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e-Books are Books

Dr. Joe Webb, industry pundit said in a column last week “E-books are not books, they’re e-commerce sites that let you read books.” In a sense, he’s certainly right, but if you print books, the idea that e-books are not books and will not replace books is a dangerous concept. What e-books replace is not the idea of a book which will persist. If you are a writer or a publisher, e-book technology offers up new opportunities, and challenges as well as new marketing and distribution possibilities. But none of these opportunities mean much if your bread and butter is putting ink on paper and your customers are book publishers. For those folks, e-books ARE books and their electronic delivery eats into their core business. The fact that writers and publishers can build business models on electronic delivery systems does nothing to help them. For the immediate future, book publishing trends are fairly clear. People are buying a huge number of e-books and not only is the number increasing daily
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Yes, Digital Will Prevail

If you want to start an argument among print professionals, simply make the statement that offset printing is doomed. It is a truth people don't want to hear. Manufacturers of offset presses in particular don't want to hear it. It isn't as though all offset presses will disappear by some arbitrary date: say 2020. But by then they will likely be relegated to special purposes: extremely long runs of static material, special in-line coatings and so on. After all, the company I worked for for 25 years still has a hundred year old Heidelberg windmill letterpress. In fact they have three letterpress machines used for numbering and die cutting. They still work fine and handle some work that can be handled profitably with very old technology. And there are still small companies churning out letterpress work for invitations and other specialty work where the depth and feel of letterpress gives a "charm" factor to the finished piece. But the truth is, digital will prevail.
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Gearing Up for Print 09

The News Releases are starting to come fast and furious as equipment and software suppliers gear up for Print '09 in Chicago Setpember 11-16th. One of the first e-mails to hit was concerning discounted hotel rooms in the Windy City, indicating show staff is concerned about the effect of the economic downturn on travel. I love attending the Chicago Print show, but I have to wonder how many folks will be springing for the travel and housing expense this year. I'd like to know how our readers are coping with this. Are you cutting the number of attendees, scratching Print '09 off your calendar, doubling up on hotel rooms, travelling by other means (train or car vs. plane?) But I guess the key question is whether folks are using alternative methods of researching new products: web forums, sites like graphicartsonline, webinars, webex demos etc. How are you getting the information you need to make educated decisions? Do you think large conferences like Print '09 still have va
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Making the Most of the Forums

Making the Most of the Forums : " We'd like the graphicartsonline.com forums to live up to their full potential. They really should be an important way for our readers to communicat... "
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