Just recently, I read an interesting post by Tom Foremski on the game-changing approach of Google – to shift traffic (and this means revenues) from smaller businesses to Google. This has made me think of some interesting implications for publishers. Read further >

Some days ago I stumbled upon some thoughts on key trends in the publishing and information services industry and tried to reduce them to six main points. In the overview below you can see how I distilled them. Read further >

Last year the iPad dominated most of the discussions at the Frankfurt Book Fair. This year it’s about platforms – two years ago it was all about eBooks. Attending a discussion on apps, enhanced eBooks, pricing and content strategy, representing an eBook manufacturer, the CEO of an eBook-platform and two publishers, the most frequent term I heard was “convergence.” Read further >

Recently, when Google started Google+ everybody became increasingly aware that customer data is one of the most important benefits on the web. All of the four major players do not allow anonymous user accounts. And Google+ will be more than just social – it will be credit card as well as identity card. Read further >

Recently, I stumbled upon a survey of a German media agency about the relationship between the usage of browsers and conversion rates. As may have been anticipated by some, the fact that different users are sticking to certain browser types seems to have a real impact on internet-based sales. Read further >

Penguin books just started an interesting experiment on social media marketing of the new book of Hari Kunzru – “Gods without men”. The approach is to tap “influencers” via PeerIndex and get them involved in spreading the information on this new title. Read further >

Last week, ten colleagues from Wolters Kluwer Germany attended the first cycle of the innovation manager course at the University of Aachen. The Institute for Technology and Innovation Management develops theories, concepts, and tools to explain and design interactions and the division of work in the innovation process. The participants get insight into different approaches of innovation – from open innovation to lead user methodology, netnography, or co-creation. Read further >

A recently published article in the Guardian pointed at the possible advantage of co-working spaces due to their collaborative approach – stating that “Co-working is about the community around the desk rather than the desks themselves.” Co-working is a concept that gives freelancers and entrepreneurs who often work from home the opportunity to share office facilities and to work in a collaborative style. The last months showed significant growth of those locations – e.g. the German “betahaus” concept or others like Centralworking. Read further >

Traditional publishers say that their traditional subscription-based businesses are in decline. So why did Apple and Google announce the start of their subscription-based businesses? And Tien Tzuo (CEO of Zuora, a subscription-billing company based in Silicon Valley) even stated that “we are seeing a larger shift to a subscription economy that means a lot not just for publishers but for all companies.” Customers are subscribing to software, cars, computing power, and computer storage. This is all about tightening the relationships with customers and creating an ongoing stream of revenues for these companies. Read further >

Some weeks ago Kevin Smokler (CEO, booktour.com) stated that, “Whoever Builds A Good Tool To Help Us Find New Books To Read Will Get Rich.” Still, the mechanisms for book publishers to target their products in an ideal way to customers needs still requires improvement. According to his point of view, the state-of-the-art solution for book publishers is still to come. Read further >