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Digital publishing today: Standards, challenges & opportunities

Digital publishing today: Standards, challenges & opportunities. Columbia University Libraries’ Digital Library Seminar. Michael Healy, Executive Director, Book Industry Study Group. What is BISG?. Founded in 1977 Not-for-profit corporation Based in New York City

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Digital publishing today: Standards, challenges & opportunities

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  1. Digital publishing today:Standards, challenges & opportunities Columbia University Libraries’ Digital Library Seminar Michael Healy, Executive Director, Book Industry Study Group

  2. What is BISG? • Founded in 1977 • Not-for-profit corporation • Based in New York City • Three full-time staff members • Executive Director • Associate Director • Office Manager

  3. Membership • Drawn from all parts of the supply chain • Our unique strength • Printers, paper mills, book manufacturers • Publishers (large/small; corporate/independent) • Booksellers and wholesalers • Service suppliers • Libraries • Trade associations

  4. A small selection of members ….

  5. Our mission “Working to create a more informed, empowered, and efficient book industry.”

  6. The mission in action • Standards • Best practices • Certification • Research • Publications • Education • Events

  7. U.S. market size * * Caveat emptor

  8. Reasons to be gloomy? • Book sales • Industry consolidation • Readership

  9. U.S. book sales 2004-2011

  10. Book sales by sector

  11. Increasing consolidation

  12. A crisis in readership? • Americans are reading less • Young adults are reading fewer books • Reading is a declining activity for teenagers • American families are spending less on books • Reading comprehension skills are falling • Civic, economic, and cultural implications

  13. Reasons to be cheerful?

  14. Sources of confidence

  15. Areas of strategic focus • Infrastructure • Content development • Marketing • Content protection

  16. Infrastructure • Content preparation • Frontlist titles “born digital” • Backlist digitization: selective or total • DAM and DAD systems • Workflow integration • Editorial, production and distribution • Standardization • e.g. XML, .epub

  17. Content development • “Fragment” publishing • Reader-generated content • Customized publishing • Short form narrative • Reader interaction

  18. Content development

  19. Content development

  20. Marketing • Widgets • Podcasts • Social networking sites • Cell phone marketing • Browse inside • Author-publisher collaboration • Pricing – the importance of $0.00

  21. Author-publisher collaboration

  22. Experimenting with free

  23. Content protection • Encouraging sales; discouraging piracy • Meeting consumer expectations • Online audio books without DRM • Random House experiment: September 2007 • Random House announcement: February 2008 • Watermarking and piracy tracking • Amazon and Audible?

  24. Issues for publishers • Focus on the individual consumer/user • Focus on “granular” content • Focus on user-defined content • Influence of social networking sites • Encompasses all types of publishers • Many new players

  25. Issues for publishers: quality/authority • The question of authority • “The wisdom of crowds” • The role of the editor and the publisher • Social, political, & civic implications • Author-reader relationships • The prospect of disintermediation? • Publisher • Bookseller • Librarian

  26. Issues for publishers: content delivery • New focus on “content”, not “books” • Customer-driven content models • Selling “fragments” • Aggregation from different sources • Aggregation from different providers • Integration of personal and 3rd party content

  27. Issues for publishers: business models • Learning from other media • Newspapers • Music • “Getting rich by charging nothing” • Will books ultimately be “free”? • Cost of quality content • Proliferation of new commercial models • Purchase, rental, ad-driven, subscription etc.

  28. Issues for publishers: rights and DRM • Rules that describe how content may be used • Mechanisms for rewarding content creators • Tools for investment returns • What are the lessons of the music industry? • The influence of the search engines • Standardized rights-expression languages

  29. Changing publishing models Traditional Publishing Model Bookseller owns customer Publisher’s contact with customer limited to advertising, author appearances Content Metadata Content Creators Publisher Bookseller Consumer Content +Product Metadata Content Product

  30. Changing publishing models: web 1.0 Web 1.0 Model Shift Publishers and authors make direct contact with consumers through online marketing Content + Product Metadata (Websites, Newsletters) Consumer Content Creators Publisher Bookseller Content + Product Metadata (Websites, Newsletters, Games, Contests, Interactive)

  31. Changing publishing models: web 2.0 Web 2.0 Model Shift Product + Content + Product Metadata (Websites, Newsletters, MySpace) Consumer Defined Product(Chapters, Recipes) Consumer Content Creators Publisher Bookseller Product + Content + Product Metadata(Widgets, chunked, mobile, search) Digital Warehouse

  32. Challenges: the need for standards • Identification • Products • Works • Contributors • Product description • ONIX 3.0 • Product formats • Transaction standards

  33. Thank you. Michael Healy michael@bisg.org 646 336 7141

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