Digital Media Perspective 941201
December 1, 1994
Table of Contents
- Digital Media Perspective: Birth of a Notion
- McInternet? MCI's Bid to Make the Net Accessible
- Forever Young: The CD-ROM Market Doesn't Want to Grow Up
- Life in a "No Newspaper" City Strike Gives San Francisco a Glimpse of the Information Age
- Inside the Current Issue of Digital Media: A Seybold Report
Digital Media Perspective: Birth of a Notion
This is the first issue of Digital Media Perspective, the free electronic publication of Digital Media: A Seybold Report. Just what the hell are we doing here, and what can you expect from this thing? Is this another address that will swamp your mailbox with hundreds of messages each month? Is this a crass attempt to further commercialize the Net?
In the analog world, we're a newsletter read by the leading executives in computing, telecommunications, television, cable, film, music, publishing and other industries experiencing digital technology itch. Yet, what you've received is a free publication, one that offers editorial material available nowhere else.
Are we nuts? Don't we worry that giving away some of the work we do will satisfy your desire for information of this sort? No, and no again. We think you'll want to know more about Digital Media -- that you might even decide to subscribe to the paper newsletter to get our more extensive reports on issues critical to the emergence of electronic markets and information businesses.
When we took a look at the Net, we realize that what is growing in the telephone lines is a community of minds eager to learn, exchange information and debate. In order to fit into this seething, organic place, we felt it was necessary to contribute something of very high value. Hence, Digital Media Perspective, a publication of our views and commentary on breaking news, reports from the conferences and trade shows we attend, and our general impressions of the evolving digital world.
We're giving this to you, the people of the Net, in exchange for your brief attention to the commercial projects with which we are involved: Digital Media: A Seybold Report; Digital World, a conference held each June in Los Angeles; the Networld + Interop conferences; and the Seybold publishing conferences. Included with each issue of Perspective, you'll find a list of the stories in the current issue of Digital Media. We'll also include information on upcoming conferences, as appropriate.
Digital Media Perspective is free. Digital Media, which includes considerably more analysis than we can provide here, will also be available on the Web in early 1995 for a reduced price, compared to the paper publication. Likewise, we'll be introducing some additional services via the Web which we think you will find intriguing.
To sign up to receive Digital Media Perspective, or to get more information about Digital Media: A Seybold Report and our conferences, send e-mail to dmedia@netcom.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Mitch Ratcliffe
Editor in Chief
Digital Media: A Seybold Report
McInternet? MCI's Bid to Make the Net Accessible
by Mitch Ratcliffe
The hype says that the sign on the Internet says "35 Million Served." Now telecommunications giant MCI wants to prop up its version of the golden arches on the information highway, to take the Net to the masses. The company's announcement last month of its "internetMCI" service points to the next phase in the development of the Internet: commoditization. MCI's strategy also lays out the future of Netscape Communications' plans, which are closely related to the closing of the digital frontier.
This is an inevitable turning point in the life of the Net. Marketers cannot sell a thing as dense and complex as the Net on its own values. They turn it into a form of conveyance and sell what people get through it -- just look at the first television ads for the service, which feature an editor using the Net to browse the world's libraries -- and in MCI's case, what people will get access to through the net are the staples of MCI's business: Friends, Family and corporate connections. "internetMCI" is the first marketing program to transform the connectivity offered by the Net into a simple commodity. All previous Net services have sold the Internet as a thing, a product unto itself. As part of a comprehensive communications offering, the Internet has been transformed by MCI into an alternative pipe, like the telephone or the mail. Commodities are technological phenomena with the magic taken out of them.
The proof is in the fact that MCI's Internet depends on a rich user interface for its value. That's where Netscape comes in; the Mosaic company will provide MCI with client software that ties its customers into the World Wide Web with minimum hassle. In addition to MCI Mail, individual and corporate users will be able to plug into the Web information with a simple installation. Likewise, Netscape's secure Web server products will track individual usage and power transactional services accessible via the MCI service, like an on-line shopping mall.
"internetMCI" isn't the most affordable avenue into Cyberspace, but neither is McDonald's the best burger at the lowest price. Consumer pricing balances quality with cost in order to make the transaction as painless as possible for the average customer. MCI is aiming for the newbies, especially the small businesses getting onto the Net for the first time, as well as the legions of homeowners taking a PC out of the den and into the family room. "internetMCI" will charge $19.95 for seven hours usage (additional hours will be billed at $3 locally, or $7 via 800 connection), more than enough time for the ordinary consumer who wants to dally in the Web and send or receive email.
That's competitive with America Online and CompuServe.
On the other end of the wire, MCI hopes to compete with Web home page services for the business of information providers and others who want to offer their wares on the Internet. Netscape's secure server offers these customers an anchor in the user interface of every internetMCI customer's Web browser, where the MCI online marketplace will surely be a built-in bookmark.
Netscape has deals in the works with a variety of providers which will expand the commercialization of the Web. Also, the network services from Microsoft, Ziff's Interchange and various Mosaic licensees will result in a shifting focus on the Net. What's available via the Net will come to matter more than the mere fact that a company offers a connection. These services will rely heavily on advertising to lower perceived prices below MCI's and, ultimately, even public access UNIX providers.
America Online's purchase this week of Advanced Network Services, the formerly MCI-owned Net backbone contractor, marks another beachhead on the consumer front. AOL's Internet services will cater to corporate clients, while lowering the cost of providing consumer access marginally.
For the current denizens of the Net, the thoughts of invasion by a crowd of MCI calling circle members will probably bring back memories of the America Online invasion. But this, as they say, is progress -- for businesses wanting to reach into the electronic marketplace and for ordinary folks who want to get connected to others without the torment of learning UNIX. The wild west has been won.
Forever Young: The CD-ROM Market Doesn't Want to Grow Up
by Neil McManus
The CD-ROM market is getting on in years, but it doesn't seem to be maturing. Robo-publishers like GTE Interactive know that the way to make money in this business is to churn out arcade-style twitch games for teenage boys and cute edutainment titles for the kiddies. How does this market make room for publishers like The Voyager Company, which steadily puts out thought-provoking titles aimed at (gasp) grown-ups? In short, it doesn't.
Voyager has 45 multimedia titles on its price list, but you won't find more than two or three of them in your neighborhood computer software store. That's because retail software chains typically only provide shelf space for about 150 titles. These slots naturally go to the best sellers with names like BoneCrusher III and Fatty Frog Swallows The Spelling Bee. "The joke about Voyager has been, if we make it, you probably can't buy it anywhere," says Bob Stein, Voyager's president.
So Voyager is faced with two problems: How will CD-ROM buyers hear about or see Voyager titles? And if they're not sold in software stores, how will consumers buy the titles? The company has come up with a few inventive stabs at these problems. Earlier this fall Voyager printed and mailed off 3Sixty, a four-color catalog filled with sample screens and descriptions of CD-ROMs from Voyager and other publishers. An order form in the back lets people buy the discs directly through Voyager. Last month, the company released Voyager Presents, a $9.95 CD-ROM with QuickTime preview movies of all 45 of Voyager's titles. Finally, in January, Voyager will start a Home Page on the Internet's World Wide Web, which will also include preview movies of the titles and an online method for ordering discs directly through Voyager.
A number of smaller publishers also make CD-ROM titles for grown-ups. Many of these publishers are giving up trying to get their titles in software stores and pinning their hopes on selling their titles through bookstores. We believe the bookstore channel has a lot of promise -- a new Borders superstore in San Francisco stocks 1,000 CD-ROM titles -- but the vast majority of bookstores are getting into the CD-ROM market cautiously, with many devoting shelf space to less than 100 titles.
So the coming year will likely leave intelligent titles, such as Live Oak Multimedia's 4 Paws of Crab, out in the cold. We caught up with Live Oak's president David Antonuik at last month's San Francisco Book Festival and asked him how he plans to get a niche title about Thai cooking and culture into retail stores. "That's the unanswered question," he said. "Nobody has figured out the CD-ROM market. That's why I'm self-publishing. I'm not going to give a publisher three-quarters of every dollar I make to explore the issue with me." Antonuik did take the time to walk over to Voyager's booth to give his disc to Stein and his staff. He's hoping he can sell it through the next issue of Voyager's catalog.
Life in a "No Newspaper" City Strike Gives San Francisco a Glimpse of the Information Age
by Neil McManus
San Francisco temporarily lost both of its daily newspapers last month during to a strike by workers at the Chronicle and Examiner. The newspaper shutdowns gave San Franciscans chilling visions of suffering through an interminable strike without local political news, Warriors updates, movie reviews and columnists Herb Caen and Jon Carroll.
As it turned out, they didn't have to suffer for long. By the end of the first week of the strike, the striking newspaper workers were publishing a daily newspaper -- on paper and on the Internet's World Wide Web. Both versions of the strikers' Free Press provided election coverage, strike news, movie reviews, sports, even our beloved columnists. The news void was further filled by a dozen or so neighborhood newspapers and by San Francisco's two alternative weekly papers, the Bay Guardian and SF Weekly, which stepped up frequency to twice a week. Before long, the Chronicle and Examiner reappeared, using scab labor and a heap of wire-service copy. (Of course, politically correct San Franciscans would only be seen in coffee shops reading the Free Press, the San Jose Mercury News or the Bay Guardian.) The Chron and the Examiner also updated their Web site. Online readers could further tap the ClariNet news service, which offered free local news to Bay Area residents during the strike.
Conventional wisdom has it that modern information technologies are forcing a consolidation of big city newspapers, and, in fact, the Hearst-owned Examiner may not survive the effects of this strike. But the 11-day strike, which ended in mid-November, gave San Francisco residents a glimpse at a different kind of information age future. Desktop and online publishing tools let dozens of alternative news sources bloom. During the strike, the talent-laden Free Press became this city's third daily newspaper. (It even picked up advertising from Macy's and other local businesses.) And, for a short time, San Francisco had three local news services on the World Wide Web.
Inside the Dec. 5th Issue of Digital Media
A Not-So-Holly-Jolly Interactive Christmas: Multimedia publishers struggle to get their CD-ROMs onto store shelves despite an overstuffed channel;
Expanding Channels: Why multimedia titles are selling at computer flea markets, and what keeps afloat a Seattle-area computer store that's gearing up to stock 1,000 CD-ROM titles;
Paying the Price: A look at the systems credit companies are devising to provide secure online transactions; and
The Interactive Household: A summary of an Inteco study on how families use interactive media today and how it will affect the video-on-demand market tomorrow.
Also in this issue:
Why Broadband Technologies's fiber-to-the-curb network system gives phone companies an edge in their elbowing match with cable TV companies;
A look at why communications privacy is big business;
Why Electronic Arts' Twisted for 3DO systems made the right move in imitating board games;
Guest columnist David Waks, Prodigy's executive director of technology, calls for cable companies to get their act together on interactivity; and
The Good Stuff: A list of Things Digital Medians Should Know.
Digital Media: A Seybold Report, the monthly paper newsletter that sponsors Digital Media Perspectives, brings its readers the most provocative analysis of the developing industry for interactive titles, smart networks and broadband applications. We turn an eclectic eye to the stories of the day to provide a more informed perspective with which readers can judge new technologies, new competitors and the assumptions driving the growth of the electronic economy. We question everything, and bring back the hard facts.
Digital Media: A Seybold Report is available monthly for $395 a year; individual issues are $40. Call 800.325.3830 or send email to dmedia@netcom.com for information on how to subscribe.
Who We Are, Where to Reach Us
Digital Media Perspective is a twice-monthly electronic newsletter produced by Digital Media: A Seybold Report.
- Publisher: Jonathan Seybold
- Editor in Chief: Mitch Ratcliffe (godsdog@netcom.com)
- Editor: Neil McManus (neilm@netcom.com)
- Managing Editor: Margie Wylie (zeke@eworld.com)
- Senior Editor: Stephan Somogyi (somogyi@ziff.com)
- Editorial Assistant: Anthony Lazarus (dmedia@netcom.com)
Editorial Offices
444 De Haro Street, Suite 126
San Francisco, CA 94107
415.575.3775 vox
415.575.3780 fax
dmedia@netcom.com
How To Subscribe
If you'd like to receive this free electronic newsletter regularly, send us email at dmedia@netcom.com and we will put you on the list. The subject line of your messages should read "subscribe perspective". We would appreciate it if you would include your name, title, and organization in the message's body.
Copyright (c) 1994 Digital Media: A Seybold Report. This electronic newsletter may be duplicated, reproduced or retransmitted only in its entirety. Excerpts used for the purposes of quotation must be attributed explicitly to Digital Media Perspective.
