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DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION ISN'T FREE (13/12/2007 )
Extract www.cnet.com by Gordon Haff

Over the past couple of days, I've read a couple of great pieces about the digital delivery of written content.

Tim O'Reilly mines his own data and experiences to talk about the economics of e-books. Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0 follows up with "The Future of Print Publishing and Paid Content," in which he considers what people are paying for or what they think they're paying for when they buy a newspaper:

" The problem for people who sell printed content is that the value of the distribution and the value of the content itself was always deeply intertwined--now it's separable.

People ARE willing to pay for certain digital content, but they AREN'T willing to pay for the distribution--specifically, not the analogue distribution premium."

to go a bit further :

We're largely talking subconscious mental math here, so I don't claim this to be an exact analysis. But I'm going to posit that most people act as if the following are true:

Most of what you're paying for when you buy a printed book is the physical medium and its distribution. The cost of digital distribution is close to zero.

TRADTIONAL MEDIA: GO DIGITAL INCREASE AD REVENUE (DEC 11th, 2007 MediaPost.com)

The proliferation of new media--from mobile phone, satellite radio and DVR subscriptions to digital cable, satellite and telco TV--has shaken the foundation of conventional ad-supported platforms. So far, they have not collectively grabbed sufficient revenues and major advertiser support to make broadcasting and print venues overly nervous. In fact, the intangible promise of emerging advertising options overshadows the tangible sobering facts.

The total U.S. population spends more hours per year watching television (a collective 466.5 billion) than all other media combined (including consumer Internet, search, radio, consumer magazines and newspapers). Conventional TV popularity is 90 times that of online video--which is growing at a compounded annual rate of 39% over the next five years, according to Magna Global. Of course, Internet search advertising is growing double-digit, but it's barely 10% of all annual ad-supported media spending in the country.

While that is little reason for television, radio and newspapers to celebrate, it suggests there is adequate time for their constructive, even lucrative digital transformation, according to Magna Global senior vice president, director industry analyst Bruce Wieser.