There’s been a bit of resurgence in interest regarding the rapidly changing dynamics in the publishing business as of late. While the talk of paywalls in front of currently-free content on news sites has been discussed (and sometimes implemented), paid content just got a whole lot more interesting.

Last week, Apple announced its long-awaited content subscription model that can be deployed in apps sold on its App Store. Previously, if publishers wanted to post a new issue of a magazine, they would have to do a traditional “newsstand” model where a new app was posted to the App Store each month. Now, new issues can be purchased inside a central app through subscriptions… for a price. The controversy that comes along with Apple’s announcement is that they plan to take 30% of each subscription if it is sold through Apple’s system (it will not require a piece of the action if the subscription was generated outside of Apple’s system, such as on publisher’s or content provider’s direct Website). Apple will also require publishers to use uniform subscription pricing, meaning that if a subscription costs $9.99/month direct, it needs to be priced at $9.99/month through Apple, despite the 30% charge. This model affects not only newspaper and magazine publishers, but other paid subscription providers like Netflix, Hulu, Rhapsody, and even Amazon.com.

The day after Apple’s announcement, Google announced the launch of One Pass, its own subscription model for selling content on smartphones and tablets. With One Pass, Google aims to create a “pay once, view anywhere” model, where a user has access to all subscriptions via one account that can be viewed in a browser or in a mobile application. Payments will be administered through the Google Checkout online wallet service. In contrast to Apple’s 30% rake, Google plans to retain around 10% of each subscription depending on the publisher, although further information on how the share is determined is not currently available. Instead of just a straight subscription option, Google plans to offer more flexibility in its payment models, including micropayment services like pay-per-article, metered access, and more. While Apple’s model is exclusive to Apple product users, it remains to be seen how this model will be adopted outside of Google Android phones (after all, access via Web browser has no App Store approval barriers to break through).

There has been a healthy dose of criticism regarding the Apple model and a great deal of praise for Google’s model in response, although the reality is not that simple. In the view of many, it may be a brazen attempt by Apple to demand 30% of each subscription; many have in fact called it anti-competitive and have pointed to Apple’s stronghold in the music industry with iTunes as a potential result of what could happen. With Apple as an intermediary, publishers may fear losing a direct relationship with readers and further commoditization of the content they provide (publishers would receive high-level personal details of Apple-driven subscribers only if they opt-in to share that information).

Nevertheless, look at what Apple provides: access to millions of users that have already proven they have no problem dropping anywhere from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars on mobile apps. Ever since iTunes, the key for Apple has been to make these models as easy and seamless to participate in as possible, to which it still holds an advantage. In the end, especially for publishers, a 30% share to Apple might still be cheaper than the existing cost of new subscriber acquisition and even renewal. By offering premium content to existing subscribers on the iPhone or iPad, it may give readers one more crucial reason to renew. There is no doubt that Apple’s iAd platform fits within these subscriptions in some way, which have yielded impressive results for the advertisers that have participated thus far.

So what about Google? While One Pass can be tied to either the Web or a mobile application, there is obviously a strong play with enabling subscriptions for Android-based mobile devices. According to most recent estimates, Android phones have well-outpaced other mobile operating systems in market share due to Google’s strategy of making the OS available on a very wide variety of phones. While this strategy has led to a massive base for Google, it has also led to inconsistent experiences for users depending on the device used, as well as headaches for developers to try and account for the sheer variety of handsets supported. Could the experience be the Achilles’ heel for Google’s One Pass? Furthermore, newspaper publishers in particular have been hostile toward Google in general due to its news aggregation services. While Google brings thousands or even millions of eyeballs to their pages (and subsequently, ad revenue), many feel that aggregation has prevented paid content models from being employed for fear of losing those eyeballs. Perhaps this move coupled with Apple’s announcement will be cause for publishers to truly evaluate what models and partners are in their best interests to utilize.

Of course, these announcements within the past week are just the first steps in what will likely be the shift to legitimate paid content models for publishers and other content providers. While companies like Netflix have a good hold on how their models are effective (they started online with a paid model), it has been a bumpy road for magazine and newspaper publishers to figure out how to provide enough digital value for users to fork over money for something that was originally put online for free. Will a streamlined experience, instant updates, interactive features, and ubiquitous access to subscribed content finally solve this problem? Furthermore, if it does, how much are publishers willing to share for that access? These answers to these questions could lead to success for Apple or Google, but also hopefully to those publishers that have been struggling to find digital success.

Update: I noted earlier that Google’s subscription share would only consist of a 2% transaction fee associated with Google Checkout purchases. After further investigation, this information has been found to be incorrect. The post has been updated to reflect that Google has been quoted as saying that its subscription share will be around 10% depending on the publisher, but it did not elaborate on those plans. Additional details are not yet available.

For this post, I’m offering my own unscientific perspectives based on a unique window I get to peek into through – my experience actively consulting with or for organizations of all sizes and in all sectors of the industry. This includes everyone from pulp and paper mills to paper merchants to printers to print brokers and finally, print buyers.

My travels take me from coast to coast and north to south here in North America working with over 100 clients in 200 locations per year. From ten-employee in-plants to billion dollar corporations, there are common themes that seem from my perspective to permeate every facet of the paper and print-space.

Necessity may be the Mother of invention, but it’s also the Mother of reduction, the Mother of consolidation and ultimately, the Mother of efficiency. The past few years of recessionary behavior has proven to be a Petri dish of sorts that prove this hypothesis.

Common to every nearly enterprise is the realization that certain functions have had to be reduced or eliminated in order to survive. On the M&A level this means economy of scale and centralization of management, marketing, accounting and human resource functions. Within the same organization, lower level elimination of redundant or non-value added positions has become the norm. I’ve walked in the door of many a facility where “ring the bell/buzzer/phone” for front desk service is now in force where before, the duty of the receptionist was just that; to receive.

If there is a front desk person it is frequently a CSR or AR/AP employee whose new workspace happens to be visibly at the front door of the establishment. The same goes with many other positions where value is perceived as being intangible and can therefore be eliminated and delegated internally to the wearers of many hats who are any enterprise’s new survivor class.

The other trend I’ve seen is that along with staff reduction coinciding with the amount of work coming through the door, where say a full 3 shift operation has been forced down to 2, a new and interesting problem has arisen. When the workload is steady, which is a lowered expectation these days, the available labor pool is being tailored to be able to handle the volume, however now there seems to be more of an optimistic trend among print buyers and advertisers.

It’s what I call the “loosening of the purse-strings syndrome.” As the economy and consumer confidence levels elevate slightly, print buyers are a bit more confident and optimistic. Over the past six to twelve months, my clients, generically now have the problem of not having labor available for those spikes in volume when they occur. In a way this is a good problem to have, since they now feel like they have weathered the economic storm and are now emerging as a more efficient enterprise through all their tribulations.

In some markets an interesting phenomenon is taking place. Where similar facilities with similar capabilities and equipment have either survived or failed, there is a glut of skilled labor. In some cases these spikes are handled by employees working for more than one company-  not that this hasn’t always happened to some degree. It just seems that now there are a lot more skilled operators willing and/or able to be engaged on-call. The problem here is that this is usually more of a mature labor pool, so with regard to longevity, an arrangement such as this is not self-sustaining. No one seems to want to be so optimistic as to ramp back up to former levels, so this conundrum will continue for the foreseeable future.

I don’t pretend to be an economist. I’ll leave that job to Dr. Joe. That said, I do ask the same basic questions wherever I go. How’s business? Have you had layoffs or reductions in the past year and if so, by how much? Have things stabilized? Are you bringing staff back on? Are your customers a bit more optimistic? Are you?

Of course the answers vary, but on average they are: tolerable; yes; yes; yes; yes; yes. It is encouraging if anything, that there is a pervasive optimism out there. In my book optimism equals confidence. Confidence equals risk-taking, albeit cautiously, risk-taking equals spending. Spending of course raises the economic tide overall, and a rising tide lifts all boats.

So ultimately in the printing industry, especially in the areas of growth such as digital printing and integrated media, I’d like to believe that because of all this spending on infrastructure, equipment and new labor, i.e. emerging skill sets, are about to take a quantum leap based on the demand for printing in our brave new world. A renaissance if you will.

To move forward and be the cause of change, mills, merchants, printers and brokers must again refocus their marketing efforts on a now more optimistic print-buying public, who will have a bit more money to spend as long as they are convinced of the ROI once they have been educated, again, by their vendors of the benefits of print.

So, in the end, you can talk about GDP, unemployment, print shipments and the calculated risks of either doing or not doing something to change the game all day long. All I’m saying to sum this all up is that anecdotally, we seem to collectively be climbing out of a casualty-ridden hole, a bit wiser, a bit stronger, but non-the-less gun-shy. In many cases the casualties have been necessary. It got rid of some of the low-ballers to hopefully create a more level playing field where the survivors can compete fairly on a level playing field, charge a fair price and continue to continue on now that the ball is rolling again.

What do you think?

Yesterday, the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA)  unveiled a new name, tagline and logo for their trade group: MPA – The Association of Magazine Media. By keeping the well-established initials, MPA, as the organization’s formal name and dropping “publishers” from its tagline, MPA is underscoring the fact that magazine media content engages consumers across multiple platforms, including websites, tablets, smartphones, books, live events and more. One could say that they are embracing new media – or one could say that they are distancing themselves from print.

“Magazine media companies are rapidly embracing cross-platform business models that incorporate print, digital and other ways of providing content to consumers,” said Jack Griffin, incoming Chair of MPA, and CEO of Time Inc. “MPA’s new identity expresses our strong belief that, together, all of these forms collectively express what it means to be a magazine media company.”

Added Nina Link, MPA President and CEO, “The essence of what consumers love about magazines – the immersive experience, the curated content, the sense of community and the award-winning photography and design – is now being enhanced by technologies and devices that support high definition imagery, video animation, mobile e-reading and Web access. The future of magazine reading is undergoing a transformation; audiences and advertisers now interact with magazine brands on so many different levels and platforms. MPA’s identity simply had to reflect this fact.”  

MPA will officially launch its new name and logo to its membership at the annual American Magazine Conference (AMC) on Monday, October 4, in Chicago – the same week as GraphExpo descends on Chicago.

MPA will also premiere a new series of videos at AMC called “Magazine Media Minutes.” Produced by the editors of various magazine titles, these mini-documentaries spotlight how innovative magazine titles are creating content and brand experiences across a variety of media platforms.  Participating magazines include Food & Wine, Glamour, GQ, Men’s Health, More, Natural Home, People, Popular Mechanics, Real Simple, Runner’s World and Yoga Journal. The videos are available on a special MPA YouTube channel at www.magazine.org/mmm. Most of these videos talk about how new media is better than print – can you find me one that doesn’t?

“In defining our business as magazine media we are explicitly focusing MPA’s leadership agenda on promoting magazine brands and their unique relationships with consumers across all platforms,” said John Q. Griffin, outgoing MPA Chair and President of National Geographic Publishing Group.

All platforms, including print? Hmmmm. Maybe we should take a bunch of GraphExpo folks on a  field trip over to the AMC next week . . .

The Editors Weblog has a detailed blog post on the Niiu personalized newspaper that has launched in Berlin, Germany.

Editors Weblog outlines the production steps:

On the client’s side the process is very simple. After signing up for a short-term subscription (more on that later), they have until 2 p.m. to choose their news sources for the following morning’s paper. On Niiu’s website they can select from a wide variety of publications and online sources; from national, local or international newspapers like the New York Times, or internet news sources and blogs. A 24-page personalized paper, researched from and composed of their choices, then appears on the subscriber’s doorstep the next morning.

The business is based on strategic partnerships with content creators and print service providers to handle everything from content creation to the Web portal to printing and distribution.

According to one of the founders, a printed version made the most sense, “We asked this target group which is the most comfortable and which is the best distribution channel; is it an e-paper, is it only on mobile, is it printed or online? The feedback was that for now, paper is still the best distribution channel.” However they pointed out that future offerings could be delivered to mobile phones or e-paper devices.

Niiu’s website is located at http://www.niiu.de/ (German only).

Niiu’s publishing model sounds very similar to what the Knight News Challenge funded project Printcasting is building: an easy to use interface that “allow individuals to easily create ad-supported, customized publications with a mix of local news and information”

In the second part of this interview we heard more details about Océ’s new JetStream 1000 inkjet press, how it fits into the market, and about print quality on inkjet systems. In today’s installment, Mal Baboyian talks about how Océ, with its legacy of toner-based printing is making the transition and commitment to inkjet.

NW: Mal, most people probably don’t think of Océ as having a history in inkjet printing, yet you’ve introduced several models of the JetStream family in a bit over a year and a half. But you haven’t done this on your own. Tell me about the alliance with Miyakoshi that has led to the JetStream line.

MB: Let me answer that in a couple of steps. First, Océ actually has developed a lot of inkjet technology and provided innovation and industry leadership in a number of markets. Our first inkjet products came to market almost 15 years ago. The wide format side of the company has been very successful and has the leading market share in some segments of wide and superwide format printing. Some machines, like the Arizona line of flatbed printers that can also print roll-to-roll, have won awards for innovation and quality. Last year at drupa I’m sure you saw our CrystalPoint solid toner technology which can be jetted onto a wide variety of substrates. At GraphExpo 2008, the Océ Colorwave 600 with Océ CrystalPoint technology won a Must See ‘Em award and this product has been recognized once again for PRINT 09 with a Must See ‘Em Encore award. Océ R&D developed and we manufacture these products. Of course, these wide format machines address a different market and at lower speeds than a production press, but the underlying knowledge of inkjet technology, chemistry, color, and material science has been very instrumental as we developed the JetStream family.

Second, our relationship with Miyakoshi is very much a strategic alliance that draws on the strength of both companies. Miyakoshi is a well-known offset press manufacturer that was developing an inkjet technology. We’ve brought our expertise in inkjet, color management, controllers, security, and error recovery systems for high-speed, high-volume digital printing. The win-win is that JetStream is built like a press for heavy duty use, our SRA MP [Massively Parallel] front-end can handle every aspect of the data in full color, and can be easily integrated into any PRISMA-based system as just another print engine.
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The Printed Blog a start-up that aggregated content from blogs to create newspapers has announced that it will cease publication. The Printed Blog Joshua Karp founder in a blog post cited lack of funding.

The Printed Blog published a printed version of internet-based content twice a day. Content was selected based on the votes of readers and their geographic location. In its short existence, the service produced 16 issues, distributed 80,000 print copies, and 100,000 copies downloaded.

Printcasting, the Knight News Challenge project that aims to “allow individuals to easily create ad-supported, customized publications with a mix of local news and information” has announced a partnership with MediaNews Group. The partnership expands the reach of the publishing platform.

The Press Release from Printcasting:
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Many pundits and experts would have us believe that the demise of the newspaper as we know it is at hand and that newspapers are a weakening market segment for printing in the U.S. There’s no denying that the shuttering of papers like the Rocky Mountain News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the daily edition of the Christian Science Monitor posit a profound change in the newspaper industry. But it does not necessarily follow that all newspapers are an endangered species. What it does mean, though, is that the traditional model of newspaper publishing is changing –many would say broken– and that newspaper publishers must create new models for their industry. And digital printing can help.
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There’s been a lot of discussion on The Digital Nirvana about the ways digital printing is currently being used for newspaper production, as well as some future applications. While there’s no doubt that the ways of which people consume news and information is changing, it’s also clear that some new business model concepts for newspapers are still utilizing print as a main distribution method. Two hybrid models that come to mind include the previously-mentioned Printcasting, as well as a start-up called The Printed Blog. Each relies on reader-generated content, news aggregation, localized/targeted advertising, and (of course) print.

InfoTrends recently conducted an extensive study to understand present and future digital print applications within the newspaper industry. The result of our research can be summed up in The Emerging Digital Printing Opportunity in Newspaper Publishing, which details:

• - An overview of the newspaper industry
• - Current newspaper production workflow
• - The case for moving to digital newspaper production
• - Existing and future applications of digital newspaper production
• - Adoption challenges (hardware, software, and recycling considerations)
• - Recommendations for greater digital print adoption with newspaper

As existing newspaper publishers think about new ways to bring back print advertising dollars, they need to look not only at online models, but also how they can differentiate their print offerings. Digital printing can be utilized not only as a means for short-run production, but also for personalized content and targeted advertising. One of the things that we found when talking with some newspaper publishers is that there’s a lack of awareness about the possibilities that digital printing can offer to newspaper production. Market education is key. Reports like this one, as well as digital printing hardware vendors providing clear proof-of-concept applications and case studies of digital newspaper production successes can give a glimpse to newspaper publishers about new opportunities they can take advantage of.

So what are your thoughts on digital printing for newspaper production? Let us know.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been playing with the notion that a good way to think about the global print industry is using the word “printernet” to capture what might be going on.

Yesterday, I got a chance to test it out in a more public venue in a column at PBS.org/mediashift. The title, chosen by the editor, is ‘Printernet’ Vision Brings Custom Print Publications to Masses”

The general tenor over there is that Print is Dead, newspapers have to go online, and other internet bedazzled visions of the future of journalism. I’m posting here in the hope of getting some feedback from my esteemed colleagues in Print, where I don’t have to take a defensive stance proving that the sky is not falling and print is not dead.

From a PR point of view the notion is “Now that the internet is in place, the printernet is ready to emerge.’ That’s for the kids in school to get them to be excited about Print.

From the professional point of view,”. . . this so-called “printernet” can have the same benefits as the Internet — massive parallel manufacturing with standards-based interfaces, real time production information and easy access for everyone. Each printer — the combination of the machinery and the intelligence that manages the machinery — is a print output node.”

My hypothesis is that one of the things that has kept us from seeing the emerging role for Print, is that we’ve been using old thought models that don’t capture a new environment. The facts on the ground are that the Eurocentric era of the global economy is coming to close and that new value in the form of previously impossible customer experiences are enabled by the network, not by stand alone printing companies.

While I was researching the column I came across pediapress.com in Germany. They’ve released Open Source software to automatically go from wikipedia pages to PDF,ODF, and XML. They are monetizing their invention by selling Wikipedia Printed books through their website. Just recently they’ve expanded from German to the other major European languages.

I think wikis have become the platform of choice for organizing content on the web. PBwiki.com, a start-up, says they are doing enterprise content management for over 200,000 businesses and 100′s of thousands of schools. Meanwhile, Newspapers and physical communities are organizing their content in wikis.

Given that my focus is high school education in the States, I think I’m seeing textbooks being replaced by WikiBooks and WikiNewspapers. The new experience will be cheaper, faster and much more effective in getting students to learn to love to learn.

I keep turning it over and over, and I can’t see why it wouldn’t work.

Any thoughts?

Printcasting, the Knight News Challenge project that aims to “allow individuals to easily create ad-supported, customized publications with a mix of local news and information” has launched in beta at the in Bakersfield, California:

This week we publicly launched Printcasting in Bakersfield, California. While our focus is on outreach to the 330,000 people who live there, anyone can now use the site to create an automatically updating, printable PDF magazine.

More infomation about Printcasting at http://www.printcasting.com/

A group of newspaper executives have launched a new Web site to promote the exchange of information and ideas about the future of newspapers. The Newspaper Project will be devoted to “insightful articles, commentary and research that provide a more balanced perspective on what newspaper companies can do to survive and thrive in the years ahead.”

More information about the project at http://news.newspaperproject.org

Many newspapers are plagued with old and inefficient printing operations. Some are outsourcing their print, and others are turning to electronic media. There is an opportunity for Printers to benefit from these problems by providing modern printing and distribution strategies–from automated offset to print on-demand digital.

Digital newspaper printing continues to make ground with a new partnership between Newsworld Corp. and AlphaGraphics to print copies of the U.K.’s Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday for the US market. From the press release:

David Renouf of Newsworld says: “On the back of our contract with Associated Newspapers and with the increasing levels of interest we continue to receive from publishers, we are delighted to be partnering with AlphaGraphics, a best-in-class organisation offering second- to-none levels of quality and service. Similarly, we have taken the necessary steps to invest in the appropriate technology to ensure the requirements of our existing and future clients can be met.”

David Kovacs of AlphaGraphics added: “Newsworld and AlphaGraphics could not be a better match for this partnership. We are both focused on leading the market by servicing client’s needs with technology and customer focused solutions. I am sure others will be watching with anticipation to see where we are able to take this venture. Marrying Newsworld’s vision and experience with our operational excellence was too good an opportunity to pass up.”

As Renouf noted in his comment, Newsworld signed a four-year contract earlier this year with Associated Newspapers Ltd. to print copies of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday in New York.

WhatTheyThink.com published commentary from Andrew Tribute on the consolidation of newspaper printing in the UK and here in the US. In Is This the New Newspaper Production Model? (WhatTheyThink Membership Required) Tribute points to new mega printing plants like News Corporation’s massive Newsprinters operation in Broxbourne to the North of London:

To indicate the scale of these investments the greatest is from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation with their new $1 billion printing plants including the massive Newsprinters operation in Broxbourne to the North of London. This facility is reputed to be the largest printing operation in the world.

This operation plus the two smaller plants in Manchester and Glasgow has the capability to print more than 20 million newspapers per day. This is just about the total newspaper requirements for every UK newspaper. While Newsprinters is the largest newspaper printing operation in the UK, and perhaps the world, there are a few others that also have capabilities of printing a huge number of newspapers. These are in particular the updated plants of Trinity Mirror and Associated Newspapers.

The consolidation of printing operations is one option struggling newspapers will turn to for print production. And probably the most likely situation we will see in the next couple of years.

Andy Gordon’s recent blog post on The case for the Individuated Newspaper here at the Digital Nirvana provides another option that creates new opportunity for newspapers to engage new audiences through targeted individualize news.

As showcased in the news over the past few weeks, the newspaper industry is being hit hard by declining ad sales and a dwindling readership. The whole situation is exacerbated by the less than ideal state of the current economy. There have been a few blows to the newspaper industry in Boston over the past few months. Most recently in the news is the Boston Herald considering to outsource its printing to two independent printing companies outside of Boston. Always looming is the threat of the Boston Globe being sold off by the New York Times as well. However, there was another sad newspaper event in Boston this past year: the closing of BostonNOW.

BostonNOW was a free daily start-up newspaper geared toward the commuters of Boston, set to compete against the Boston Metro, a widely-distributed incumbent free daily. Unfortunately, BostonNOW’s financiers felt that the newspaper was not valuable enough to continue funding, and it folded just a year after its first publication. This happens to be the case with a number of media start-ups. What was unique about the concept of BostonNOW, however, is that it had three aspects: print, web, and mobile, with the print aspect being driven by reader-created content.

Most of the content that wasn’t from wire services or general local news was created by the readers of the paper through the use of blogs setup on BostonNOW’s website. Anyone with web access could create a blog on BostonNOW’s website and start writing content. The content that caught the eye of the editors would be selected and be scattered around the newspaper. Sometimes larger articles (many of them rants from everyday Bostonians) would get their own headline and article space, while most other snippets would appear in groups of black boxes.

Regardless of the content or the placement, an interactive element to the newspaper was implemented, adding value for the content creators (making them want to pick up a paper with what they said printed in it) and for the general readership (seeing what your peers have to say). Trends in current social media, such as use of review sites like Yelp.com show that people want to know and also trust what their peers in their community say, especially with the existence of an open feedback loop or forum.

Another example of leveraging communities for content creation is the implementation of Kodak’s Microzone Publishing technology at the Chicago Tribune. With Microzone technology, newspapers can create websites for different communities within a city or town. Citizens of that community can register on the website and share community news or create their own original content. Editors can then grab that content to publish in a weekly community section of the newspaper. Each community gets a special targeted section with content from its members. Companies within targeted communities can advertise within the locations they want their ad to reach, adding value to a newspaper advertisement, while keeping the cost down to allow smaller companies to advertise. In theory, the newspaper circulation will increase because of the higher value of the content.

Reader-created content is one way to add value to traditionally printed newspapers in hopes to increase readership. As some newspapers eventually transition into digital printing, there are limitless possibilities! At drupa 2008, various newspaper solutions were showcased by Océ, InfoPrint Solutions, HP, Wifag, and others. Clearly vendors want to get into this market, and are making great advancements in technology to make concepts become reality. For newspaper subscribers, this technology could mean a totally personalized newspaper containing reader-created content and targeted advertising not only by region but by the reader’s buying habits and personal preferences of that reader. Perhaps the term NewsPromo will be used to describe this new digital phenomena. While it’s still a far cry from this digital newspaper, it’s a big step in adding more value to every newspaper sold.

Bryan Yeager is a Senior Research Analyst in the Production Workflow and Customized Communications Services group at InfoTrends. He can be reached at bryan_yeager@infotrends.com.