Transcript Media Convergence

Media Convergence
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Additional notes to Ch. 14 Media Transformation
Judith Molka-Danielsen
Modified 2007
Lo205 e-business
What are the types of convergence?
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Industry structure - Incentives for Global
Markets, changes in customer demands
require changes in revenue models
Content – design process, production
process, distribution process.
Technology – hybrid devices to use multiple
formats
Lines of business and mergers
Newspaper
magazines
publishing
Time Inc.
radio
Capital
cities
Infinity
broadcasting
movies
Columbia
Pictures
music
Sony
TV-cable
HBO
TVbroadcast
NBC,
CBS,
Telephone, ISP
MSNB
C, GE
Video rental
Simon&Schuster
Paramont
Universal
Studios is
Seagrams&M
CA&
Polygram
Warner
Comm.
Comcast-AT&T,
MTV
Channel+,
USA
Networks
CBS, King WordsyndicatorTV
AOL
playstation
Disney
Viacom(AT&T)
CBS(Westingho
use)
Blockbuster
Disney
(ESPN)
ABC
Vivendi
Disney
Who Owns What
http://www.cjr.org/owners/index.asp
Media companies continue to grow, and a shrinking
number of them shape what we view and read. What
does that mean for journalists -- and for the nation?
The following article is an example of media
convergence accross industries.
http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/advance-timeline.asp
The resource guide is maintained by Aaron Moore,
Ph.D., a Publishing/Media writer
The print publishing industry
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Print publishing industry is changing.
• Decline of independent book sellers, rise of big chains
(global markets) also news-networks require global reach
and resources.
• Digital technologies – every book an e-book or in multiple
media forms. Books as cultural artifacts. (technology)
• Customers read or hear news from Internet (demand)
• Copyright Laws (WTO) & big business (publishers) –
same issues in the music and video industry.
The publishing industry is in ”Terminal decrepitude” says
Jason Epstein, former editorial director of Random House,
previously with Doubleday since 1950.
A Changing Industry
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Historically:
Publishing houses
took modest profits
and relied on the
firms backlistbooks that sold
steady year after
year. New releases
feed the backlist,
not immediate
sales.
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Decline: Americans
move to suburbs,
bookstores open in
malls (high rent
space), require fast
turnover of stock,
emphasis on
bestsellers, impulse
buys, promos on
”Oprah”. Then the
Digital revolution…
The Digital Revolution…
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Electronic bookstores (Amazon.com) create ”pricecutting” competition. Marginal profits do not offset
warehouse and customer service costs.
The next logical step is to remove these costs…Only
send e-books? But there are several directions:
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Hand held devices for reading e-books will grow: palmtops, mobile phones, e-book readers,…
E-ink – improved readability in the technology
Print-on-demand technology: will lower the printing costs
for publishers, allow small scale publishing, selfpublishing.
But, the demand for paper copies will never disappear.
Standards for shared multimedia already exist. (XML,
PDF, MP3).
The e-book readers
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E-book readers: There are many free e-book reader
software downloads that can be installed on PCs,
laptops, and handheld devices.
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Adobe Acrobat Reader: Download here
iSilo Reader: Download here
iSilo is a versatile document reader available for Palm
OS®, Pocket PC, and Windows® CE Handheld PC
handhelds, as well as for Windows® computers.
Microsoft Reader: Download here
The Microsoft Reader with ClearType™ technology can
be used on your PC, Laptop, or Pocket PC.
Palm Reader: Download here
Palm Reader is an award winning application used to
read Palm Digital Media eBooks on your Palm OS
handheld. The Palm Reader is free, but there is a
upgrade called Palm Reader Pro that is not free.
Competition also comes from Franklin Electronic
Publishers,..
The e-book title formats
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The formats
• PDFAdobe Acrobat (hard to read on-screen)
• RB Rocket e-book
• LIT Microsoft Reader
• PRC Palm
Questions:
• What reader devices will win?
• Why are competing e-book formats a problem
for the industry, for the consumer?
• What happened to XML?
Copyrights
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E-book formats can be broken. Some have been able to
break the Microsoft Reader (two-device copy limit)
format and the Adobe Acrobat format.
What can be done to protect copyrights?
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Pressures to prosecute under the 1998 Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (businesses that try to do business with
the US must consider this.) See what happened with
Napster and filters.
Libraries that loan e-books can require user
registration and place in loan versions of books expire
time limits on the e-versions and include code to
charge .25 cents per page for print outs from the ebook.
Some e-book stores also sell cheap versions of the ebook with timeouts.
Traditional Publishers have e-books, and
market with both on-line channels
and off-line mega-stores
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Random House; AtRandom.com ,Winter
2001
Time Warner; iPublish , Fall 2000
Simon & Schuster , Spring 2000 (Viacom)
Barnes & Noble.com, Barnes & Noble
Digital , Spring 2001 (mega-stores)
Borders and Amazon.com
Other forms of online Publishing
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Zines (eMagazines or eNewsletters) http://www.e-zinez.com/handbook/
Blogs
Online Education
Revenue Models for Online
Publishing
Example, potential sources of ezine revenue:
 advertising
 commissions from affiliate or other revenuesharing programs
 sales of your own products or services
 revenue generated directly from your content
(through syndication, etc.)
 subscription fees
 voluntary donations from your subscribers
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http://emailuniverse.com/ezine-tips/?id=843&cat=revenue