E-Reader: Will The Technology Become Obsolete?

Books are having their iPod moment, but buyers beware: It could also turn out to be an eight-track moment, warns Geoffrey A. Fowler of the Wall Street Journal. While e-reading devices were once considered a hobby for early adopters, Justin Timberlake is now pitching one on prime-time TV commercials for Sony Corp. Meanwhile, Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle e-reading device has become its top-selling product of any kind. Forrester Research estimates 900,000 e-readers will sell in the U.S. in November and December. And the IPad is here! But e-reader buyers may be sinking cash into a technology that could become obsolete. While the shiny glass-and-metal reading gadgets offer some whiz-bang features like wirelessly downloading thousands of books, many also restrict the book-reading experience in ways that trusty paperbacks haven't, such as limiting lending to a friend. E-reader technology is changing fast, and manufacturers are aiming to address the devices' drawbacks. "If you have the disposable income and love technology -- not books -- you should get a dedicated e-reader," says Bob LiVolsi, the founder of BooksOnBoard, the largest independent e-book store. But other people might be better-off re-purposing an old laptop or spending $300 on a cheap laptop known as a netbook to use for reading. "It will give you a lot more functionality, and better leverages the family income," he says. For gadget lovers, several factors are converging to make e-reading devices alluring this holiday season. More such devices are debuting than ever to challenge Amazon's Kindle, notably the Nook from Barnes & Noble Inc. Sony also recently launched three new versions of its Reader, which will be sold -- along with devices from smaller makers like Irex Technologies BV -- in dedicated e-book sections of Best Buy Co. stores. Already, these devices are beginning to sell out: Barnes & Noble says people who ordered the Nook after Nov. 20 won't get one until the week of Jan. 4, and Sony says that it can't guarantee delivery of its high-end wireless Reader by Christmas. There's also more selection of books for the devices, with most popular publishers now selling e-books. Also, library-scanning efforts by Google Inc. is producing more than a million out-of-copyright books like "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" that people can download free. There are only a few holdouts against e-books, including "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling. Prices for e-book readers are also dropping. Amazon recently cut the price of the international Kindle to $259 from $279, while Sony sells a new entry-level model for $199. A refurbished first-generation Kindle retails on Amazon for $219. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores are also discounting prices on best-selling e-book titles to $10 to lure more readers. Still, it's unclear how -- and on what sort of device -- most people will be comfortable reading e-books. Many people seem perfectly happy reading books on their PCs: Reading Web site Scribd.com, which offers millions of amateur and professional works, is attracting 50 million readers each month. LibreDigital Inc., a distributor of e-books for publishers, says the overwhelming majority of e-book buyers are women who read e-books on an ordinary computer screen, mostly between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. A growing number of readers are also perusing books on cellphones. Most of the current crop of dedicated e-reading devices try to replicate the traditional reading experience with a screen that's about the size of a paperback novel that displays black-and-white (or, rather, dark grey and light grey) text and graphics. You turn the page by clicking on a button, or using your finger or a stylus to touch the screen. You can buy books online and transfer them to your device with a cable or, on some models, download them directly via a wireless connection. Most e-books, which cost about $10 for popular new titles, are yours at least for the life of your device, though some models let you borrow books for a short period of time from libraries or a friend. Fans of e-readers acknowledge the devices have their flaws. Some fans can't recommend the Kindle to people who aren't technically savvy and might want to purchase their books anywhere other than the Amazon store. That's because the Kindle doesn't read copyright protected files from other bookstores or libraries. It also makes it tough for parents to monitor what their children are reading, if a child has a Kindle that is registered to his parent's Amazon account. That’s because the parent's entire e-book archive is accessible to that child's Kindle-individual titles can't be locked out-. There are technical work-a-rounds for some of these issues, but they require downloading unofficial software. Indeed, many e-book readers place limits on how and where consumers can use them. Only the Nook allows people to share some of their books with a friend by wirelessly transmitting them -- and even then, you can share each book just once and only for 14 days. And only Sony's Readers make it easy to check out free books from Overdrive Inc., the e-book service used by many public libraries. The e-book market is also caught up in a format war, with different companies limiting their devices to certain kinds of e-books, with file types such as .azw and mobipocket on the Kindle and .epub and Adobe Digital Editions on Sony. As a result, there's no guarantee an e-book bought from one online store will work on devices sold by a competitor. Sony has tried to differentiate itself in e-books by supporting an open industry standard called Epub and digital-rights-management software from Adobe. Barnes & Noble recently said it will do the same. But Amazon, which dominates the e-reader market, has so far shown no signs of changing from its own proprietary format. Amazon says it is working on making Kindle books play on more devices, including iPhones, BlackBerrys and PCs. Future e-book readers may be a lot more interactive. Plastic Logic says it will launch a business-oriented reading device early next year that will offer the largest screen yet (8½ inches by 11 inches), along with tools to help business people manage their documents on the go. And while all of the dedicated e-book readers on the market this holiday season use black-and-white screens, color screens are coming late next year. Next year, Apple Inc. is also expected to debut a tablet device that can be used for reading, watching movies, surfing the Web and other interactive tasks.

You’ll Have to Pay Big Bucks to Advertise on Oprah

Oprah Winfrey's last season in syndication will be an expensive one for sponsors, says Jon Lafayette of Broadcasting & Cable. According to ad buyers, CBS Television Distribution (CTD) has been seeking big price hikes in the upfront market for commercials in The Oprah Winfrey Show, and is looking for "crazy numbers" for spots in her final episode in September 2011--several times the $100,000 per 30 seconds some advertisers already pay. Numbers ranging from $500,000 up to $1 million are being bandied about on the advertising grapevine for spots on the final broadcast. One buyer said that after feeling out the market, CTD might have decided not to sell some of the commercials for the final week of Oprah during the upfront, and instead to wait and watch demand and pricing grow as the daytime queen takes her victory lap. CTD says spots are moving quickly. "Oprah's a legend of the likes we'll probably never see again on television, so there's a real excitement and frenzy around The Oprah Winfrey Show's final season," said a CTD spokesperson. "Advertisers realize that this is their last chance to be part of history, so ad time for the final season, final week and final episode are selling at a rapid pace and for record dollars. Everyone wants to jump on board for what will be a momentous TV milestone." CTD is justifying higher prices for Oprah by estimating that ratings will be up considerably from last year for the farewell tour. It is also pushing for rate increases that are bigger than the 9% other top syndicated properties have been commanding in the upfront. Prices for commercials are based on the size of the audience times a cost per thousand viewers (CPM) that varies from show to show and from broadcast to cable to syndication. It's not unusual for networks to seek premium prices by turning the last episode of long-running, beloved shows into an event. ABC reportedly sought between $850,000 and $950,000 for a spot in the finale of Lost, a 400% increase from its normal price. When Everybody Loves Raymond went off the air in 2005, CBS sold spots for about $1.3 million. NBC put huge ticket prices on commercials when two of its biggest hits signed off, getting $1.5 million to $2.3 million for spots in the last episode of Friends in 2004 and $1.4 million to $1.8 million for the 1998 Seinfeld finale. One senior buyer didn't think that the price for the Oprah finale should approach how much Lost cost, mostly because spots on Lost started out twice as expensive as Oprah's. The buyer added that Oprah's ratings were down 6% last year and that despite CBS's projections, it's not clear that the final season will lure enough viewers to reverse the trend. But Don Seaman, VP and director of communication analysis at media buyer MPG, notes that "specials in general are up. They will make this into a special event because it's Oprah. And there are a limited amount of big deals in TV." Seaman noted that in her final week, Oprah's likely to have special guests that will attract crowds, just as Johnny Carson did when he left The Tonight Show. More recently, Conan O'Brien's ratings jumped in his last week as the host of Tonight. "That last week [of Oprah], I'm sure it's going to be big," he said. Advertisers also flock to the Oprah brand. Her endorsement is coveted and products shown on her show-or given away to the audience, like the Pontiac G6 sedans in 2004-become big sellers. "That's Oprah's seal of approval. I don't see a down side to that," Mr. Seaman said.

The Ultimate PR and Publicity Secret

What's the secret to getting free publicity? It's not a fancy press kit. It's not having a superstar spokesperson. It's not hiring the world's biggest PR firm. Actually, the ultimate insider secret is quite simple: You need to think like a reporter, says Bill Stoller, publicity guru. Of course, this is the first-place winner in the "easier said than done" Olympics. Most of us are too tied-up in our own world to really look at our businesses objectively and come up with a newsworthy story angle that can lead to free publicity. Reporters have a special place in their circular file for puffery, flackery and hyperbole. If you want to avoid this fate, then you must learn to think like a reporter. This means: • Being able to separate real news about your company from promotional puffery • Being able to deliver a sharp story angle that will be of real interest to the news reading or viewing public • Being able to deliver this angle in a professional, courteous way. Here are some truths that you ignore only at your own risk: * Reporters don't care about helping you. * Reporters are hassle all day by PR people and they're pretty much sick of it. * Reporters don't care about your website, your book, your products or your life story, unless...... .....you are providing something that helps make their job easier -- that is, a really good story. When you design your public relations campaign, develop your angles, develop your media materials and begin contacting the press, always think: "What can I do at this step that will make this more useful to a journalist?" That means: • developing story angles from a reporter's perspective, not a business owner's • conducting yourself in a manner free of hype, clichés and puffery • Using proper etiquette when contacting a reporter or editor Step away from your business. View it as a reporter looking for an interesting story. Remember, he's looking for a story that will satisfy his editor and his readers. He's not interested in promoting you, only in crafting a story that will make readers stop and say "Hmmm, I never knew that. Now there's something I can use!" You need to break down your current attributes, and determine if you have anything that's newsworthy. Here's a way of looking at it that may be useful: for every attribute, try to honestly rate its news value. Use these categories: NO DICE -Not newsworthy. Too common, too promotional, too boring. INSIDE STUFF -May be newsworthy within my own field (trade publications) or to hardcore customers (serious vitamin junkies) but not attractive enough to the general population to build a story. GETTING THERE -Potentially of interest, but not quite meaty enough. STOP THE PRESSES! -Meaty, hearty news that journalists eat up. You can use your website to position your angles to have mass newsworthy appeal. The answer is to design parts of your website specifically to provide a newsworthy element to your story. Message boards, chat rooms, surveys, feedback pages and so on can all lead to publicity. Is a leading health guru willing to be a guest at a chat sessions for teenagers? Did an online survey you conducted about kids' favorite foods offer some interesting revelations? These, and other offshoots of adding newsworthy elements to your site, can all provide the basis for outstanding publicity opportunities. A story about helping overweight kids cope with ridicule, based on discussions that have taken place in your forums, is a natural for a "lifestyle" section of a newspaper. So, you want to get an article about it in a major paper. First, you've got to find out who the appropriate editor or writer is. Just read the paper on a regular basis and clip out the columns that deal with parenting, health or kids' issues. It's also worth trying the newspaper's web site. Increasingly, full editorial staff listings can be found online. With the editor's name in hand, you're now ready to make your call. Here are some "etiquette" secrets that can help you effectively work with journalists in generating bushels of free press: *Don't call to "see if they got your release." Journalists hate this. Folks send out mass mailings and then call to see if the release made it there. If you really want to get a story in the Post, call first to pitch your story and then follow up with your release, photos, etc. *Plan your call around their deadlines. Most papers are morning editions. Thus, journalists' deadlines range from 2 p.m. local time and on. Don't call during this time! The best time to reach a newspaper journalist: 10 a.m. to noon local time. *Don't start pitching right away! If you get Joan Smith on the phone, don't just dive into your pitch. This is rude, as Joan may be on the other line, working on a story, entertaining guests or who knows what else. Start by saying something like, "Hi Ms. Smith, my name's Bill Jones and I have a story suggestion you might find interesting. Is this a good time for you?" Joan will reply "yes"--which is a green light to start your pitch, or "no"-- to which you reply, "When would be a good time to call you back?" Your courtesy will be greatly appreciated by the journalist...which can only help your chances. *Pitch to the voice mail. It's fine to pitch your story to the reporter's voice mail. Keep it very short and end the message with your phone number. If you don't hear back, try again until you get the actual reporter or editor on the phone. *Don't read from a script! The bane of many journalists' existences are 22-year-olds sitting in cubicles in big PR firms reading pitches off a sheet of paper. If you've ever been called by a telemarketer doing the same thing, you know how annoying it can be. Practice your pitch so that it seems natural and spontaneous. *Give them a story, not an advertisement. Newspapers do not exist to give you publicity. They exist to provide readers with interesting stories. Your job is to give the journalist what he or she wants, while getting the free exposure. Make your pitch newsy, exciting and relevant. How about: "Ms. Smith, as you probably know, obesity among children is growing at an alarming rate. Because of the ridicule they face from other children, millions of overweight young people are being marked with lifetime scars that can seriously damage their self-esteem. I host a unique website, were overweight kids can anonymously express their feelings and discuss this issue. I think I've learned some important things about a very serious subject." That's a whole lot more interesting to an editor than: "Ms. Smith, I have a website where overweight kids post messages. Would you like to do a story about me?" *Follow up immediately. If she's interested, Joan Smith will ask for more information. Be sure you have a press kit (including news release and photo) ready to send . Send it out via priority mail, and write "Requested Information" below the address. *Call again. Now it's appropriate to call to see if Joan received your stuff...after all, unlike a mass-mailed release, she asked for it! Ask if she's had a chance to look through it, and what she thinks. If she likes what she sees, you're about to get some very valuable free publicity!