"digital" entries

iPhone App Outperforms Most Print (Computer) Books This Holiday Season

Conventional wisdom suggests that when choosing pilot projects, you pick ones with a high likelihood of success. It's hard to argue that iPhone: The Missing Manual was a reasonable choice for testing the iPhone App waters. But while we knew it would do well, we've been quite pleased with just how well: If the iPhone App by itself had been…

The Inevitability of Newspapers' Downturn

In a post at Boing Boing, Clay Shirky takes issue with the newspaper industry's slow adaptation to digital and its propensity for playing the victim: I'd only arrived on the net in '93, a complete newbie, and most of my opinions about newspapers came from talking with Gordy Thompson of the NY Times and Brad Templeton of Clarinet. Instead,…

Publishers: Let the Containers Go

In a guest post at Boing Boing, Clay Shirky says publishers who focus on book lovers rather than readers are setting themselves up to fail: Businesses don't survive in the long term because old people persist in old behaviors; they survive because young people renew old behaviors, and all the behaviors young people are renewing cluster around reading, while they…

Experimental O’Reilly Ebook iPhone Integration with Stanza

UPDATE: The Stanza integration is no longer experimental. All of O'Reilly's ebook bundles are now available for sale in the Stanza online catalog. Back in August, I showed how to read O'Reilly EPUB ebooks on an iPhone (or iPod Touch) using the popular (and free) Stanza reader app. I'm pleased to announce that you can now directly download EPUB ebooks…

PC Magazine Goes Web Only

PC Magazine's January 2009 edition will mark the end of its print run. A reduced staff will focus on the PCMag Digital Network. From paidContent.org: The magazine, which was started in 1982, has a storied history, but its print base eroded over the years as its core brand of journalism — news you can use while shopping for computers…

Redefining Professional Content and Accepting Digital's Limitations

Scott Karp's 10 observations about the future of media inspired a few thoughts on the shifting definition of "professional" and the limitations of digital.

U.S. News Shifts Focus to Digital

U.S. News & World Report is pulling the plug on its regular print edition. From the Washington Post: The financially struggling magazine, which cut back to biweekly publication earlier this year, now plans to reinvent itself on the Web. While it will publish one print edition each month, according to staffers briefed on the decision, these will be entirely…

[TOC Community] How Does Digital Affect Territorial Rights?

Over on the TOC Community, David Henley poses interesting questions about rights and territories: With the looming ebook and international POD availability, won't the traditional territorial rights market start to become shaky? Especially for publishers in countries like Australia whose main income comes from distributing US and UK owned content? Related Stories: Join the TOC Community…

Perseus Targets Small Publishers with Digital Services Suite

Perseus Book Group’s new Constellation service offers independent publishers a conduit to digital formats and platforms. From the New York Times: The companies involved in the deal include Google, for its Google Book Search feature; Amazon, for its Kindle electronic reader; Sony, for its Sony Reader; Barnes & Noble, for its “See Inside” feature on its Web site; and…

Shopping Electronic Publishing Rights

Kassia Krozser discusses why and how authors are getting savvy to retaining electronic publishing rights. From Booksquare: As publishers like Random House try to redefine concepts such as "out-of-print", savvy authors and agents will be more diligent about defining tight deadlines for contracts (in fact, I'm a bit surprised this isn't happening more frequently). Firm deadlines allow authors to…