The transistion from physical to digital media is happening right now

[Dil Bert]

Not with a bang but with a wimper:

Borders Bookstore Will Eliminate 11,000 Jobs, Close 400 Remaining Stores
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/18/borders-jobs-layoffs-bookstore-employees_n_902024.html

[Dil Bert]

From Scroll to Screen
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/books/review/the-mechanic-muse-from-scroll-to-screen.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

"Something very important and very weird is happening to the book right now: It’s shedding its papery corpus and transmigrating into a bodiless digital form, right before our eyes. We’re witnessing the bibliographical equivalent of the rapture. If anything we may be lowballing the weirdness of it all."

[Dil Bert]

Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/business/in-internet-age-postal-service-struggles-to-stay-solvent-and-relevant.html?_r=1

"The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs.

"As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail.

"At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees."

[...]

"Mail volume has plummeted with the rise of e-mail, electronic bill-paying and a Web that makes everything from fashion catalogs to news instantly available. The system will handle an estimated 167 billion pieces of mail this fiscal year, down 22 percent from five years ago."

[...]

"In some countries, post offices double as banks or sell insurance or cellphones. In the United States, the postal service is barred from entering many areas."


Are other nations facing similar problems with their postal service?

[corbie]

I don't know about other countries, but I wouldn't be sad to see the post awful go under and something better take it's place. Our service has been simply horrible here. for 22 years I call the post office and get nowhere with lost bills, packages, late mail. My favorite story of all time is when I was looking for a missing parcel ( Bollywood DVD's of course) and while talking to the woman down there she told me I needed to read The Secret and then my mail service would improve as I was being negative and that is what was wrong. She got offended when I said I wouldn't have a problem if you did your damned job.

[Dil Bert]

I'll be sad to see the Post Office go; here it is good and UPS is a royal pain.

But if the economics aren't there for it, it's hard to that we should keep paying for it.

[Honeycomb]

I don't know what I'd do without the post office, I'd be lost..!

[Dil Bert]

The End Of Books: Ikea Is Changing Shelves To Reflect Changing Demand

'The Economist writes:

'Next month IKEA will introduce a new, deeper version of its ubiquitous "BILLY" bookcase. The flat-pack furniture giant is already promoting glass doors for its bookshelves. The firm reckons customers will increasingly use them for ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffee-table tome—anything, that is, except books that are actually read.'


Kind of unsettling how far-reaching is this change from physical media to digital.  Will we still call them bookshelves, or just shelves?

[James]

This sounds like a good idea, particularly if it were fairly cheap. I read many books I'll never pick up again and don't need a permanent copy of.

Amazon eyes Netflix for e-books: A move to get more Prime subscribers

Summary: Amazon is reportedly plotting a subscription service for e-books. In the end, Amazon’s move would be another perk for Prime subscribers.

Amazon is reportedly planning a Netflix-like subscription service for e-books in a move that would be another perk for Amazon Prime subscribers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is in talks with book publishers about subscription access to a library of e-books. Now there are a bevy of issues with this concept. The Journal notes that publishers are wary and the latest titles may be excluded—just like Netflix’s streaming service.

For Amazon, this e-book library is likely to be lumped in with its Amazon Prime services. Today, you pay Amazon $79 a year and you get unlimited two day shipping and access to movies and TV shows.

If this e-book library model pans out, a digital library could be thrown in as well. Add it up and Amazon clearly wants Prime subscribers because they have the buying frequency the company needs to grow.

Ultimately, Amazon could toss music into Amazon Prime, which will be the hub services for any new tablet the company launches.

A few thoughts:

   

• Publishers are likely to push back against Amazon’s idea at first. The Journal noted that one publishing executive said that an e-book service would diminish the value of individual books. Translation: Look for some tiering mechanism like movie studios have. There will be release windows.
• The Prime subscriber benefits. While the e-book library isn’t likely to garner Prime subscriptions by itself, it’s a nice add-on. For instance, I don’t use Amazon’s streaming movie service much, but it was enough to get me off the fence about becoming a Prime subscriber.
• Amazon’s end-game is Prime subscriptions. In the end, it’s clear that Amazon wants to be more than a transactional player. Amazon wants your frequency to support new models—notably subscriptions and advertising.

Would you subscribe to Amazon's e-book rental service?

Amazon is in talks with major book publishers to release a digital book rental service, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The service would be a part of the Amazon Prime program, a $79-a-year subscription that gives members shipping bonuses and on-demand access to movies and television shows. The book rental service itself is described as working much like the film rental service Netflix.

Negotiations between publishers and Amazon are reportedly ongoing, and some commentators have predicted tension between the two parties. "Publishers are likely to push back against Amazon's idea at first," says ZDNet's Larry Dignan. "The Journal noted that one publishing executive said that an e-book service would diminish the value of individual books."

Amazon has become well-known in the e-book business with its Kindle e-reader, and is expected to launch a tablet device with a more traditional screen to compete with Apple's iPad in the near future.

[Dil Bert]

A Shopper’s Companion, Still Going Strong

Consumer Reports digital subscription income has surpassed its print income, without cannibalizing its print sales.  Maybe there's hope for journalism after all.

[Dil Bert]

American Airlines looks to replace paper manuals on flights with iPads
http://allthingsd.com/20111214/american-airlines-pilot-on-why-he-wont-be-stowing-his-ipad-during-takeoff/

But, American Airlines insists there are a lot of benefits to using Apple’s tablets as opposed to paper. First and foremost, the iPad replaces 45 pounds worth of paper for each pilot on a plane. If American is able to use iPads on every flight — its eventual goal — it stands to reduce its fuel usage by 500,000 gallons each year.

[MrB]

The title is misleading - this article is about how rapidly book buying is going digital:

The 'mummy porn' author and the suburban bookshop

...

One reason, perhaps the main reason the suburban bookshop has sold so few copies of Fifty Shades is not down to its location, but its function. The majority of readers have bought Fifty Shades digitally - either in e-book form or as a printed publication with one click of the mechanical mouse from online book sellers.

When I surveyed the industry a year ago, most publishers and commentators thought that e-books would eventually account for about 50% of the market, but it'd take 10 years or so to get there. During which time the publishing industry thought it would have found a way to help physical shops survive, as they consider a shop window and human interaction to be essential to their business.

But The Bookseller this week reckons that about 40-50% of copies sold of Fifty Shades in the UK have been digital. Obviously the nature of the subject matter has something to do with that, but it is an ominous figure nevertheless for the bookshops and publishers.

One major publisher tells me that High Street booksellers are in much worse shape than most of us imagine. We know about the closures, but we don't know that this publisher has put many shops on "stop", meaning they will no longer supply them until old invoices are paid. For a publisher desperate for a High Street presence for its books, that is an action taken only as a very last resort.

...

[Dil Bert]

I view the boom in online education as part of the digitization of previously physical things:

http://gigaom.com/2012/06/22/online-education-startups-a-field-guide/

[...]

According to Harvard Business School professor and disruptive innovation expert Clayton Christensen, half of North American higher education will move online in the next ten years, followed by half of K-12 education by 2019. Several startups (and institutions, including Harvard and MIT through their EdX initiative) are starting to realize that future. Here’s a guide to seven that have made headlines in the past few months.

[...]

[Dil Bert]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/18/newsweek-ending-print-going-all-digital/

How magazines will be changed forever

Forget everything we know and love about physical magazines. Forget their length. Forget their size. Forget their weekly or monthly publishing schedule. Forget all these qualities except for one: What it's like to come to an end, and to take a deep breath.

Like Newsweek, almost all magazines will eventually go purely electronic. This shouldn't surprise anyone. Already, nearly 40% of tablet owners read digital newspapers or magazines, with nearly 10% doing so daily.

[...]

[theboldandthebolly]

Much as I like my nook, I still prefer the hardback/paperback version of books and to have the magazine in my hands. Reading in bed with the nook just isn't quite as enjoyable as having a tattered copy of my books in my hands (which I read over and over again).