The print and music industries have started what looks like a final effort to halt the damage that digital technology is wreaking on profits
Simon & Schuster became the first publisher to establish a delayed release window between publication of hardcover books and their e-book editions. Thirty-five books carrying the Simon & Schuster imprint and having high print runs or high price points will be available in their print versions four months prior to the availability of their e-reader editions. (Publishers Weekly, 12/14/09)
Newspaper publishers are seeking to charge for their work; music companies are dropping the so-called freemium model and looking to expand music-as-a-service programs (a.k.a. subscription music); and now a large publisher wants to have print editions own the market for a limited time. Unlike the movie industry, which has all but abandoned the sequential release model (i.e., theatre release, DVD, pay-per-view and television), book publishers hope the process of copying and replicating a book will be more time consuming than the much easier digital copying that plagued the music and film industries and that they will be spared the agony of an extensive underground market. Good luck with that.
Ken Hey - Inferential Focus
