Commentary

Extra, Extra, Who Cares About It?

I was reading an article in The Wall Street Journal entitled "MacMillan To Rev Up E-Books" and there it was again. That haunting, promising, mysterious, beckoning, larger than life but transportable, cost incrementally sensitive (though worth it) "new/special content" tease: "Macmillan, one of the nation's largest publishers, said it will issue books it expects to be best sellers in an enhanced and more expensive electronic book format. The special editions, which will include author interviews and other materials, such as reading guides, will carry a list price slightly higher than..."  

Enhanced content? Incremental cost?

I remember when the broadcast networks, or was it the premium channels, started offering the "making of" half hour unspecial specials about upcoming theatrical blockbusters -- maybe the first that caught my attention was "Star Wars" in the late seventies -- that were inexpensive to produce, economically viable but generated little viewer enthusiasm.

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How 'bout all those wonderful VHS extras, such as actor bios, edited out scenes, out takes, interviews (directors, actors, screenwriters, camera men, gophers) and director commentary - there is a reason directors are behind the camera and not in front of it.

DVD's came along and allowed consumers to access specific content more speedily with its electronic menu options. Kudos for the technology, still little contentially valuable.

Presently, we can Blu-ray the experience, go to the web through a magical technology (whose name escapes me) but transports us to the same ole content -- though prettier to imbibe. Does anyone remember the "you choose the alternative ending phase." There was a reason that the studios chose the one they did. I also think that the broadcast networks, maybe NBC, tried to corral the concept. Don't hear about those experiments anymore.

Publishers seem to be heading in the same titanic direction as their entertainment brethren: author interviews, bibliographies, recommendations, commentaries, book club associations. As an aside I enjoy audio books. Generally an actor and/or actress is commissioned to render the written, oral.  Have you ever heard an author read their own material. Not a pretty listen.

And of course, the more youthful skewing, engaging, digitally savvily consumed music realm promises to incorporate in its broadband endeavors more back to the future content (concerts, interviews, TV like programs) with interactivity, such as grabbing people's attention getting displays of lyrics, allowing fans to chat with each other, playlists, discovery mechanisms, commerce and offering superior picture quality (though not HD but comparable). I haven't heard that the introduction of the CD/DVD combination units has been a windfall for the labels.

What about payment for this content. Subscription. Pay per play. Advertiser supported. Commerce driven. Combination. A Richard Perez-Pena penned article about Press+, a software system developed to extract payment from online readers, offers a glimpse into the future of payment extraction: "A move to charge for content means not a single decision, but dozens. Sites can let nonpaying readers see the top of an article, while only paying readers see the whole thing; they can allow unlimited reading of certain articles, while charging for others; they can charge by the month or by the click; they can limit free reading to a certain number of articles a month; they can treat readers differently depending on their location; they can charge a single price or have a tiered system; they can give print subscribers free access or charge them, too."

E-readers, 3D TVs, iPads, smarter smartphones: love the promise of the technology but please don't promise me the moon. Didn't work for Alice. What unfathomable journey down the rabbit hole could be derived from this content that is worth the consumer's time and expense. To paraphrase a verse from Jefferson Airplane's single, "White Rabbit":

When men on the chessboard

Get up and tell you where to go

And you've just had some kind of mushroom

And your comprehension of the advertisement is moving slow

Go ask Alice

I think she'll tell you that it was obvious that Ralph Kramden really didn't know.

2 comments about "Extra, Extra, Who Cares About It?".
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  1. Marcia Chocinsky from Fahlgren Advertising, March 2, 2010 at 4:10 p.m.

    I was hoping the cost per book would drop dramatically with the ipad, especially after I saw somewhere that purchasing a book for other readers costs about 70% of retail !!! Why? I'll stick primarily with my garage/estate sale finds.

  2. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, March 2, 2010 at 6:49 p.m.

    You are so on target with this one. There just was another article in the NYT about how choice can paralyze people rather than enhance life experiences. Love the Alices references.

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