Media Vent
By Bob Sacks
About Bob
Bob Sacks (aka BoSacks) is a printing/publishing industry consultant and president of The Precision Media Group (BoSacks.com). He is also the co-founder of the research company Media-Ideas (Media-Ideas.net), and publisher and editor of a daily international e-newsletter, Heard on the Web. Sacks has held posts as director of manufacturing and distribution, senior sales manager (paper), chief of operations, pressman, circulator and almost every other job this industry has to offer.
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Momentous Media News Break Delivered This Week by Google
Google announced this initiative to bring more magazine archives and current magazines online, by partnering with publishers to begin the digitization of millions of articles from titles. It is the intent of Google over time to provide this service to everyone, everywhere -- one more step in the democratization of knowledge. Sounds a bit noble, but it is the actual byproduct of the Google business adventure. Google's long-stated position is to provide total access to the entire world's information, and at the same time make a hefty profit on that information's accessibility.
It is now only a matter of how the magazine industry handles and monetizes this "advancement in delivery," whether we wish to or not. This additional feature in the Google platform creates unprecedented challenges and equally great opportunities for publishers and entrepreneurs alike.
It is up to us to determine how to handle this platform. It is up to us to figure out how to monetize it. It is up to us to decide whether we want to be part of the future or an interesting analog relic of the past.
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The answer to your question is tied up in how we monetize our publications. Someday soon we will have a formula that monetizes our magazines not only on the issue-by-issue basis but also in the section and page level. We are not there yet. But we will be.
Just curious if you think that offering a print edition of a old issues and print it on demand might work?
Or maybe having a feature that allows a reader to choose articles from old issues and getting a paperback version of the articles?