Will Technology Save the Publishing Industry?

INTRODUCTION

The publishing industry consists of thousands of publishers nationwide. Publishing media includes books, magazines, and newspapers and now even another emerging form of print media known as the Internet. Magazines depend heavily on advertising and circulation for their revenue. Newspapers also depend on advertising for revenue and are second only to television in terms of generating advertising revenue. Newspapers and magazines are closely related because they both are highly concentrated and rely heavily on advertising and circulation. This industry creates billions of dollars of revenue and is increasing in large numbers with many people now connected to the Internet.

ISSUES/PROBLEMS

Newspapers are the most troubled segment of the publishing industry due to the availability of alternatives. Over 60 percent of newspapers have reduced news staff in the past three years and about the same percentage report reducing the size of their newspaper. People reading books have been declining for about a decade and advertising is down 15 percent. Online sources of news such as Yahoo, Google, and blogs have become major sources of news for many people especially younger people. Many people believe that the internet is a classic case of disruptive technology. Destroying a traditional business based on physical products and physical distribution. The internet has acquired a huge online audience. Next to social networks, newspapers have the largest online audience of any media, and online newspaper readership is growing by 17 percent each year. They are one of the most successful forms of online content. Many book stores have died out. Online book stores such as Amazon have been gaining sales. They are having a problem developing a fee structure that will make the delivery platform profitable for both the publishing company and the device manufacture. A company like Apple receives a 30 percent fee for each sale of digital content sold. The internet has been taking advertising share from other traditional media like printed newspapers. The internet ranks second in advertising spending. More companies will be placing ads in online newspapers causing the revenue to grow for the publishing company.

SOLUTIONS

Many analysts speculated that e-readers would threaten the continued livelihood of the publishing industry. E-readers actually have become a new way for book content distribution. E-book sales are doing very well thanks to products such as Amazon’s Kindle and the iPad. Many think that e-books are killing off the sales of physical printed books. Many companies have begun investing more resources in the Kindle and iPad as delivery platforms for their books and less money in tradition delivery platforms. Many textbook publishers are working on iPad versions of their textbooks. Many newspapers have apps out for the iPad and Kindle. Also, many major companies are contracting with software companies to convert existing files to e-reader compatible products. The publishing companies see e-books as a way to boost sales. They also think by sharing revenue with Internet partners such as Google and Yahoo, they gain generate some lost revenue. Another is to charge fees for newspaper content delivered to reading devices such as smartphones, e-readers, iPads, and other tablets. Or, they could charge a fee for premium news and opinion. Lastly in the past, ads in books became irrelevant after the book had been in circulation for a time, but with e-books, the advertisements can be inserted and replaced. EVALUATION OF SOLUTIONS/ANALYSIS

Many of the publishing companies need to differentiate themselves from their competitors. With product differentiation many publishing companies are now developing apps that will allow customers to read books or magazines on their smartphones or tablets. This is important because with the technology of the smartphone