While Microsoft associate general counsel Thomas Rubin's criticism of Google's record on copyright grabbed the headlines at last week's annual meeting of the Association of American Publishers (PW Daily, Mar. 7), attendees also heard from several speakers that while print content will have a place in a digital world, business models will need to change.
"Search engines and portals rule," said Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore. Time is adapting to the new media landscape by "playing to our strengths," putting the content from its best brands into different formats. Moore said that "in all deference to the long tail," she believes the 80/20 rule still applies in terms of generating the most revenue from your biggest assets. But as pleased as Time may be with how it is making the transformation to more digital products, Moore acknowledged that while a subscriber to a print publication generates about $118 for Time annually, online users generate only $5.
Rapid changes in media are even making a technology company like Adobe change its business model, noted CEO Bruce Chizen. He said the company is working on a number of new products that will let the company generate sales away from its desktop products. Chizen sees the market for content for mobile devices exploding in the next few years, as the U.S. catches up to Japan and Europe in terms of mobile technology. The U.S. "is a Third World country" in terms of cellular technology, Chizen said, but companies are spending a fortune to upgrade the cellular infrastructure.
While publishers need to ensure that their content can be made available in digital formats, Chizen advised publishers to concentrate on developing great content. "A publisher's expertise is in content, not in manufacturing and distribution," he said. Even though there is more content than ever available online, "a lot of it is junk," Chizen said. Consumers "need someone to edit the good from the bad."
To help publishers adapt to the digital world, Mark Bide of Rightscom Ltd. gave an update on ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol), a joint venture involving the International Publishers Association, the World Association of Newspapers and the European Publishers Council. The goal of ACAP, Bide explained, "is to level the playing field" between publishers and search engines that often display content without permission from publishers. He said ACAP is "not anti—search engine," but does want to create standards that will simplify the permissions process between publishers and search engine companies about what goes online.
The importance of social networks (MySpace et al.) was addressed by Tina Sharkey, chairman of BabyCenter. She noted that kids don't go online today, they live online, and she predicted that the next demographic to become heavily engaged online will be mothers, both to monitor what their children are doing and to create their own social networks. While social networks "eat into mindshare," they are a great place to generate buzz, Sharkey said.
During the AAP's brief business meeting, Deborah Wiley, senior v-p at Wiley and head of the AAP International Copyright Protection Committee, said the "story is China, China, China," noting that the AAP is devoting about 80% of its resources to fight piracy in a country where many publishers hope to be doing a lot of business in the future. While the AAP has made much progress in securing the Chinese government's help in fighting illegal copying, more work needs to be done, Wiley said, including fighting digital piracy.
At the meeting, Random House's Richard Sarnoff was elected AAP chairman and Pearson Education's Will Ethridge was named vice-chair. Holtzbrinck Publishers head John Sargent remains treasurer.
