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Ten challenges to innovation in publishing

Lots of very good insights like below:

3. Walled Gardens Make Readers Claustrophobic

Publishers are tired of the constraints of walled gardens. Actually to clarify this point – consumers are tired of walled gardens. If you buy a book product you want it to work on all your devices. With the rise of Samsung and other android devices, consumers are become increasingly demanding – it’s no longer an iOS vs. Kindle game. If readers upgrade their ‘phone or tablet then why should they have to buy the same book content again? The prospect of going DRM free still makes many publishers feel like lemmings dropping off the edge of a cliff – but Pottermore statistics are heartening – with piracy falling for Harry Potter e-books, indeed some of the most pirated e-books, by 20% to 25%, after it was taken live according to Charlie Redmayne, Pottermore CEO.

When a Teacher Is 2 Feet Tall School Experiments Use Robots as Learning Tools (WSJ)

“Please analyze the childhood world of Jem, Scout, and Dill and their relationship with Boo Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird... You have 20 seconds to comply.”

# education

# digital

# technology

Another in the growing print stress fractures: RIP: Comics Buyer’s Guide (1971-2013)

In a brief statement, publisher F+W announced the closing of CBG, theComics Buyer’s Guide, today. The magazine’s 42-year run will end with issue #1699, one shy of the farewell #1700 that the collectors it appealed to would have liked.

The cause of death was the usual suspects:

“cited general poor market conditions and forces working against the title’s sustainability including the downturn in print advertising and the proliferation of free content available online for this highly specialized industry.

“We continuously evaluate our portfolio and analyze our content strategy to determine how well we are meeting consumer and Company goals,” said David Blansfield, President. ”We take into consideration the marketplace we serve and the opportunities available for each of our magazine titles. After much analysis and deliberation, we have determined to cease publication of Comics Buyer’s Guide.”

5 things that could change the digital landscape as we know it...

Some very interesting thoughts on the key digital game changers from NickAtkinson7

1. Myspace.

2. Microsoft Surface.

3. Social Commerce and the ‘Want’ button

4. Media subscriptions

5. Metadata, discoverability & new digital marketing techniques

Find out the reasons here

Balance is shifting from distribution to content

Amazon’s EPIX and NBC Universal deals further their move to become a dominant entertainment broadcast channel and shows up device centric players like Apple, browser players like Google, and most of all cable providers who have to figure out how to stay in the content game.

There is no more difference between digital music, video or books. Everything is now just screen content. More an more young households are eshewing cable TV and relying on Hulu, Netflix and other streaming options. As content providers get better at making their content discoverable our need for a Google to make sense and find it diminishes, our demand on search engines are becoming much less stringent. The things we want are simply becoming much easier to find. If Amazon can make Silk work like Chrome they may just win.