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Thanks to Blogspot you can find the crew of Editor & Publisher here -- at least temporarily. A note on the Kirkus Review web site shows that the staff is still hoping something can be worked out for that publication but as far as I've heard both the E&P and Kirkus staffs have cleaned out their desks. Cross your fingers.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
E&P in Exile
Another peak at the future? CourseSmart shows off its vision of tablet publishing for the textbook industry
This story is an interesting variation on the Skiff launch story from yesterday.
The WSJ story, honestly not much more than a press release for CourseSmart, contains a video that envisions its e-book products as they might appear on the soon-to-launched, much-rumored-about-but-never-seen, Apple tablet.
Take a look:
CourseSmart is not a book publisher, instead they are rushing to be the mobile source for textbooks. Anybody currently in college, or with kids in college, knows that the price of textbooks is . . . well, out of control. What used to be a rather minor expense issue is quickly becoming yet another reason for students to go into debt.
Analysts (insert lawyer joke here)
So the great Khan has spoken and he says that Internet advertising will increase big time in 2010 -- well over 10 percent.
I don't necessarily disagree, but you have to wonder what the big deal is when the man from J.P. Morgan speaks. In this year's report he says that 2009 online advertising was down 5.2 percent . . . but did he mention that his 2009 report predicted a 6.7 percent increase in display advertising and a 12 percent increase in search?
Oh, well. Win some, lose some. In any case, if you are interested here are some slides from the presentation. Other sources are repeating the message, but if you ask me (and you didn't) it's pretty much a duh: does anyone think 2010 will be worse than 2009? No, especially when it comes to online advertising.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Skiff to unveil new reader at CES; teams up with Sprint; will launch store to sell newspapers, magazines, books
Skiff LLC announced today that the company will formally unveil its new Skiff Reader at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas later this week to an invitation only crowd that apparently does not include your humble blogger. The Skiff event will be presented by Sprint, who signed a multi-year agreement to provide 3G connectivity for the new reader.
The new Skiff Reader is an 11.5" LG Display touchscreen with a resolution of 1200 x 1600 pixels and weigh just over one pound (17 - 9/16 oz). The reader will have WiFi, in addition to 3G, and comes with a built in speaker, USB port, and 4 gigs of memory with 3 additional gigs available for content. (More pictures below.)
Piecemeal sale of Reed Business assets opens the door to possible fire sale of other titles
RBI CEO John Poulin has confirmed what we all have been hearing: RBI can not find a buyer for its entire portfolio of publications and will be selling them piecemeal.
According to the memo, obtained by paidContent.org, the staff was told last week that Reed will soon be announcing the sale of some of its titles, but not all -- meaning closings and layoffs are soon to follow.
Excited about Apple's new "iSlate" tablet? But have you talked to your advertising staff yet?
It's the rage of the Internet this morning: David Carr from The New York Times, ComputerWorld's IT Blogwatch, Ken Doctor, Mark Potts all have posts about the upcoming introduction of Apple's tablet/reader to the market January 26th. But, as usual, the talk is all coming from the perspective of media owners, journalists and analysts. Wait 'til they discover that their advertising staffs are skeptical, disinterested, or completely in the dark!
For those of you who have not been following the drama of Apple's product introduction (it is amazing how much free publicity Apple gets prior to a product introduction), here are some of the details:
The new tablet/reader is rumored to be a 10" device that would be a cross between their iPhone and a laptop; it would use a modified version of the OS found in the iPhone, itself a version of OS X, Apple's operating system for the Mac; it would presumably have a touch screen, WiFi capability, and possibly could place phone calls like the iPhone; therefore, it might be a subsidized product (like a cell phone) to drive down the cost of purchase, but force the user to have a contract with a provider like AT&T; finally, it will solve all the problems of both the newspaper and magazine industry (OK, that's being sarcastic, but they certainly are hoping it gives them a boost).John Gruber has a nice way of looking at what he thinks the Apple's tablet will be:
Do I think The Tablet is an e-reader? A video player? A web browser? A document viewer? It’s not a matter of or but rather and. I say it is all of these things. It’s a computer.
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