Professional Documents
Culture Documents
E-Commerce and Online Publishing-2
E-Commerce and Online Publishing-2
As more and more firms begin to offer online content, these are forced to adjust to
new customer attitudes regarding pricing. In the offline business, publishers charge
large advertising fees from the firms by offering mass markets for delivering
message. News, information, and entertainment are expected to be almost free for
general public and that advertisers will pay the bill. This concept is not practical in
online marketplace where instead of mass marketing, one-to-one marketing is
considered. Customers select their information and delivery methods but are not
eager to pay online content. The size of customers and their habits are nearly
impossible to figure out. Even new advertising models can not be claimed to draw
profits on the internet. While ad revenues are not coming close to covering
expenses, now they could grow substantially in coming years as the traffic
increases and brand names become established. Brand development is important
because every time a user sits in front of a web browser needs to make decision
about where to go. The better the brand, more likely it is to popup in the
consumers mind.
One more important aspect in online publishing relates to digital copyrights. The
internet makes it extremely easy to copy, retransmit, and alter works without the
permission of the copyright holder. Moreover, the digital world has no internal
boundaries, and policing is impossible since the levels of protections and sanctions
against infringement vary widely in countries across the globe, which makes the
risk even greater. Clearly, without effective protection, publishers are not willing to
risk their investment and hard work.
The web has suffered from the same drawbacks, which beset multimedia
publishing in its infancy a lack of business direction and the hi-jacking of
operations by technologies without any business knowledge. It is important that
publishers identify the product they are selling and its suitability for on-line
delivery. Electronic goods consist of electronic journals, magazines and
newspapers, electronic books, multimedia CD-ROM, software, computer games,
music, and online databases.
Digital goods and services are those whose purchase and delivery can only be
conducted via electronic channels. Thus electronic publishing products are well
suited to this medium of production and delivery. The products most suited to
electronic commerce are on-line databases and electronic journals, magazines and
newspapers as these can be accessed, paid for and delivered directly to the users
PC.
Reasons for Online Publishing
At this moment, it is also necessary to debate on what exactly is meant by online
publishing. It is an act of disseminating information. Online publishing can also be
viewed as the activity of publishing for sale. Publishers package their product as a
bundled commodity rather than disjointed information in order to realize revenue
from their information.
In the late 1960s the concept of online publishing evolved out of public funding
associated with the aerospace and medical research programmes. Many of the
publishers switched from manual typesetting and printing to computer-assisted
photo composition and developed their databases. Earlier photo compositions were
very expensive and not able to offer much variety but enabled the creation of a
central database from which a series of online services could be provided.
Improved communication networks, availability of low-cost terminals, and remote
access and dialup database systems were the other technical developments that put
a great impact on online publishing.
Internet and web recently have brought online publishing from a niche target
audience to a mass audience. The reasons for the sudden increase in the interest of
publishers, advertisers, and content providers in the web include:
1. Rapid evolution of technology and acceptance of web at large made it
possible to meet time-to-market requirements that were even beyond
imagination a few years back.
2. It is not necessary to invest huge amount in advance for uncertain returns
rather much of the investment in infrastructure has been made by others such
as Internet Service Providers (ISPs), hardware companies, and various
software developers.
3. It allows publishers to interact with large number of customers in a mass
market by exploring new ways of targeting and reaching customers.
4. As compared to conventional media, publishing and advertising involve less
of egos and financial interests of powerful multiple-system cable television
operators, television network, and group broadcasters.
Management Issues
Creating organization for online publishing
Selection of business model to ensure success in different segments of online
publishing
Online customers satisfaction and the ways to keep the customers loyal