Publishing’s next top model
This week, both Bookseller and the Chronicle of Higher Education are looking at evolving models for publishing. The conclusion seems to be that free online and paid-for using POD (print-on-demand) works for a certain community of users but it’s going to need new innovation to move this market along.
EBooks are certainly a start, though probably no more than that right now, but I would expect uptake to affect the POD market space by 2009 or 2010.
Without doubt, models will have to evolve faster, with greater integration between published content, learning content, research and news/community. This could certainly have an impact in the professional markets where the next period could be a good time to figure out content relationships, dependencies, opportunities and strategies, while the technologists do their thing.
On the consumer side, the opportunities are tangential and monetization will prove challenging for the next while, a watching brief on the Sony Reader Revolution campaign and the Kindle holiday numbers and iPhone sales should provide some clues.