Publishers need to take a closer look at e-books

E-books could just be the option publishers have been waiting for to expand their revenue sources. Some such as New York Times, The Guardian and Wall Street Journal already have notched up experience in selling e-books.

The New York Times is partnering digital publishing services Byliner and Vook to release a combination of original work and existing stories as e-books and selling them for no more than $3. “There really isn’t a pot of gold in e-books or e-singles at this time,” said Gerald Marzorati, editorial director of conferences at New York Times.

“It’s a new form, we’re experimenting with it. For us, it’s about being in one of those new places where readers are and to be offering them Times content at this point. And how and when it eventually monetises in a significant way we won’t know for a while.”

In a recent article, The Guardian suggested that newspapers should capitalize on their archives. Newspapers have extensive material and information that should be better exploited via e-books.

As tablet and mobile apps, e-book is one more platform for an advertiser to extend their brand to consumers. Some publishers are using it as a plus to the readers’ subscription packages.

For example, for The Boston Globe subscribers, e-books are free. For those who are not, the prices range from $2.99 to $4.99. In an interview to Digiday, Boston Globe’s vice-president for digital products Jeff Moriarty argued that the free model is an added benefit for subscribers and can be another revenue stream.

E-books, of course, will not save the financial situation at a publisher, but they need to be discarded as one more income channel produced from existent content.

BRIEFS

Superheroes and branding

Many of our favourite superheroes fight crime for the greater good — but what if they were sponsored by brands and made to ‘represent’ the companies that paid them?

That’s the question Italian graphic designer Roberto Vergati Santos posed in his illustrated series titled ‘Sponsored Heroes’.

Taking familiar superheroes from comics and movies, Santos associated each of them to a specific brand by dressing them in colours and logos of the company.

In the series, Batman can be seen wearing Nike gear, while McDonald’s sponsored Tony Stark’s ‘Iron Man’ suit.

“Imagine if one day capitalism reaches the point where the big brands start to sponsor the superheroes,” Santos said. “How would this influence their images? Based on this hypothesis, I decided to experiment with some characters, and see what would be the results of such idea.”

(Source: design taxi)

Majority of Americans give advertising the thumbs up

If these stats are to be trusted, Adland shouldn’t be so down on itself.

Nearly four out of 10 consumers say they “love” advertising and 69 per cent said they think advertising has the power to make the world a better place.

Among those in advertising:

• 56 per cent think that people in advertising secretly wish they were doing something more creative.

• 39 per cent think they are more likely to suffer from anxiety/depression

The survey did ask some silly questions of consumers, which yielded underwhelming results. Only 1 per cent of Americans would trust an ad exec with a secret.

But the good news is that consumers don’t hate advertising. On the contrary they admitted that they enjoy ads, and thought it would be a fun job to have.

• 71 per cent of consumers feel positive about advertising as a profession,

• 67 per cent feel positive about the advertising they see around them,

• 57 per cent say advertising gives them something to talk about, and

• 39 per cent love advertising