Publishing in an era of Digital Fragmentation I recently gave a talk to some Chinese businessmen on digital publishing. The slideshow (with some notes) is available here. The main theme of the talk is that the digital revolution is not consolidating things onto digital — as if everything is moving to the iPad. Rather, it’s …
Continue reading ‘Feb. 2, publishing in the digital age, and what is a magazine (reprise)?’ »
Will Google kill Gmail? This topic is slightly off the beaten track for The Krehbiel Report on Publishing, but it grabbed my attention. Mike Elgan wrote a very interesting prediction over at computerworld.com on why Google will eventually kill gmail. His argument is that there’s no money in simply being a conduit for information — …
Maybe it’s not an evil conspiracy I follow a few indie writer blogs, newsgroups, Google+ groups, etc., and a common theme is that writers feel frustrated with their inability to break into the established publishing world. Here’s that same sentiment, expressed from the perspective of a new startup. Susan O’Dell Underwood was starting to get …
Who but a Luddite would create a board game in the “digital” age? Didn’t you hear? Everything is digital these days. If it’s not on a smart phone, it’s just not … not …. It’s just not! It’s wrong. It’s “old thinking.” At least that’s what some would say. While it’s true that video games …
A curmudgeon’s view of how social media will tranform publishing For years I’ve been a social media critic, curmudgeon and general doubter. I find Twitter incredibly stupid, the ever-changing rules on Facebook annoy me, and I can never decide whether you’re supposed to wish someone a happy birthday on LinkedIn. There ought to be a …
Continue reading ‘Jan. 5, the future of social media in publishing’ »
What good is the ad you never saw? Conversations with online ad salesmen can take predictable paths. I’ve always worked in an environment where we measure marketing by how much it costs to get a new sale or subscriber, so I evaluate marketing spend on a cost per acquisition basis, and would prefer to purchase …
Continue reading ‘Dec. 29, Viewable ads, plus CNET and the non death of print’ »
Instead of dreaming up crazy strategies, talk to the people who deal with your customers I recently read an article about how Barnes & Noble could re-energize the Nook. I’m not linking to the article because it didn’t seem to have any clear recommendation, but it got me thinking about big picture, grandiose business ideas. …
Is a digital edition even worth the trouble any more? A major magazine advertiser has allegedly decided that it will no longer count digital editions towards rate base. (Rate base is the guaranteed minimum number of copies of a magazine the publisher promises to deliver.) See Major Ad Buyer Tells Magazines It Won’t Buy Tablet …
Attract more readers If the book market is a zero sum game, then any advance in ebooks means a decline in print books. The different formats are competing for larger slices of a static pie. (Although there is a small group of people who buy the same title in print and as an ebook.) If, …
How print refuses to die Print Books Outsold Ebooks In First Half Of 2014 According to Nielsen’s survey, ebooks constituted only 23 percent of unit sales for the first six months of the year, while hardcovers made up 25 percent and paperback 42 percent of sales. In other words, not only did overall print book …