E-Publishing Space Heats Up

NEW YORK (Mar. 11, 2010) -- Media companies desperately need a vibrant device market to energize content sales. Fortunately, the current market leader, the Amazon Kindle, is showing strong momentum, and imminent competition from the Apple iPad and other tablet products expected to launch this year will only help.

The success of Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader and online e-book store has given a significant boost to the paid e-publishing content marketplace over the past two years with no sign of slowing. Competition from other device-makers such as Apple promises to further stimulate what is already one of the most dynamic areas of the digital content ecosystem.

In newspaper and magazine publishing, opportunities are less tangible and monetization models are in flux. Publishers essentially abandoned paid systems in 2007, before the recession took a serious toll on ad spending. “Since then, ad-based models have fallen short of expectations, leading media companies to revisit subscription plans,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report “Paid E-Publishing Content: Books, Newspapers and Magazines.”

Magazine publishers are determined to explore subscription-based monetization for their digital editions. Their core products depend on larger and richer screens than those of first-generation e-book readers, so magazine publishers welcome the fast development of sophisticated tablet devices like the Apple iPad. “Further, they consider color screens a must, while most e-readers use monochromatic displays,” said Mr. Verna.

Source: eMarketer