somersault

TED’s (@TEDTalks & @TEDNews) Chris Anderson (@TEDchris) says the rise of Web video is driving a worldwide phenomenon he calls Crowd Accelerated Innovation - a self-fueling cycle of learning that could be as significant as the invention of print. But to tap into its power, organizations will need to embrace radical openness.

Watch the video on TEDS.

Also read Warc’s (@WarcEditors) article “Procter & Gamble taps ‘collective creativity.’”

What do you think are the implications of Crowd Accelerated Innovation and video-driven content on the future and sustainability of publishing?

Journalist Vicki Barker (@vickibark) reports on NPR (@NPR) about the closing of The Travel Bookshop (@travelbookshop), made famous in the movie Notting Hill. The founder of the shop says people are more interested in taking the store’s picture than coming inside to buy a book.

Read and hear the report in full.

This Infographic is by mindflash (@mindflash). Click for a larger version. See also The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

According to research by Cone (@ConeLLC), 89% of US adults see the Web as a trustworthy source of information to verify offline recommendations of goods and services and 85% go online after being recommended a product to aid the decision-making process; 85% also say their purchase intent rises when they discover complimentary feedback.

“Consumers want reassurance before opening their purse strings, and personal recommendations alone are just not enough to guarantee a purchase," says Mike Hollywood, Cone's director, new media.

Read the Warc report in full.

Read the Cone summary.

Read the Cone report (pdf).

Bob Greene, CNN contributor, reminds us of the valuable service libraries provide book lovers:

It's one of those things most of us seldom pause to think about. After all, much of the news about the book publishing business has been kind of grim lately. The Borders bookstore chain is shutting down, thus erasing from the American scene more than 600 big, often beautiful, book-crammed edifices, perfect for wandering around and browsing. The digital revolution, as exciting as it is, has made the publishing industry exceedingly nervous about the economics of its enterprise, and about what will become of traditional books, the ones printed on paper and bound between covers. Stand-alone book review sections in newspapers have, with a few exceptions, all but disappeared.

So what, exactly, is there to be cheery about if you're a book lover?

Just this: There are so many wonderful books that have been written over the centuries, books that will thrill you and make you cry and change you and bring laughter to you and keep you up all night. Even if you did nothing else for the rest of your life but read, you would only be able to get to the most infinitesimal percentage of books that you would be destined to adore. They're just waiting for you -- waiting to be found, right now.

And in most cases, even in these rugged and scary economic times, they're free [at your local library].

Read this in full.

September is Library Card Sign-up Month.

On Publishing Perspectives (@pubperspectives) Hannah Johnson (@HannahSJohnson) writes, “Over the past year or so, gamification (also called game mechanics, serious games, and funware) has become a mainstream technique that marketers rely on to drive more traffic to their websites, to increase content consumption, and to encourage user participation. Have you ever taken a poll or survey on a company’s website? Have you ever signed up for a newsletter for a chance to win a prize? ….All of these are examples of gamification, and you can expect to see a lot more of this in the near future.”

She continues

For publishers who are experimenting with enhanced content, maintaining author websites and creating consumer-facing websites, adding game mechanics can be a great way to get readers to engage with the content.

Johnson includes a TED video of game researcher Jane McGonigal (@avantgame) who says 3 billion hours a week are currently spent playing online games. She lists 4 attributes gamers want to be associated with:

1.    Urgent Optimism

2.    Social Fabric

3.    Blissful Productivity

4.    Epic Meaning

Read this article in full and watch the video.

Also see Econsultancy’s (@Econsultancy) “Gamification: Is everything a game?” which says this type of marketing is about “motivations, reward, and aligning ambitions between the business and the people they want to engage.”

Another article to read is BizReport’s (@BizReport) “How to incorporate gamification into your strategy.”

Gamification even extends to journalism. See Ken Doctor's (@kdoctor) article on The Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University (@niemanlab), "The newsonomics of gamification - and civilization."

BtoB (@btobmagazine) says paper use by the magazine, newspaper, book, and other publishing sectors will fall by 12% to 21% by 2015 compared with 2010 levels, according to a report released by RISI, which provides information to the paper industry.

The report, The Impact of Media Tablets on Publication Paper Markets, projects that tablet device sales will reach 195 million units by 2015 and contribute to the decline in paper usage.

“Significant demand impacts could come as soon as 2012,” says John Maine, RISI's VP-world graphic paper.

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/

Reporter Anita Wadhwani says in The Tennessean (@tennessean), “In the past 12-18 months, the religious publishing category has seen its sales jump faster than those of almost every other category of books. The book publishing industry overall has remained relatively healthy during the recession, with a nearly 6% annual growth rate from 2008 to 2010, according to the Association of American Publishers.”

“It’s a great time to be a Christian publisher,” said Byron Williamson, a 20-plus-year veteran of the Nashville Christian publishing industry who has published best-sellers by Newt Gingrich and Max Lucado and launched Worthy Publishing (@WorthyPub) last year.

Independent Christian retail stores, although feeling some pressures from big chains such as Walmart selling religious products, remain a “pretty vibrant” outlet for sales, with 1,500 stores currently selling 30% of all Christian retail products, including music and books, said Greg Bays, senior vice president of sales and marketing for EMI CMG Distribution, a division of EMI Christian Group, a recording company that is now teaming up with Worthy Publishing to distribute books.

The recession may actually have benefited the religious publishing industry, publishers say.

Read this in full.

Do you agree with this rosy outlook? Comment below.

Tablet ownership is skewing beyond the market of young men, according to NielsenWire (@NielsenWire).

Back in Q3 2010, for example, 62% of tablet owners were under the age of 34 and only 10% were over the age of 55. By Q2 2011, only 46% of tablet owners were under the age of 34 and the percentage of those over 55 had increased to 19%.

Ereader ownership is changing too. Sixty-one percent of all eReader owners are now female, compared to 46% in Q3 2010. As Econsultancy (@Econsultancy) says, tablets are from Mars and ereaders are from Venus.

(Smartphone owners are now evenly split between male and female and tablets remain primarily male.)

Read this in full.

In a new Pew Research Center (@pewinternet) report, 49% of college presidents use a tablet computer at least occasionally and 42% use an e-reader. 

How will the fact that tablets and ereaders are becoming more mainstream impact your publishing plans?