Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog

Brookstone's Content Opportunity

While dining with the family and waiting for a table at The Cheesecake Factory Saturday night I decided to kill some time in Brookstone's.  They had a device on display that really caught my eye.  It's called the SportCast Wireless Baseball Scoreboard.  It's a simple LCD display that provides up-to-the minute box score and standings information, all received through a satellite feed. 

I'm a baseball junkie but even I feel the $99 price tag for this was way too high.  I look at something like this and think of what it could become though...

The device's dimensions are ideal for placement on a desk or shelf.  Sitting next to your computer you'd have a bit of additional content surface area that could be used for a variety of things.  It's also a great size to take with you.  I could see them adding a flap that's set up to serve as both the stand and a protective cover.

Why make it more portable?  Because I think there's a great opportunity to provide more content.  Think of this as a stripped-down Kindle.  Thanks to the satellite feed it could receive all sort of additional content.  Would I want to read a book on this thing?  No, but it would offer a great way to take newspapers, magazines and other short form content on the road, always up-to-date.  If there's not enough memory already built in to house the content, just add an SD slot for customers to increase it on their own.

Then there's the advertising component.  It would be pretty simple to create an additional revenue stream by including banner ads, for example.  They could offer two subscription models: One that's less expensive with ads and an ad-free one that's a bit pricier.

(Speaking of advertising, when we finally got seated at The Cheesecake Factory I noticed that every other page of the menu is an ad for another store in the mall.  Pretty smart, especially when you think about the captive audience reading the menu and the fact that they're already at the mall.)

Suddenly that $99 price tag wouldn't seem so expensive, especially if this device could be my gateway to portable content that's priced at the same level as what Amazon charges for the same content on the Kindle.  I wouldn't need the sexier eInk technology for this...a simple LCD would do the trick.

Unsubscribing from WSJ.com

After several years of being a print subscriber and then switching to online-only, I finally decided I couldn't justify another annual renewal fee ($119).  Good luck unsubscribing online.  I couldn't find a link to do it, so I had to call their 1-800 number.

This required several minutes with a friendly customer service rep, and I'm pretty sure I didn't have to answer this many questions during my last physical.  Besides the usual "why are you leaving us?" I had to answer about a dozen others including "did you know you can do such-and-such on our site?", "what if I offer you a $20 rebate upon renewal?" and my favorite, "would you stay with us if I offered you a combination deal on a print subscription as well?"  Um, no, I abandoned the print edition years ago and can't see any reason to start it up again.

As I told the rep, I'm dropping WSJ.com because I get everything I need from other sources and most of them are free.  On top of that, almost all of the content I read on WSJ.com is in their free area anyway, so why pay a subscription fee to access it?

Opinionated: A Kindle Exclusive

Thanks partially to the Kindle's Whispernet connection feature, new and innovative ways of distributing all sorts of content are likely to emerge.  For example, this week's announcement by Tribune Media Services (TMS) to create a Kindle-exclusive magazine called Opinionated: Voices and Viewpoints on America and the World.

The print magazine business is currently going through some challenging times.  If it's not higher paper costs, more advertisers going online or a decline in subscribers you also have to face the fact that Walmart is cutting almost 1,000 titles from its shelves.  Why fight those odds when you can launch in the happy world of no inventory management or manufacturing costs?

The only real question is whether enough Kindles can be sold to make this a profitable venture for TMS.  Since it's exclusive to the Kindle, I have to assume Amazon was willing to make this a sweeter deal for TMS than they've done for other magazine publishers, especially in the short term while Amazon works to address the Kindle supply issue.

In the Online World, Distribution is King?

So says this article today on The Guardian.  (The writer must have found a special version of Amazon's Kindle, btw, as he talks about its wifi capabilities...  I'm pretty sure the only model that currently exists uses cellular technology, not wifi.)

The article goes on to talk about how the real money is in distribution, not content.  He makes it sound like the telecoms and other providers are the place to be and will find themselves in a much more lucrative spot than the content providers.  While there are certainly plenty of free content providers out there, and that number will continue to grow, I tend to think the telecoms and other broadband providers are in more of a commodity business than the typical content creator.  At the very least I think it's safe to say there's likely to be more brand loyalty for a particular author than a cell phone provider, for example.

To be fair, taken as a whole, "free content" is one of my biggest and most challenging competitors.  I'd like to think the availability of free content forces me to come up with new and better ways to distinguish our products from the free alternatives which are often deemed "good enough."  Despite this challenge, I'd rather work on building memorable content and brands than fight to earn someone's broadband loyalties.  Then again, I know there's money in those pipes...I generally curse and scream every time I get my family's cable and cell phone bills!

Print Is Dead, by Jeff Gomez

Given Amazon's recent release of the Kindle ebook reader, the timing of Jeff Gomez's Print Is Dead couldn't be better.  Regardless of your beliefs about print vs. e-content, you need to read this book, especially if you're in the publishing business.  You might not agree with Jeff's opinions but I guarantee you he'll make you think about the industry in ways that you've never thought about it before.  Even if you're just a fan of reading in general you owe it to yourself to read this excellent book.

The way I test the value of a book is by looking back and seeing how many times I've folded over a page or highlighted a passage that got my attention.  My copy of Print Is Dead has so many folds and highlighter marks that it looks like it's been read by 10 different people.  Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

Many of those in publishing see themselves as guardians of a grand and noble tradition, so much so that they sometimes suffer delusions of grandeur.

...pretty much anyone under the age of thirty qualifies for being accustomed to a 'constant stream of digital stimulation.'  And so to expect future generations to be satisfied with printed books is like expecting the Blackberry users of today to start communicating by writing letters, stuffing envelopes and licking stamps.

Today's kids are not going to want to pick up a big book and spend hours in a corner silently, passively reading.  Why in the world would they do that?  It's not interactive.  They can't share the experience with their friends.  There's no way to change the book to suit their own tastes.

The publishing industry needs to realize this, and it needs to also find a way to get to these kids by making content available in a way that will first reach them (i.e., digitally) and then will give them the tools to interact with it and share it (post excerpts on their MySpace pages, email chapters to friends, IM paragraphs across class, etc.)  If not, there are dozens of ways this generation will choose to spend their time, and none of them will involve books.

Of course there are many who contend that books are works of art and shouldn't be reworked or touched at all.  The latter is of course a silly view since readers 'rework' these books all of the time by skipping whole sections as they read, the same way that people rarely ever listen to the entirety of "The White Album."

The ability to alter, and then share, text to this degree would mean that you could edit a book to your own liking and then send an amazing chapter or even a couple of sentences to someone, via email or a webpage, along with a message that says, 'Take a look at this; I think it's amazing.'  Imagine all of the sharing of literary material that would occur if the reigns were loosened just a little.

Most of the early ebook formats and devices tried to faithfully mimic the ink-on-paper experience, and they failed not because they didn't look like real books, but because they looked too much like traditional books.

In the same way that Jimmy Buffett has created a multimillion dollar business around the success of his 1977 song 'Margaritaville,' so too will future authors create online communities and brands built around their works that have the potential to be even more popular than the works the communities were built to support.

Writers who are unskilled in the ways of the Internet, or just don't want to play any part in the online discussion and want to write their books and be left alone, will be like movie actors at the end of the silent era who were forced to have elocution lessons when talking pictures were suddenly the brand new thing.

If publishing can't find a way to tap into this need for discussion, then it's going to find itself and its product increasingly left out of the conversation.

...one day (perhaps soon) a printed book in a digital world will seem as quaint and as antiquated as a watch or a fountain pen feels today.

It's simply not possible that the Internet is going to have an effect on every area of our lives except reading books.

If I had to rank the 12-15 books I've read this year this would be #1 by far.  It's extremely insightful, well written and is one of those gems that makes you stop and think.  I've only hit some of the highlights in this post.  You need to read the entire book to appreciate the vision Gomez has for print and e-content.  Highly, highly recommended!

MinnPost.com: Sign of the Times in Newspapers

It's an understatement to say the newspaper business has been pummeled by the likes of Google, craigslist, etc.  Layoffs have been all to common as most newspapers continue searching for a viable model that works both online and in print.

Several displaced newspaper vets in Minnesota have decided to build a better mousetrap on their own.  This article explains how Joel Kramer, former Minneapolis Star Tribune publisher and editor, has launched a new venture called MinnPost.  Several other former newspaper employees have joined Kramer at MinnPost, an online service focusing on local news.  Visitors can read and post comments online or just download a PDF of the latest news to read offline.  MinnPost is a nonprofit with a revenue model built around advertising and donations.  In fact, the article compares it to the public radio/TV model where supporters make annual contributions.

I like the idea but I wonder if there's more strength in numbers...  Even though each one would focus on their local news, it seems like they could get a lot more visibility and traction if they were to create a federation of sites like this around the country.  The major newspapers are trying to become more local in their coverage, so it's a safe bet competition will be fierce.  I'd use a service like this to keep up with local happenings here in Indianapolis, but I'd also like to have a similar service for my hometown (Pittsburgh); I could see a customization feature that would let me designate the majority of my home page to Indianapolis news but save a column for the most popular Pittsburgh stories as well.  You could do this through RSS feeds today from each local newspaper but it would be much easier with a service where MinnPost is just one of many local feeds.

Special USA Today Offer for "Blogger & Podcaster Guide"

My good friend Larry Genkin at Blogger & Podcaster magazine recently sent me some information about a special deal for readers of my blog.  Here's what he had to say:

USA Today is about to get behind Bloggers & Podcasters in a big way with the launch of The Blogger & Podcaster Guide this Wednesday (think TV Guide for blogs/podcasts for mainstream consumers.) This will be the first time our industry can reach beyond early adopters and reach such a large mainstream group of people (5,200,000 daily in print and 10,400,000 unique visitors daily online) to grow our audiences.

So we can put our best foot forward, with enough critical mass of listings to give a positive user experience, I wanted to allow you to offer all of your readers and authors a free month in the online Blogger & Podcaster guide to promote their content (Regularly $49.95 per month). There is no obligation whatsoever, and if they'd like to continue on promoting their blog/podcast after the free month we'll give them a 20% discount for being a "friend of Joe's".

Interested?  If so, here's how to take advantage of this offer:

1) Go to www.bloggerandpodcaster.com/usatoday

2) Select "New User" and go through 6 Step registration process

3) In "Step 2" be sure to enter 'Wikert' in Coupon Code box under Option #4. Then click "Option #4". If you don't enter this code, you're going to be charged the regular price.

Information you should have handy to register is:

-  Blog/Podcast Name

-  Website URL

-  Brief Description (Print only): You can have 75 characters total -- including spaces & punctuation – between your URL and description

-  Detailed Description (400 characters max – including spaces & punctuation – for online guide)

-  RSS Feed

-  iTunes Feed (Podcasts only – Not mandatory): For info go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html

-  Up to 10 Keywords related to your blog/podcasts (Not mandatory): Used for search and placements as relevant material on USATODAY.com

-  Logo/Album Art (Not Mandatory)

Who's Making Money Off Your Content? -- Attributor

The New York Times recently featured this article about a company called Attributor and their ability to track content across the web.  It's a tricky job but one that absolutely must be performed to maintain the integrity of IP everywhere.

It will be interesting to track this company and see how much they're able to accomplish.  Between "fair use" and well-intentioned PR efforts, it's easy to run into a gray area or two.  For example, I often pull small excerpts from books I've read and include them in the reviews I post on this blog.  I consider this "fair use" and am always careful to avoid giving away the secret sauce that makes the book special.  But my opinion of where that line is drawn might be considerably different than the author/publisher's opinion.  I haven't had any complaints yet though, so everyone apparently agrees the additional visibility is good.  (Btw, I also cut-and-paste my blog review on the book's Amazon page, giving it that much more exposure.)

Attributor also offers a white paper entitled Who's Making Money Off Your Content?  I haven't had a chance to read this yet but I plan to do so later tonight; at first glance it appears to cover several interesting topics.

Murdoch's Free WSJ.com Campaign

While it's a bit disappointing to see that The Wall Street Journal might abandon their online subscription model, it's not exactly surprising.  The kicker is that wsj.com is often referred to as "evidence that a paid online content model can work", so why abandon it?  Reach and growth, for starters.

Like so many other content businesses these days, I've got to believe the WSJ is struggling to attract younger customers.  Any recent college graduate has more or less been raised with the assumption that plenty of free content is readily available, so why pay?  Let's not forget that the WSJ also caters to a professional readership, many of which rely on the paper's content for their day-to-day jobs.  This customer segment would likely pay much more than $99/year for online access to the Journal (especially since their company pays for it, not the individual), but the more they exceed a $99/year price tag the less likely they are to lure in a broader, less professional audience, hence the dilemma.

On the surface, I think Murdoch's plan to make the Journal free online is pretty darned smart.  Parts of the Journal are freely accessible today anyway so what's the harm in making the whole paper free?  Are they worried about the loss of the $99/year they're getting from all those professionals today?  Set it up so that today's paper is free and searches back a week are also free, but searches further back require a...wait for it...paid subscription!

That's right.  They'd still be able to get $99/year from all those professionals who need archive access to do their jobs.  Heck, you might even convert a non-paying customer or two into subscribers if they find enough value in the archives.  What's not to like?!

Newspaper Widgets

Newspapers continue to see subscriber and advertising bases shrink but some are experimenting with news content distribution models.  This AP story was picked up by my local paper (The Indianapolis Star) today and is evidence that The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post are just three examples of papers that "get it" when it comes to widgets.

A critic could argue that there's no clear way to monetize this sort of model.  The optimist in me sees that these papers aren't content to sit on the sidelines and watch as their brands become even more marginalized.  So what if they can't make money right away?  As the article notes, at least they're getting their content in front of a much younger crowd, often the audience segment they're least likely to reach in print.

The irony in all this is that my local paper runs the story but offers no widgets for their own content distribution.  I'd like to feature a widget from The Indianapolis Star to give my blog a bit of a local feel to it but there are none to choose from.  OK, I'll bite...  I'm going to leave a comment about this on the Star's website to see if they respond...