books for research assignments; online encyclopedias and Wikipedia are only slightly less used than print books, according to the survey. Print books, however, are deemed the most trustworthy sources, as well as far better for cover-to-cover reading.
Post-survey analysis included in the Ebrary report notes a gap between the resources students trust and the resources they use:
While four of the top five trusted resources are print, four of the top five resources students reported using are electronic (Google, e-books, e-reference, and Wikipedia). Students will use whatever information resource most efficiently gets the assignment done within acceptable parameters for the desired grade.
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Downward Slide Continues for Newspaper Revenue
Peter Brantley
June 24, 2008
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The news, for newspapers, is monotonically downwards. From the New York Times:
On top of long-term changes in the industry, the weak economy is also hurting ad sales, especially in Florida and California, where the severe contraction of the housing markets has cut deeply into real estate ads. Executives at the Hearst Corporation say that one of their biggest papers, The San Francisco Chronicle, is losing $1 million a week.
Over all, ad revenue fell almost 8 percent last year. This year, it is running about 12 percent below that dismal performance, and company reports issued last week suggested a 14 percent to 15 percent decline in May.
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UK Book Chain Installing Espresso POD Machines
Mac Slocum
June 23, 2008
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UK book retailer Blackwell will test the Espresso Book Machine at one of its locations this fall with an eye toward installing the print-on-demand device at additional stores. From a Blackwell press release:
Blackwell CEO Vince Gunn -- "From a retailer's point of view, even allowing for the first-generation technology and publisher challenges, this is a fantastic opportunity -- sell to demand with no risk to inventory and an opportunity to create incremental revenue streams for ourselves and publishers."
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Ebooks: False Sense of Security for Publishers?
Peter Brantley
June 23, 2008
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Michael Cairns says ebooks as we largely understand them may be a short-term fading generational segment. From PersonaNonData:
Today's publishers for the first time in their history have no confidence that their child's generation will be (or are) interested in their published output. It is not that publishers aren't making an effort; however, I have a disturbing belief that there is an preponderance of focus on forcing existing content into a format and delivery mechanism (e-books and e-readers) that is not ideal only to have that e-book content used by a market -- my and my parents' generation -- that is in long term decline.
In other words, migrating content so that it is available on an e-book may provide a false sense of security for publishers who believe this is enough to 're-launch' their content to the newest generations.
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Huffington Post Goes Local in Chicago
Mac Slocum
June 20, 2008
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The Huffington Post started as an aggregate political blog, but founder Arianna Huffington is now eyeing something bigger: local news coverage.
Chicago will serve as Huffington's local guinea pig. From The Guardian:
[Arianna] Huffington said the Chicago site would aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from different local sources as well as contributions from bloggers in what will be the first of a series of projects in "dozens of US cities". The Chicago site will initially be curated by just one editor.
Similar hyper-local efforts have struggled to achieve sustainability. The Guardian says the Huffington Post received $10 million in funding in 2006 and 2007, and the company is pursuing additional investments to fund the local expansion.
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Seth Godin: Community and Interactivity Would Benefit Kindle
Mac Slocum
June 19, 2008
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Seth Godin weighs in with random thoughts on the Kindle, including:
The Kindle does a fine job of being a book reader, and a horrible job of actually improving the act of reading a book.
Godin says the Kindle reading experience -- particularly with non-fiction titles -- would benefit from reader recommendations, Digg-style voting, and hyperlinks.
The post also examines the Kindle's pricing structure ("The pricing of books is whacked") and Amazon's strategy to market the Kindle to women rather than techie early adopters. It's worth a read.
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Publishers Pushing to Meet Russert Book Demand
Mac Slocum
June 19, 2008
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Random House and Hyperion Books are rushing to meet demand for Tim Russert's two books, Wisdom of Our Fathers and Big Russ & Me. From Newsday:
Carol Schneider, executive director of publicity at Random House, reports that the company is immediately printing 100,000 paperbacks of "Wisdom" that began shipping yesterday [6/16/08].
Likewise, Hyperion Books has gone back to press for another 100,000 copies of "Big Russ," according to Beth Gebhard, executive director of publicity.
Amazon's listing for Wisdom says Kindle and paperback editions are currently in stock; Big Russ will be available through the online retailer on July 2.
Ebook companies and print-on-demand firms have in recent months used examples of limited print availability to showcase the strengths of their formats, but similar announcements haven't emerged in this case.
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Print on Demand for Magazines
Mac Slocum
June 18, 2008
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Derek Powazek has taken the wraps off of MagCloud, a pilot print-on-demand service for magazines:
Did you know the average sell-through rate for a magazine is about 30%? The sell-through rate is the rate which a given issue of a magazine will sell from a store. That means 70% of all printed magazines are just stopping by the newsstand on their way to the garbage dump or recycling center. All that time, work, and energy, just to make trash.
There must be a better way. And I think MagCloud is a step in that direction.
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Kindle's "Not Quite There" Design Suitable For Some
Mac Slocum
June 18, 2008
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The Kindle's 1.0 look and feel work fine for Eleanor Randolph. From her New York Times column:
Some computer snobs tend to dismiss the Kindle, or its chief competitor, the Sony Reader, as not being quite there yet. That's fine. Not quite there yet is an almost perfect description of my own technological skills, which, I confess, were stretched to their limits recently by a hotel clock radio.
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Study: Web Video Audience Stabilizes and Consumes More Streams
Mac Slocum
June 18, 2008
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A comScore study finds that the overall size of the Web video audience is stabilizing, but folks in this group are consuming more online video streams than they did a year ago. From MediaWeek:
... while the number of total streamers appears to have leveled off after a rapid growth period several years ago, those streamers are watching more clips each year. comScore found that viewers averaged 82 clips per month and 228 minutes of video viewing in April [2008], versus the 63 clips and 158 minute averages recorded nearly a year earlier.
A stable audience footprint combined with increased usage suggests the Web video space is maturing past its anything-goes stage, which means book trailers, pre-roll/post-roll advertising, and other business oriented video initiatives could also gain broader adoption.
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Mark Cuban: Copyright Law Gives Hulu Advantage Over YouTube
Peter Brantley
June 17, 2008
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Mark Cuban says the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (PDF) gives Hulu a distinct advantage over YouTube:
Hulu has one HUGE advantage over YouTube, it has the right to sell advertising in and around every single video on its site. It can package and sell any way that might make its customers happy. YouTube on the other hand, has that right for only the small percentage of the videos on its site that it has a licensing deal with. For probably 99pct or more of the videos on the site, YouTube isn't supposed to know what they even are.
How can that be? Because YouTube hides behind the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Hulu is a media site that presents videos with advertising. It can do whatever it wants. YouTube is a hosting service. It's not allowed to know what videos are uploaded by users and its not allowed to generate revenue against those videos. It can only sell advertising around videos it has licenses to.
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BN.com Redesign Nets Significant Traffic Increase
Mac Slocum
June 17, 2008
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Barnes and Noble is seeing positive results from its 2007 Web site overhaul. From Publishers Weekly:
... in 2007, the online arm of the retailer posted a 10.1% sales increase, helped by a strong fourth quarter, and the solid results continued into the first period of 2008: B&N.com; posted a 7.2% sales increase, compared to an increase of 1.1% for the stores.
BN.com CEO Marie Toulantis says shopping and community improvements, such as the "see inside" preview tool and new groups/clubs, aim to increase visitor engagement. Those improvements are working: PW says visits to BN.com jumped from 70 million in 2006 to 138 million in 2007.
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Ruling: First Sale Doctrine Applies to Promotional CDs
Peter Brantley
June 12, 2008
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Universal Music Group (UMG) tried to prevent sales of promotional CDs labeled "Not for Resale," but a federal district court says the first sale doctrine extends to these promotional discs. From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
In its ruling, the district court found that the initial recipients of "promo CDs" own them, notwithstanding "not for resale" labels. The court rejected the notion that these labels create a "license," concluding that the CDs are gifts. According to the opinion, "UMG gives the Promo CDs to music industry insiders, never to be returned ... Nor does the licensing label require the recipient to provide UMG with any benefit to retain possession." (The court also found that federal postal laws relating to "unordered merchandise" establish that promo CDs are gifts to their recipients.)
With software vendors, laser printer manufacturers, and patent owners trying to strip consumers of their first sale rights with unilateral labels, licenses, and notices, today's ruling sets an important precedent holding the line against these efforts (and comes one day after the Supreme Court reaffirmed the same principle in the patent context in Quanta v. LG).
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