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Ingram: A "Tool of Change"
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 — posted by Sarah
John Ingram of, well, you know. He has the impossible job of following the unbelievable presentation about the analog/digital book.We're now talking about microfiche that covers Ingram's inventory back in the 70s. I'm still thinking about the new book prototype.
Ingram has applied "aggregation and technology to create a better infrastructure for book publishers and..." something I missed because the slide is gone.
Intelligent application of technology combined with the power of aggregation. There's something called iPage. iPage would be a really excellent name for the new book.
They offer print on demand through Lightning with over 400,000 titles. They make over 250,000 books every week. Print on demand helps to capture demand that would have been missed before.
(But this sidesteps the "immediacy" argument, which has been prevalent elsewhere. Digital content is compelling because it's immediate. Seems as though POD and digital content are direct competitors because they provide access to content that otherwise would be unavailable (out of print).)
Ugh. This is basically a sales pitch for the various Ingram businesses. Boo.
Things publishers need:
- multiple-use content conversion
- digital storage with ready access
Also:
- scalable delivery and bandwidth capacity (oh no, according to him this can occur in minutes because of events like 9/11 or a Virginia Tech shooting, which suddenly makes an obscure book possible. Couldn't you pick a different set of events to make your point? Ugh.)
- content need to explore new opportunities
Yeah, yeah. They have answers for all of these issues.
More importantly, why use Ingram instead of building your own? Why allow Ingram to control digital content distribution in addition to analog distribution? Do niche publishers have different requirements than mass-market publishers?
Digital clearly presents a challenge to Ingram. They have become the gatekeeper in the analog world as a book distributor, and there are reasons why a book store would want to work with only one or two distributors. The same thing is not true for digital content. So, they're trying to position themselves to provide digital services and become a gatekeeper there. But is this compelling to a publisher? The Internet leads to "disintermediation," and I don't see how this works in Ingram's favor.
Labels: toc2007
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