Newspapers at cost per page?

Reacting to the newspaper industry crisis, Shira Ovide of the Wall Street Journal Blog announces:

A top executive at Hearst, which publishes 16 newspapers including the Houston Chronicle and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said the company is mulling how much of its online offerings to keep free, while reserving some content exclusively for people who pay.

This new pay model is something publishers have discussed for a while now and implementing it won’t be easy. As with reprint permissions, different rates for educational use and trade use are difficult to monitor. Journalist Alan D. Mutter offers his insights:

Judging from the terseness of the announcements, the statements seemed to be more aspirational than the result of lengthy and detailed strategic planning…It’s a journey publishers absolutely have to begin. After years of giving everything away for free on the web, it won’t be easy for them to start charging for at least some of the content they spend small fortunes to produce. But there is no other choice.

Warner Crocker in his blog sounds off on Hearst’s attempts at an e-reader. His readers also reflect on the increasing demand for electronic reading of news over print.

It’s difficult to say if these new strategies will pay off, but as more and more newspapers face closures, something does have to give. Time will tell if Hearst’s client will be willing to pay for the content they consume, and if more publishers take notice and change their own models.

 

 

Google Book Scanning and Scholarship

A recent New York Times article describes the book scanning Google has undertaken with both copyrighted and out of copyright books. Litigation aside, I do think it’s interesting to note the concerns of some librarians who fear the way education will change if digital reading continues. A Yale librarian suggests:

I have to say that I think pedagogically and in terms of the advancement of scholarship, I have a concern that people will be encouraged to use books in this very fragmentary way…

 This is a sentiment I will likely pursue in my master’s thesis. I think we all read newspapers online quite differently than over coffee with a printed version. Fragmentation and mere sound bytes cannot accurately portray the sentiments intended by the authors.

In terms of access to rare books, I think digitization is a positive step. And I have to admit the convenience factor is a large benefit, since starting my master’s program I’ve done almost all of my research using online databases.

I for one, don’t think books are in danger of extinction, but I do know that their uses in varied forms will increase. Blogger and former book review editor for the Phili Enquirer, Frank Wilson, further demonstrates the possible forms of the Google Search project.

A Kindle Revolution?

Source: Amazon

E-readers are the platform mobilizing collections of e-books for consumers. Sony and Amazon’s Kindle readers are the most established devices, and although relatively a new innovation, adoption rates are high. For purpose of this paper, I will focus mainly on the Kindle reader. According to Milliot (2008) Amazon has struggled keeping up with the demand of the highly anticipated Kindle. Available titles rose to 115,000 compared to initial offerings at launch of 90,000.

A master’s student in library services Jeanne Kramer-Smyth (Higginbotham, 2008) points to another device, the Apple iPod to focus on a successfully designed innovation. She discusses the comfort level users of iPod’s have with the easy-to-use controls. However, she finds the intuitive design does not transfer to the current readers on the market. Kramer-Smyth also indicates the important connection with a printed book that does not transcend in an Amazon online account. She does assert the value of the Kindle is enticing, but a better business model with lower associated costs should be adapted before she would adopt. Because digital rights management encryption diminishes a user’s ability to effectively “own” the content they buy, Kramer-Smyth mentions a nominal fee for the borrowing of an e-book could work to curtail initial reservations. Similar to the model Netflix uses for video rentals, this way of content borrowing diminishes the worry Kramer-Smyth has that at some point Kindle will not support the same technologies associated with purchased titles. Partial interviews here and here.

Kindle user Brian Higginbotham (Higginbotham 2008) readily adapted the Kindle innovation after realizing his second graduate degree had him overflowing in books. He found the device easy to use and has even purchased newspaper subscriptions (Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post) that operate in conjunction with the reader’s WiFi functionality. He also worked as a change agent by discussing the benefits with his father and aunt instigating a Kindle purchase for each of them. Partial interview is located here.

Paper technologies

So I’m going through thousands of author files taking out contracts and amendments so they can be scanned and OCR’d for the future owner of our company’s benefit. It’s amazing looking through some of these ancient files from the 60’s. I’ve been wearing jeans because I just feel ick with 60’s fifth when I’m through sifting over all this paper. There are contracts written on slick old fax paper, there are the (now hilarious) dot matrix printouts, there are the type written contracts, and the now over-templated versions.

One student blogger discusses the issues above and is similarly amazed these ancient pieces of paper can get OCR’d for preservation and search capabilities.

Mark Frauenfelder finds the advantages of the latest technology preserving great books from the turn of the century. I always put things into context of my Great Uncle Pat. He was born in 1907 and passed away just a couple years ago. He was an avid reader and likely read these series of books and I think it’s great that these now frail books can be preserved and enjoyed.

Just for fun I’ll attach a photo of my Uncle Pat using what in his view, was the greatest technology of his time, a glass eye washer.

Kindle love

My husband has had the Kindle since they first shipped. With our huge  built-in bookcase at its full capacity, he enjoys the ease of these virtual books. I’ve played around with it and definitely can see reading an entire book, although I wouldn’t necessarily read every kind of book on it. He likes the fact that many of his core text for his PhD program are available in Kindle format.

Joe Wikert and Evan Schnittman have great blogs listing implications digital readers will have on the market. And Josh Topolsky awaits the transformation of the reader into Web 2.0 compliance.

With a variety of uses, I think its fun that editors are using the ease of the Kindle and Sony Readers to save their backs in carrying once heavy handed manuscripts. This NY Mag article even equates the practice with going green.

And Kindle will definitely have competition. TeleRead blogger David Rothman introduces the latest technologies out of Taiwan.

Amazon ditches DRM

Spoke too soon about the problem of DRM. Looks like Amazon thinks they found a solution in omitting it altogether. They are banking customers will pay more for digital music without digital rights management tools embedded (allowing for sharing and multiple downloads). I think this is an interesting bet, but will have to see how it plays out. I am wondering how the artists from these 12,000 record labels participating in this project feel about this free-for-all approach.  

Some interesting blogs discussing this issue: 

http://www.discoverion.com/archive/venture-AmazontoOfferDRMfreeMP3Downloads1179338226.shtml 

http://bryandhughes.blogspot.com/2007/05/i-guess-ill-just-continue-to-sort-my.html 

http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20070516/amazontunes/ 

DRM and Such

Went to a very informative rights and permissions conference at NYU yesterday hosted by the Association  of American Publishers. Digital Rights Management and other Web 2.0 concerns seemed to rule the conversation. Blogger Juuso Hietalahti brings up some good points on the limitations of DRM for all products. The problem seems to be the lack of a universal system for DRM and the variety of items it is used for. I understand the need to protect intellectual property from being pilfered, but there seems to be a better way.

Derek Punsalan has an interesting take on DRM as it relates to e-books. His blog post “e-books: with patience and courage we are getting there” tackles the question “how do we make the “e” in e-books stand for “easier?”" He suggests a system by which people obtain authority to interact digital. This stamp of approval would act as an honor system where users of e-books would pledge not to pass along the content to others: “Break the pledge, and you’d find yourself in purgatory.”