| > | | | | other web sites. This is the Yahoo! formula. |
| Vanity print publishing is the last hope of a dying | | | | Content generated by the authors has thus |
| industry. | | | | transformed Ploughshares into a leading literary |
| The circulation of print magazines has declined | | | | portal. |
| precipitously in the last few years. This dissolution | | | | But Ploughshares did not stop at this standard |
| of subscriber bases has accelerated dramatically | | | | features. A "bookshelf" links to book reviews |
| as economic recession set in. But a diminishing | | | | contributed online (and augmented by the |
| wealth effect is only partly to blame. The | | | | magazine's own prestigious offerings). An |
| managements of printed periodicals - from dailies | | | | annotated bookstore is just a step away (though |
| to quarterlies - failed miserably to grasp the | | | | Ploughshares' web site does not include one |
| Internet's potential and potential threat. They | | | | hitherto). The next best thing is a |
| were fooled by the lack of friendly and cheap | | | | rights-management application used by the |
| e-reading devices into believing that old habits die | | | | journal's authors to grant online publishing |
| hard. They do - but magazine reading is not habit | | | | permissions for their work to third parties. |
| forming. Readers' loyalties are fickle and shift | | | | No print literary magazine can beat this one stop |
| according to content and price. The Web offers | | | | shop. So, how can print publications defend |
| cornucopian and niche-targeted content free of | | | | themselves? |
| charge or very cheaply. This is hard to beat and | | | | By being creative and by not conceding defeat is |
| is getting harder by the day as natural selection | | | | how. |
| among dot.bombs spares only quality content | | | | Consider WuliWeb's example of thinking outside |
| providers. | | | | the printed box. Its timing was bad — |
| Still, the print media rely on a defunct business | | | | immediately preceding the bursting of the bubble. |
| model: ad-financed content aggregation. Content | | | | But, the idea was sound. |
| producers (known as journalists or reporters) are | | | | Wuliweb (owned by AirClic) is a simple online |
| paid for their professional work (their writings). | | | | application which enables its users to "send, save |
| Editors then assemble this output and homogenize | | | | and share material from print publications". |
| it. Finally, these articles and op-ed pieces find their | | | | Participating magazines and newspapers print |
| predestined place in rigid, spatially-delimited rubrics | | | | "WuliCodes" on their (physical) pages and WuliWeb |
| in the paper or magazine. Both pillars of this | | | | subscribers barcode-scan, or manually enter them |
| strategy are crumbling: advertising dollars have | | | | into their online "Content Manager" via keyboard, |
| shifted decisively below the line (into | | | | PDA, pager, cell phone, or fixed phone (using a |
| word-of-mouth and loyalty campaigns, for | | | | PIN). The service is free (paid for by the |
| instance) and content is now prodigiously | | | | magazine publishers and advertisers) and, |
| produced by prolific bloggers and what CNN calls | | | | according to WuliWeb, offers these advantages |
| iReporters. Vanity online publishing trumped | | | | to its users: |
| traditional print publishing. | | | | "Once you choose to use WuliWeb's free service, |
| The print media should jump on the wagon: they | | | | you will no longer have to laboriously 'tear and |
| should solicit contributions from citizen journalists, | | | | share' print articles or ads that you want to |
| bloggers, i-reporters, and e-columnists. These | | | | archive or share with colleagues or friends. You |
| content providers are likely to be satisfied with a | | | | will be able to store material sourced from print |
| mere byline for their remuneration (seeing their | | | | publications permanently in your own secure, |
| name in print!) Having thus cut their costs by | | | | electronic files, and you can share this material |
| leveraging the public’s vanity, newspapers | | | | instantly with any number of people. Magazine and |
| and magazines will be able to concentrate on | | | | Newspaper Publishers will now have the ability to |
| customer relations (via their internet properties | | | | distribute their online content more widely and to |
| and social networking tools) and on what they do | | | | offer a richer experience to their readers. |
| best: coherent aggregation, contextual | | | | Advertisers will be able to deploy dynamic and |
| commentary, and communal branding. | | | | media-rich content to attract and convert |
| Outside the box, there are other solutions and | | | | customers, and will be able to communicate more |
| models. | | | | completely with their customers." |
| Consider Ploughshares, the Literary Journal. | | | | Links to the shared material are stored in |
| It is a venerable, not for profit, print journal | | | | WuliWeb's central database and users gain access |
| published by Emerson College, now marking its | | | | to them by signing up for a (free) WuliWeb |
| 37th anniversary. A few years ago, it inaugurated | | | | account. Thus, the user's mailbox is unencumbered |
| its web sibling. The project consumed three years | | | | by huge downloads. Moreover, WuliWeb allows for |
| and $125,000 (a grant from the Wallace-Reader's | | | | a keywords-based search of articles saved. |
| Digest Funds). Every title Ploughshares has ever | | | | Perhaps the only serious drawback is that |
| published was indexed (over 18,000 journal pages | | | | WuliWeb provides its users only with LINKS to |
| digitized). In all, the "website offers free access to | | | | content stored on publishers' web sites. It is a |
| over 3,500 poems and short stories from past | | | | directory service - not a full text database. This |
| and current issues". | | | | creates dependence. Links may get broken. Whole |
| The more than 2000 (!) authors ever published in | | | | web sites vanish. Magazines and their publishers go |
| Ploughshares maintain a personal web pages | | | | under. All the more reason for publishers to |
| comprising biographical notes, press releases, new | | | | revive this service and make it their own. |
| books and events announcements and links to | | | | |