Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, Skiff; Corey Podolsky, Entourage; Nikolay Malyarov, Newspaper Direct; David Donovan, IREX
Van Rensselaer: funded primarily be Hearst. They do a representation of the printed version. Building a digital storefront with a platform that can plug into many devices. Not betting on a category or device type. Very keen on epaper, though. When Skiff was formed were no ereader devices on the market that could do a newspaper so created one. Wanted to lead by example so created an end to end system. Will be adding some more hardware partners. Would like more people talking about advertising in ereading. Building an advertising insertion platform for Skiff reader and other platforms. iPad will be good for the category because others will challenge their ODM partners to do better.
Pokolsky: diverse and fluid marketplace. Can’t lump consumers into one category. Looking at a series of micro-audiences. Publishers challenge is not to replicate current business models on line but to understand what the new media allow them to do in monetizing in new ways. It’s a challenge for devices to stay relevant with the current pace of change. One way to do this is to target smaller market which may not be so open to change. iPad will have an impact on their business but on the whole Apple will enlarge the total market.
Malyarov: for newspapers format is less critical than magazines. Want to replicate the content on the ereader for it to be immersive. Challenge for publisher is to be present on all devices at the same time. Newspapers don’t know how to deal with this. Newspapers have found that consumer won’t buy two different editions. If they pay for print they don’t want to pay for a digital subscription, so a readers subscriptions must work on all devices. Mostly consumed on PC/Mac now, but iPhone increasing, and ereaders still very much in their infancy in terms of consumption of content. In terms on newspapers, no particular device is emerging as a market leader. Doesn’t see the iPad as a challenge to ereading at the moment.
Donovan: any one user will have a number of use cases which may involve different devices, so is room for a suite of devices. The economics are very challenging for any publisher who is involved with a 3G device because the file sizes are so large, especially for magazines and periodicals. A huge cost for publishers to absorb. Looking forward to 4G when this component of costs will go away. iPad is a netbook, not an ereader, and it is pretty pricy when compared to an ereader.
