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Free Essays - Information Technology Essays
Will e-publishing replace traditional publishing in the future?
One of the biggest challenges for organisations and businesses these days is to keep themselves updated with the latest technology. The developments in Internet technology & Electronic Media has changed the way we live and work today and it has become imperative for businesses to adapt themselves with these developments to be able to compete and survive in the market. In this essay we will discuss how this has affected the publishing industry and whether it implies that e-publishing will replace traditional publishing in the future. The essay will discuss and analyse the benefits offered by e-publishing as compared to traditional publishing and will also look at the challenges faced by e-publishing. Then on the basis of this analysis, the appropriate conclusion will be presented in the end.
Traditional publishing can be defined as the publishing of information, whether text, pictures or images on paper or a similar tangible material. The information is thus available in form of books, newspapers, journals, leaflets, brochures etc. On the other hand e-publishing, also known as electronic publishing, web publishing or online publishing can be defined as the publication of information in mostly electronic intangible formats. Information by means of e-publishing is provided through the internet, by emails, on CD-ROMs and e-books etc. The popularity of e-publishing as compared to traditional publishing has certainly grown in recent years. The main factors contributing to this are as follows:
Developments in Communications Technology
Mobile phones and internet access have become a necessity today. The new technologies like 3G and WiFI has made it possible to have access to the internet on the mobile phones, laptops and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) even on the move. The developments of these technologies and its increasing use by people has also resulted in reduced costs and with upcoming advance technologies like WiMAX, access to the internet will become very cheap, if not free in the future. This has resulted in greater opportunities for the e-publishing industry to provide all kinds of information – news, sports, entertainment, advertising etc. directly to the targeted audience and customers on these hand held and portable devices. This also allows providing up to date information on all matters such as news, weather, stocks, and sports e.g. ball by ball updates of a cricket match etc. Further developments in devices such as PDAs, Pocket PCs, mobile phones and laptops will result in these devices being able to support even more applications and services. Also these devices will be available for the end-user at very reasonable prices and will be more compact allowing greater portability. This will therefore, further widen the scope for the e-publishing industry.
Global Operations of Businesses
The target audience, customers and consumers for most organisations and businesses especially in relations to the publishing industry has become global. Also Globalisation has contributed to the formation of MNCs (Multi-National Companies) and giant organisations operating in many countries. Therefore there is now a constant need for communication and flow of information across borders. Traditional publishing methods are failing to meet this demand as it is too costly and time consuming exchanging information in this format. In contrast, by using e-publishing methods, it is possible to provide information almost instantaneously anywhere in the world. Most organisations therefore now prefer to circulate information within their departments and offices via internet or intranet through e-published material like e-newsletters and emails. Data Management is also increasingly being done using e-published techniques and businesses are able maintain complete records of their historical data, marketing and financial information effectively on a single computer system using advanced and reliable electronic storage devices. Storing all this data otherwise would require a lot of shelf space if it was being done using traditional publishing. Also e-publishing enables easy finding, modification and updating of information as well as quick communication and transferring of data across various departments or offices.
Environmental Issues
Traditional publishing is also being discouraged more these days due to its adverse effects on the environment. The extensive use of paper mainly for traditional publishing needs has resulted in a threat to the environment due to the extensive cutting of trees. Initiatives such as recycling of paper is being greatly encouraged and most businesses are supporting paper-less work and operations e.g. banks are encouraging online banking and advising customers to opt for receiving online bank statements then by post. Even the direct marketing and advertising industry is shifting more towards e-publishing and is using email marketing and online advertising to reach the customers.
Cost Concerns
Traditional publishing as compared to e-publishing is very costly as it requires raw material like paper and ink in large quantities in addition to the expensive machines and printing facilities. This also means additional expenses due to the requirement of storage facility for raw materials and for finished goods. The production time is also greater and then there are further costs of transporting and distributing the final product. It often results in a lot of wastage because it is not possible to exactly figure out the demand or the number of copies that will be sold or circulated and so the companies have to keep an extra margin. For companies and businesses that use traditional publishing for marketing and advertising purposes, this means a greater cost of acquiring customers. On the other hand e-publishing is not only fast but also very cost effective in the long run. It is very easy to edit and update the information and there is not much wastage due to the absence of the product in tangible format. Distribution cost is also very low as most transactions are being done online.
Reaching Target Audience and Customisation
Being able to reach to the target audience is one of the prime factors that determine the success of any initiative whether it’s a marketing or advertising campaign or an issue of social importance. Using e-publishing, it is now possible to reach the target audience more effectively, then it is by using traditional publishing. A newspaper is a very good source of information on all kind of issues. However, readers normally only read the articles related to the issues of their interests. The pages containing information on other issues they are not interested in are a waste for them. On the other hand e-publishing allows the readers to subscribe for or to receive information only on subjects of their interests. This is both in the interest of the companies as well as the consumers. In this way the companies are also able to save a lot of time and resources by not sending information to uninterested audience. The customers also have the option just to receive e-published material such as journals, newsletters and emails of their choice and can also unsubscribe or opt-out of the mailing list when they want. Another important aspect of e-publishing that greatly gives it an advantage over traditional publishing is that e-publishing is also able to meet the needs of people with disability. People having problems of vision can read the text in their preferred font size. Apart from these, e-published material has other benefits e.g. if readers come across words or phrases they do not understand, they can very easily check the meaning and explanation at that very instant using the electronic device. This is not possible with published material on paper where the only option is to make a note of the word or phrase and then to find the meaning later.
However despite of all the benefits of e-publishing, it still has a few challenges to face and hurdles to overcome before it can gain wide acceptance as a complete replacement for traditional publishing.
Major Challenges for e-publishing
The issue of Digital Rights Management is of great concern (e.g. protecting your e-book from being emailed to multiple readers or being printed out and circulated) to writers and publishers. Also despite of increasing availability of more advanced and reliable storage devices for storing data, there is still the fear of losing everything if the hard drive crashes. Another hurdle relates to the purchasing of e-published material. In most cases the customers have to buy online using their credit/debit cards. Many people still are very apprehensive at providing their bank and credit card details online due to security reasons. Further there are other technical issues related to the hardware and software of devices e.g. an e-published material in a particular format may be accessible on a laptop but not on a PDA.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it will be appropriate to say that despite of all the benefits offered by e-publishing, traditional publishing also has a long history of success and cannot be written off at once. We all have grown up reading more from books and newspapers then on computers and mobile phones. Thus there is definitely some degree of resistance to completely switching over to e-published materials any many would still feel more comfortable reading printed text on paper. Nevertheless there is still a strong underlying trend of shift from traditional publishing towards e-publishing and if we take the overall factors into account, then there is a strong possibility that e-publishing might replace traditional publishing in the future.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Borgmann, Albert. 2000. Holding on to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium
- Naughton, John. 2000. A Brief History of the Future: Origins of the Internet
- Rhodes, Neil & Sawday, Jonathan (eds). 2000. The Renaissance Computer: From the Book to the Web
- Pirillo, Chris. 1999. Poor Richard’s Email Publishing
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