Editorial Inspirations

Amazon has sent an open letter explaining “what we’re changing with print on demand and why we are doing so.” Amazon has caused a major stir in the POD field with its decision to have publishers who want to sell POD titles directly through its website use its BookSurge POD subsidiary.

In the letter from the Amazon.com books team, the company reiterated that by using machines that are located in its own fulfillment centers, Amazon can have a title ready for shipment quicker than if it needs to wait for a book to be shipped to its facility. The extra time will permit Amazon to “marry” a title with another product that will be shipped in the same box, in most cases hitting Amazon Prime shipping times.

“It isn’t logical or efficient to print a POD book in a third place, and then physically ship the book to our fulfillment centers. It makes more sense to produce the books on site, saving transportation costs and transportation fuel, and significantly speeding the shipment to our customers,” the letter states.

Barnes & Noble has unveiled a new section of its website, Barnes & Noble Studio, which will collect original content on books, readers, and writers and showcase web video series and other multimedia content.

The Studio debuted with two web video series, Barnes & Noble Tagged! and Book Obsessed. Tagged! is a magazine-style weekly web series hosted by actress Molly Pesce where. Among the books Pesce highlights in the first program are Jodi Picoult’s Change of Heart, Linda Fairstein’s Killer Heat, and Jeffrey Archer’s A Prison Diary. The other video, Book Obsessed, interviews readers around the country who are passionate about books.

In addition to featuring the two new videos, Barnes & Noble studio will also give visitors to the site another way to access other web content the company has already created and launched, including Upstairs At the Square, Live from B&N, and Barnes & Noble Book Clubs.

Though many products continue to be sold through the Internet, books more than any other product are sold on the Internet, and the number of books sold is increasing, according to a Nielsen Online survey as reported by the BBC.

Nielsen polled 26,312 people in 48 countries, and 41% of Internet users had bought books online, up from 34% from two years ago. The biggest increases in buying books online occurred in emerging markets like South Korea and India.

The top 10 Internet book-buying countries by percentage, according to Nielsen are
1. South Korea: 58%
2. Germany: 55%
3. Austria: 54%
4. Vietnam: 54%
5. Brazil: 51%
6. Egypt: 49%
7. China: 48%
8. India: 46%
9. Taiwan: 45%
10. U.K.: 45%

While the United States had a high number of consumers who Nielsen estimates have bought books online (57.5 million) that represents 38% of all American Internet users.

Borders has joined Sony to launch an online store that offers e-book titles for Sony’s Reader Digital Book device. The new store will offer access to over 25,000 titles.

Consumers who purchase a Reader Digital Book device at a Borders’ store will be given a promotional code that will allow them to access to new new online store, says Borders spokesperson Mary Davis.

In addition, Sony is offering a $50 credit, good for purchasing e-books from the co-branded Borders/Sony store, as well as 100 free e-book classics, to consumers who purchase the Reader Digital Book device before January 15.

As many people cease reading the newspaper and access their news information on the Internet, what will happen to newspapers?

Newspapers are already seeing the decline in their readership and are laying off reporters, copyeditors, and others. What will happen as the readership continues to go more toward the Internet for its information?

With improved search capabilities, readers are able to become more informed with less bias on a variety of issues, much of which come from blogs and are, therefore, free. However, when looking for well-researched information, the reputable and well-known publishers still have a majority of the blogs beat, but how can the publishers of newspapers continue to survive in a world where newspapers are going extinct?

The Washington Post has created a new business model where the day’s news is free and archives must be paid for. In addition, it offers podcasts and interviews with reporters about hot issues. This creates a closer relationship with the readers and the reporters, but is still not bringing in any additional income to supplement the loss of newspaper sales. To further the interactivity of readers, The Washington Post has created MyPost.com, a webpage dedicated to each reader so that readers can find out what other readers are interested in and are responding to.

Though The Washington Post has increased its advertising on its website, this by no means equals the amount of money it has lost in advertising and sales of its newspaper.

The agile publishing philosophy of experimenting to find out what works is beneficial, but no one has discovered the answer yet.