BPN 1421 Digital paper pioneer iRex in chapter 11

The Eindhoven (The Netherlands) based ereader manufacturer iRex Technologies has gone into a comparable situation as chapter 11 last Tuesday. The company has cash problems as US sales have been delayed.

Last year iRex Technologies announced a deal with the bookstore chain Barnes & Noble and the online shop Best Buy. The ereader DR800SG customised for the US market with 3G functionality and a touch screen was supposed to reach the stores by the Christmas season. However, the Federal an inspection Communications Commission (FCC) took more time for inspection of the device than hoped for and iRex Technologies missed the season sales. As a replacement Barnes & Noble launched the Nook at the end of October 2009. In the end also the Best Buy deal did not work out as foreseen.

The CEO of iREX Technologies, a Philips spin-off, incorporated in Luxembourg, claims that the position of the company is not hopeless. The company has a problem with cash flow and banks are not really accommodating. However, the CEO Mr Brons still hopes that the situation will be solved.

iRex Technologies was the first manufacturer to appear on the market with an ereader based on the e-Ink display technology in 2006. The US has been the target market for iRex Technologies from the beginning. In comparison to the multilingual Europe, the US is a homogeneous market with many nationals reading the languages English and Spanish. However, the company was unable to sell its ereader with the Mobypocket reader to Amazon and had to settle for Barnes & Noble.

In Europe iRex Technologies has not made many inroads. In its home country The Netherlands, the company was unable to organise a marketing action with the book and newspaper publishers. It has had sporadic projects. The national quality paper NRC Handelsblad started cooperation, but no other paper followed due to the high price and technical problems. A project with the bookstore chain Selexyz was not a success; having been selling more brands of ereaders, Selexyz now has signed with Samsung for the E60 ereader. The company missed the Dutch market completely when the Dutch bookpublishers adopted the EPUB standard instead of Amazon’s Mobypocket and Sony with a cheaper ereader made a deal with the online bookstore Bol.com.

Tags: ereader, ebook

BPN 1114 Newspapers become unstuck from print

Yesterday I attended a presentation by Gert Jan Oelderik, the managing director/publisher of the Dutch quality paper NRC Handelsblad, part of the PCM Holding. The newspaper started two months ago with presenting the newspaper on iLiad as ePaper.

Mt Oelderik started out with the statement that a printed newspaper is a different beast from an electronic newspaper. An edition of 32 pages will end up as 195 electronic pages. The screen is too small to render a broadsheet on the iLiad digital paper eReader. He found the iLiad basically rudimentary and not exactly user-friendly; for this he referred to the on and off knob hidden on the bottom of the eReader (see illustration). But yet he saw the iLiad as a first step and was very optimistic about the development of eReaders. Full colour could be expected, perhaps larger screens and even a double screen imitating the left and right pages of a newspaper. And perhaps the digital paper would be rolleable and flexible. But this would take some time.

He was very proud of the fact that the ePaper did not cannibalise the printed newspaper. A subscription on the printed newspaper will cost the subscriber 309 euro annually. But with the ePaper the printing and the distribution costs had been removed showing a subscription price of 189 euro for electronic news and information.

The last remark triggered a discussion on the future of electronic newspapers. Mr Oelderik took the position that newspapers had hardly changed since 1828 when NRC was founded. Now in the digital age the newspaper had the opportunity to get delivered as printed newspapers, through internet and as ePapers. Of course it begged the question about the content of newspapers. Now the printed newspaper is a collection of items from news wires and information in the form of background articles. The news items can be found everywhere and are not unique to a newspaper; however the information is specifically of the newspaper’s editorial staff, the freelancers and occasional contributors. Mr Oelderik supposed that in two years the website would go on black as people will have to pay for the electronic newspapers. This was an interesting observation as many newspapers have gone back to free access and no paid web newspaper has made any profit. Yet he expected a shift from subscribers of the printed newspapers to subscribers of other subscriptions. Subscriptions would give a subscriber the right to printed information, web information, pod and vod information as well as to the ePaper, including news items. Presently NRC Handelsblad has 280.000 subscription relationships, including 6.000 web subscriptions and 1250 ePaper subscriptions. The electronic subscriptions are still not in the double digits, but Mr Oelderik is very optimistic about it.

There was also an extensive discussion on advertisements. Presently the printed broadsheet has advertisements, just as the website edition. However the ePaper edition does not have advertisement. A subscriber pays for the news and information. The price for that, less printing and distribution, is 189 euro. However it has not been established yet, whether advertisement will be added; ads can be used to leverage the profitability later on.

The ePaper has been one of three spearheads for the editorial staff: ePaper, NRC TV and the book portal. The ePaper is to address the early adopters. NRC TV is to aim at the YouTube generation and the book portal is for the intellectuals.

Blog Posting Number: 1114

Tags: newspaper, eReader, digital paper

BPN 1092 eReader does not add value to journalism

Today I was a guest speaker at the Faculty of Communication and Journalism (FCJ) in Utrecht. I had been invited by Job Twisk, the almost the last editor in chief of Planet Internet before the incumbent telecom operator KPN withdrew once again from content. The subject of the guest lecture was Goodbye print, Hello e-Reader. It looks like the introduction of a new medium. When CD-ROM was introduced the software developer Dataware had a poster saying: Goodbye Gutenberg, Hello CD-ROM. But media introductions have more customs have their particular publications such as Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in the USA, the Bible in the USA and Europe and encyclopaedias (Grolier amongst others). For the introduction of the eReader I have not discovered Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, the Bible or an encyclopaedia. So something might be changing in introducing digital media.

The presentation was dubbed a LunchTalk, a lecture during the lunch break, which students can attend at their own wish. The audience consisted of journalism students. And as the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad has recently introduced the iLiad as an eReader for its ePaper, I was asked to give a short historical overview of the development of the eReaders, the added value to journalism and the present scene. For the historical overview I had taken along my small eReader museum of the Sony EB, the Rocket Softbook and the iLiad. And I had found some historical movies: one on the Sony EB, produced for the Netherlands E-Book Committee, and I had been able to get converted the video tape of The Tablet. Not top quality videos, but good enough to understand the development.

It was great to show the development and failure factors in the first three waves of eReader technology. The first wave, the Sony EB of 1991, had a gadget with a screen too hard to read, a short battery life, it was too heavy and Sony used its own authoring software. The second wave with Rocket Softbook used internet as a distribution means, but the eReader had also a bad screen, it was too heavy and had a short battery life. The third wave has hardly taken place with an eReader on a mobile phone, although Nokia thought about it. But with the digital paper eReader there is definitely a break through; whether this is the ultimate break through can be doubted. Yet the digital paper is very readable

But the real discussion was of course whether an eReader brings added value to journalism. My position was clear from the beginning: the eReader takes out the distribution out of the production cycle. In other words, we do not need delivery boys any longer. Of course for the newspaper marketing people, the eReader might a special delivery device for profiled advertisements and sales of related products (review plus an excerpt of the book) and perhaps for a personal newspaper a la Ohmynews. So it might take out the expensive distribution link and add profiled advertisements and sales, but the eReader will not add to the journalistic process.

On May 29, 2008 the publisher of the NRC Handelsblad ePaper, Gert Jan Oelderik, will give a presentation. I am eager to hear his figures, but also his opinion whether the eReader brings added value to journalism.

After the presentation a team of future journalists recorded a video of an interview; however the interview is in Dutch.


Untitled from HUmedia.nl on Vimeo.

Blog Posting Number: 1092

Tags: newspaper, eReader, e-Book, digital paper newspaper, eReader, eBook, digital paper,

BPN 1065 The first post-Apax annual report of PCM

Last year was an annum horribilis for the Dutch newspaper and book conglomerate PCM. The private equity company Apax had left PCM in 2007, taking 140 million euro in profits along in its exit after four years and leaving the conglomerate with a negative own capital. This year the figures of PCM look rosier, but the future of the conglomerate is still uncertain.

The situation has changed this year by using a set of tricks. By converting the deferred loans into shares the own capital of the conglomerate is now 271 million euro and positive again. And the debt has been halved to 316 million euro; a sum which has to decrease in the coming year. The turn-over slightly rose last year to 644 million euro and the company result grew almost twenty percent to 45 million euro.

The main share of the revenues still comes from newspaper sales and subscriptions as well as advertisements. Deducting the turn-over of the book division (96 million euro) and of the educational division (64,5 million euro), the turn-over from newspapers and newspaper related activities is 483,5 million euro. Volkskrant and NRC Handelsblad are the money makers, while AD, a joint venture with Wegener, is positive. For the newspapers PCM is afraid of the paper prices and the price for newspaper distribution; it does not expect any re-organisation in the newspaper sector. PCM expects the free newspaper Dag, a joint venture of KPN and PCM, to cost another 10 million euro in the coming year, before it shows black figures. Dag recently underwent a restyling and gets now editorial input from De Volkskrant; it is no longer a red rag.

PCM is taking some accountancy measures. After the Apax exit, the company was forced to an investigation by the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court. Now PCM has announced that it will report its annual figures according to the international accountancy method IFRS. It will be done for transparency and for comparison with competitors.

PCM has no plans for mergers or acquisitions. Last year the merger with NDC/VBK was called off. The coming year will be used to consolidate business. PCM does not aim at a broadening of its base any longer to decrease the dependence on newspaper. For the time being it will remain a newspaper and book conglomerate. As mentioned in yesterday’s posting the educational division ThiemeMeulenhoff will sold off and the money received will be used to relieve the debt.

Blog Posting Number: 1065

Tags: newspaper

BPN 1057 Great discussion on ebooks and epapers

Yesterday I was the guest of the Crossmedia Experience Learning Lab (CELL) at the HU University of Applied Science in Utrecht. I was invited by Harry van Vliet, one of the HU lecturers, to present a lecture on the History and Future of eBooks for other lecturers and instructors. The so-called LabTalk had been even announced with a poster (see illustration). There was great interaction and enthusiasm.

I have been in contact with the faculty of Communication and Journalism of the HU University of Applied Science in Utrecht for some years. The faculty has basically three streams of courses: communication, journalism and digital media. When the digital media stream was founded in the nineties – it was called School for Communication Systems – I had hoped that the school would specialise in editorial production systems or content management systems (as they are called now). But this did not happen. Since the new century the stream looks more focussed on communication and journalism. So it was great to see staff from all three streams showing up.

The presentation started with the Memex of Vannevar Bush and went amongst others The Tablet of Roger Fidler (He wrote me a message saying that he is in the process of converting the original tablet newspaper video from VHS to QuickTime as well as a video created in 1990 from Beta to QuickTime; upon completion they will be put on the Internet). I finished with the plethora of digital paper eReaders. I was lucky to have the assistance of Frits Hoff (see photograph, the managing director of Edupaper, who brought his full collection of digital paper ereaders with him. So we had on the table the vintage EB of Sony, the Rocket EBook and digital paper eReaders.

Most of the discussion went on the readability of the screen and the cultural acceptance of eReaders. With the Sony EB and iLiad or Hanlin on the table it was clear that there is a substantial progress in readability. There is still a question size of the screen; would you rather read a newspaper on an A4 or an A5? Cultural acceptance will still be a discussion item for some time to come; that was clear. You can divide the cultural acceptance group in ink sniffers and cultural baggage promoters. There is still a very conservative attitude against electronic books. In the Netherlands you are still not allowed to publish a doctoral thesis as an electronic file for an eBook reader or PC only; the thesis will have to be printed and otherwise you do not exist.

In the presentation I had included a slide with research items. I personally think that a Faculty of Communication and Journalism should research ePapers, the design, standards, the acceptance, the promotion and the workflow. It was good to hear that this type of research should be done there. So I am anxious to see what will be the follow-up on this research wish list.

The FROCS (FRiends of the Crossmedia Experience Learning Lab) had also a good discussion on the promotion of the eReaders, eBooks and ePapers. Presently we have in The Netherlands iRex Technologies promoting its iLiad, some representatives for Cybook, Hanlin and other eReaders, e-book.nl as the only download service for Dutch books, the book chain Selexyz selling the iLiad only and using e-Book.nl as the download service, some libraries offering eBook rentals and the quality newspaper NRC Handelsblad, using the iLiad for its own downloads and there are some eBook converters. In short, in the Netherlands there is a fragmented landscape of companies pushing in one or another way either eReaders, ebooks or epapers. I explained that the Sony EB failed in The Netherlands in the beginning of the nineties, but that they had a great promotion plan. They asked a neutral company to set a committee, invite publishers, a bookshop chain and technical companies. This committee prepared a nationwide publicity campaign to make people aware of the Sony EB and the titles available. The awareness part succeeded; however the sales failed miserably. The Sony EB was too early, too expensive and only some 10 titles at the start. In small countries this type of promotion model can be used. Of course in the US the iPod model worked for Amazon, when they rolled out the Kindle.

Blog Posting Number: 1057

Tags: ebook, epaper, digital paper, ereader

BPN 1055 First Dutch university on eBook

As the first Dutch university the Open University offers its course material on eBook readers. Students in the management Studies department, taking HRM courses, receive an eBook reader for free with a substantial part of the course material. The offers fit in the OU’s strive after time- and place independent studying facilities.

With the eBook project the OU looks for sensible solutions using new methods, tools and technologies. The eBook reader can contain a complete cupboard with books and reads as well as a printed book. The OU has chosen after a trial (see photograph) for the Hanlin V3 for its stability and user friendliness. The battery life is 8.000 page flips long. And interesting is the facility on which mp3 files can be played. With the experience of using the eBook readers the university is able to continue its policy to use, extend and optimise e-material. Also course material as mp3 file is seriously researched. It can save time, while also visually impaired students can participate.

The OU is the first university to offer its material digitally for eBook readers, as the OU develops most of its content itself and digitally. It converts also the content with text-to-speech material, so that the texts can be read and listened to. Other universities are more dependent on publishers, who are more cautious and wait for a standard to crystallise.

It looks like eBooks and eReaders are slowly making inroads, despite a recent marketing survey, basically telling that only 2 per cent of 600 respondents will buy an eReader and 16 per cent might do so. But eReaders and especially the digital paper ones, are products of national pride, as in The Netherlands three companies, all Philips spin-offs, are actively developing digital paper eBook readers. iRex Technologies has brought the second version of the iLiad wireless eReader. Polymer Vision is still developing the mobile phone Readius, while Liquavista has just taken the colour digital paper, based on the technical principle of electrowetting from the drawing board in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) to start industrial production in China. In terms of sales The Netherlands is starting up. Last year the book chain Selexyz started to sell the iLiad and has sold 273 units till March 2008, while 50 Dutch language eBooks were available. A pilot was held at a secondary school. This year so far the Dutch quality newspaper NRC Handelsblad started its ePaper edition and sold in two weeks more than 500 iLiads. The Dutch language eBooks have doubled since last year to 100 titles, while 279 Dutch language eBooks are in the public domain. Also the libraries subscribers can now borrow eBooks. The consultancy PWC expects this year a turn over of 0,5 mln euro.

Blog Posting Number: 1055

Tags: eBook, eReadereBook, eReader, digital paper, ePaper

BPN 1048 Dutch hesitant on eReader

The Dutch are still taking a waiting attitude with regard to eReader, despite the advantage of digital paper. Recently the national quality paper NRC Handelsblad launched its daily ePaper on the iLiad and is now forwarding a daily feed to its 500+ subscribers through wifi. The launch of the daily newspaper created the occasion for the Dutch marketing magazine Adformatie to research the market for newspapers and magazines on digital paper. The bureau MSI-ACI held a survey and the main conclusion was that the majority of the 600 respondents (56 per cent) were hesitant and answered perhaps to the question whether they would shortly read a newspaper or a magazine on an eReader.

Roughly 36 per cent sees this never happen in their lifetime. In the age category of 18-24 the respondents, answering shortly or in a short time was higher than in the other categories, but not substantial. But the interest in an eReader is limited in this category.

Remarkable is the conclusion that with the launch of digital paper readers 81 per cent thinks that printed paper will never disappear. Only 19 per cent thinks that this will happen. The younger age group thinks along the same lines.

The high price for the eReader is a handicap for many people. NRC Handelsblad offers the iLiad with subscription for 699 euro and for subscribers to the printed paper the eReader for 499 euro; for those who have an iLiad the annual subscription is 189 euro, a reduction of almost 40 percent. Due to these prices 42 per cent will most likely not buy the eReader, while 45 per cent will definitely not do so.

Only 2 per cent will most likely buy the eReader; among the younger age category this is 4 per cent. If the Publisher bundles in the subscription to a newspaper or a magazine the 4 per cent will definitely buy the eReader and a subscription for two or three years; 16 per cent will likely do so. But a majority of 53 per cent will not or hardly buy it.

Of the 600 respondents 45 per cent has a subscription to the daily newspaper. In the lower age Group of 18-24 years that is 11 per cent, while in the Group of 55+ years it is 70 per cent. Of all respondents 41 per cent says that they daily read a paid newspaper; among the younger age Group this is zero, while among the seniors of 55+ years this is 68 per cent.

Is this survey relevant and does it reflect the mood of the Dutch people. I am not very convinced. A survey of 600 responedents in the Netherlands on such a techy subject is hardly representative. You need at least 1500 people for that. Yet the launch of the NRC Handelsblad in combination with the iLiad eReader has set off an awareness boost. In the first two weeks there were more than 500 subscribers to the ePaper. And on the site e-book readers a lively showing off (in Dutch) could be seen on the forum. Technology lurkers were now convinced by the A-brand of the newspaper and were surprised. Other techno freaks started to convert the feed for the Mobipocket format on Cybook. And on YouTube a first review was published, be it with Dutch comment.

On the other hand the results are not very promising. In fact they show that the marketing of this product existing of an eReader and a newspaper subscription needs a wider environment and that the offer needs inclusion of a range of books and blogs. Of course this requires a commitment of eReader manufacturers, publishers and system integrators.

BTW Electronic newspaper designers can now also study the design of NRC Handelsblad, by downloading the edition of March 6, 2008. AS far as I can see the design is smarter than the design of the newspaper De Tijd during its experiment in 2006 and also smarter than the vertical tickertape design of les Echos.

Blog Posting Number: 1048

Tags: electronic newspaper, digital paper, ePaper.

BPN 1030 NRC ePaper: out goes the paper delivery boy

From yesterday onwards, the Dutch quality paper NRC Handelsblad will be available as NRC Handelsblad ePaper with the print and web editions. It is the first Dutch newspaper available on a digital paper reader. The agreement between the newspaper conglomerate PCM, of which NRC Handelsblad is part of, and the digital paper reader manufacturer iRex Technologies was signed last year.

Technology
NRC Handelsblad ePaper will only be available on the iLiad. The advantage of the eReader is the availability worldwide on hotspots; downloading an average edition will take about 20 seconds. The disadvantage is the black and white screen with 16 grey tones. Besides downloading the newspaper, magazines and books, the tablet can also be used as a writing pad and annotations in the paper, magazine and books can be made.

From the first photographs the lay out can be detected. When the Belgian financial daily De Tijd experimented with the iLiad, the front page was similar to the front page of the printed edition. By ticking on the article, a readable version would pop up. This technology is common with the pdf-like facsimiles of printed newspapers on the web. The French Les Echos developed an interface, which can be described as a vertical ticker tape, summing up the sections and the headlines in the left column and a few lead-ins of articles. It looks like NRC Handelsblad has chosen for a list of bullets in the left row and articles from the front page.

Businessmodel
While the French financial newspaper Les Echos gave the readers a choice of the wireless iLiad and internet linked Cybook, NRC Handelsblad ePaper offers only the iLiad to its readers. Beside a certain element of Dutch pride between a quality paper and a Philips spin-off, NRC Handelsblad has chosen for a wireless device instead of an internet-linked reading device.

The newspaper will be every weekday available at 3 p.m. and on Saturday at 7 a.m. The newspaper will transmit the full paper including special sections. The newspaper has not announced daily updates yet.

Interesting is the price. Annual subscriber to NRC Handelsblad can purchase the iLiad for 499 euro. New subscribers will get the reader plus a one year ePaper subscription for 699 euro. An owner of the iLiad and not yet subscriber of NRC Handelsblad will pay 189 euro for the ePaper subscription. An annual subscription to the printed edition of NRC Handelsblad is 305 euro. The newspaper will save the costs of the delivery boy costs at 116 euro a year. In the subscription is a bundle of a 1Gb memory stick with a book of the a famous Dutch author Geert Mak and an e-zine of the newspaper cartoonists Fokke & Sukke. (Geert Mak wrote an one kilo weighing book In Europe; there is an eBook version, but this is not included in the offer; it would have proven the benefit of the 450 grams eReader). The bundle can be seen as a first attempt to include PCM’s book publishers.

Social acceptance
NRC Handelsblad has a population of 280.000 readers. It is a quality paper. But the readers can not be seen as early adaptors. So it will take time to sell the concept; even more as the eReader is the most expensive one around presently. When a spokesperson for NRC Handelsblad was asked for the status of the development of the eReader by a reporter of Emerce magazine last November, he answered that NRC Handelsblad would wait till the eReader would be attractive to a large group of readers. It could take two to three years before a break through. Whether this break through has come after half a year later, was not made clear.

NRC Handelsblad realises that it is the first Dutch ePaper. It has set up a forum to collect the remarks and suggestions of the ePaper subscribers.

NRC Handelsblad is the first PCM newspaper of the PCM conglomerate to launch the ePaper. It is known that De Volkskrant also experiments with the iLiad; so far it has not announced a launch date. Most likely they will await the reaction o the NRC Handelsblad ePaper.

The general acceptance of eReaders is going slow. When Amazon.com launched its Kindle, it announced that it had sold 10.000 units before the launch. iRex Technologies sold 10.000 units worldwide in 2006, its first year.

Will NRC Handelsblad be a success?
NRC Handelsblad has chosen to launch the ePaper on its own strength with the support of iRex Technologies. The marketing people have applied a smart pricing policy by excluding the physical delivery boy. The bundle with one book and an e-zine will not bring in an extra subscriber. But this launch will not profit from the iPod model, a combination of an affordable device, broad offer of songs, a service without handicaps, reasonable priced content and a reliable promotor, which worked for Apple iTunes and =the Kindle of Amazon.com The iLiad device is sexy and innovative, but still too expensive; even the 499 euro offer for subscribers to the print editions, is not attractive. The assortment of newspapers, magazines and books is not broad yet. It looks like there will be a 2/7 service. And the content is reasonably priced. Despite the fact that NRC Handelsblad is an A brand, the expensive eReader and the limited offer will not make the newspaper the promoter for the text iPod in the Netherlands. Given a country with 16,4 million people and some 22 million Dutch language speakers worldwide, a common effort of publishers, distributors, bookshops and manufacturer should have been generated to popularise the text iPod in a short time, with a broad offer and an affordable eReader.

Blog Posting Number: 1010

Tags: e-book, eReader, ePaper, digital papere-book, eReader, ePaper, digital paper

Dutch newspaper conglomerate PCM investigated

At the request of the trade unions, amongst other the Journalists’ Trade Union (NVJ), an investigation about mismanagement will be started against the Dutch newspaper conglomerate PCM, owner of NRC Handelsblad, Volkskrant, Trouw, NRC Next and DAG as well as house-to-house broadsheets, . In 2004 The Dutch newspaper conglomerate invited the British private equity company Apax to move ahead faster, but the investment company left with 140 million euro in profits in 2007. The judge ordering the investigation did not mince his words criticising Apax.

The newspaper group PCM was owned by separate foundations, of which SDM was the moist influential one. These shareholders invited Apax to reorganise the company and move it to the front. First thing Apax did was reorganising the total financial structure of PCM Publishers. First action was to found a holding company, PCM Holding, capitalised at 1 million euro. Apax transferred 475.000 euro, while the other stakeholders (foundations) paid also 475.000 euro. Management contributed 50.000 euro. As the voting rights were lodged with Apax, the company dominated the board with 52,5 per cent of the votes.

PCM Holding bought PCM Publishers with 300 million euro foreign capital from banks. Also Apax puts in 139 million euro and the foundations offer 200 million euro. All the loans have an interest rate of 12 per cent. In 2006 Apax refinances PCM and asks PCM to return 130 million euro. Apax is then major stakeholder, dominating the votes for 40 million euro, while PCM has debt of 170 euro due to the high interest on the 139 million euro. In 2007 Apax is bought out by the foundations for a profit of 140 million euro. During the Apax management PCM lost more than 240 million euro.

Now the corporate chamber of the court has appointed to investigators. The investigation will cost 150.000 euro and has to be paid by PCM. Depending on the conclusions of the investigators the judge can concluded that PCM has been mismanaged under the Apax regime.

Such a conclusion would be disgrace for Apax, especially as private equity companies have already a bad name as locusts in The Netherlands. Theoretically the conclusion could lead to dismissal of the governors and return of premiums of the governors and managers. Yet these measures would have hardly any effect on PCM. Most of the governors and managers involved have been dismissed and some of the managers have not accepted their premium. Mr Groenewegen, who started as cfo in 2005, is the only manager left from this period, while Strengers is the only governor left from that period.

Yet the judicial conclusion of bad management would mean justice to the PCM employees, who could not prevent that their company was financially drained during an economic upturn.

Blog Posting Number: 977

Tags: newspapers, private equity

Dutch papers not on digital paper yet

The news must have come as a blow for iRex Technologies: the Dutch dailies NRC Handelsblad and de Volkskrant will not publish their newspapers on digital paper yet, according to the publishers of the respective newspapers. Gert Jan Oelderik, publisher of the NRC Handelsblad and Volkskrant publisher Rob Haans both cite the price and the consequent low penetration of the iLiad as a handicap. It is clear that the quality paper NRC Handelsblad and the morning paper de Volkskrant will not be the newspaper industry champions of the iLiad in the Netherlands. The iLiad is being tested internally in both organisations and the technical infrastructure is ready. Either of the newspapers can be presented as rich PDF files or as simple RSS text feeds. But for the time being their will not be any trial.

Rob Haans told Tonie van Ringelenstijn of the Dutch publication Emerce that the digital paper devices are still too expensive for the consumer. He considers the digital paper as a promise. The readability is okay for static material. Disadvantages are the black/white screen as well as present absence of moving images. (It is curious to see a newspaper publisher talk about the absence of moving images; three years they would not have even mentioned it). Rob Haans and Oelderik both wait for a break through. Haans does not see this happen in 2008; Oelderik expects that it will take another two or three years. He still waits for a scalable digital newspaper which looks the same on all devices, regardless the size of their screens.

In 2005 the digital paper devices were researched within PCM, the conglomerate to which both newspapers belong. Mathieu Halkes, a marketing man, concluded that another size screen is needed for reading newspapers. This conclusion concurs with the conclusion drawn by the members in the Papyrus consortium such as Bertelsmann, Vodafone and Siemens. This consortium banked on Benq, which went bankrupt.

The discussion about the Dutch dailies on digital paper was a reaction to the launch of the Kindle by Amazon. This e-reader was launched in the USA with no hard schedule for the introduction in Europe. So the European continental newspapers have not been approached to be included in the Amazon offer. In newspaper circles in the USA the Kindle is under heavy discussion. In journalistic circles like Online-News is a service of the Poynter Institute the question is posed whether the Kindle will kill books and whether it will be the saviour for newspapers. Robin Roblimo Miller estimates that the Kindle is a nice precursor of things to come, but not a market-sweeper. He is supported by a college of The Ledger, who is of the opinion that unless the Kindle evolves, the device is unlikely to be the e-reading device of choice a year or two from now. But the Kindle and the Safari browser on the iPhone are significant for popularizing the notion of taking your reading and Web surfing with you.

Steve Yelvington does not see much future in the Kindle. “As for whether Kindle will save newspapers, I don't think Kindle has anything to do with the real issues that are disrupting the newspaper business model. Newspapers are marginalized by a surplus of information and entertainment options. Retail consolidation is undermining the display advertising model. Classifieds are being displaced by unbundled, generally superior alternatives. It could be that the Kindle and/or similar iTunes-like systems could create a marketplace for the sale and distribution of certain kinds of journalism, but I'm quite sure it will not be newspapers as we have known them.

Blog Posting Number: 940

Tags: e-reader, e-book, digital paper

French daily Les Echos offers two e-readers

The French daily newspaper Les Echos offers their subscribers a daily electronic newspaper, news items from the French news wire agency AFP and a series of electronic books by the publishers Nathan, M21, Pearson Education. Remarkable is the fact that the newspaper offers this electronic newspaper and the goodies either as an electronic package or as an electronic package with a choice out of two e-readers (iLiad or STAReBOOK).

iLiad
The French financial daily Les Echos has a commercial offer for the reader in combination with a one year subscription to the newspaper. Users can upload an updated version of the newspaper several times a day through a wifi connection. Subscribers of Les Echos can now register for an iLiad subscription on the website of the French financial daily. For 769,00 euro (including VAT) the subscriber receives an iLiad e-reader, a one year subscription to Les Echos, to a selection of the French news wire AFP and to a selection of e-books provided by the publishers Nathan, M21, Pearson Education. It also contains Stylet for writing notes and accepts Mobipocket formatted e-books. Les Echos needs 5 to 8 weeks to deliver the iLiad.

Les Echos looks like the first commercial deal with a newspaper. The iLiad has been experimented with in Belgium with 200 subscribers to the financial daily De Tijd. But there is no concrete proposal from the management yet; a decision is expected by September. Last year cooperation was announced by the manufacturer iRex Technologies with the Yantai Daily Media Group in China. The group would use Iliads to distribute its papers electronically; the newspaper group distributes 1 million printed newspapers daily. Recently iRex Technologies announced that the Dutch newspapers NRC Handelsblad, Het Financieele Dagblad and De Telegraaf will research the e-Reader opportunities.

Not betting on one horse
Les Echos is not betting on one horse. The newspaper offers in fact another e-reader besides the iLiad: STAReBOOK. The offer is 649 euro (incl. VAT) and quite similar to the iLiad offer. So a subscriber will receive the e-reader, a selection of news from the French news wire AFP and to a selection of e-books provided by the publishers Nathan, M21, Pearson Education and MP3. There is no Wifi facility onboard.
For a comparison between the iLiad and STAeBOOK go to YouTube.

BTW My cracked iLiad (see the photograph; mark the ghost!) is now in Germany for repair. It was picked up last Friday for transport from The Netherlands to Germany. I hope that the iLiad can be repaired so that I can move on with the experiments such as blogs collections and technical manuals on the iLiad.

Blog Posting Number: 769

Tags: iliad, digital paper, e-book, e-book reader