the future of publishing

Filed in archive Entrepreneurship on November 20, 2003

Weblogs are a key technology for publishing micro content and therefore shaping the future of publishing. The "business model" for weblogs relies on the emergence and acceptance of micro publications. Joi Ito has brought together all the arguments some time ago. Although is very difficult to predict the full impact of micro publishing on classical media some successful businesses have shown already what can be the future.

This Wired article gives good insight into ohmynews.com, a Korean "collaborative newspaper", feeding the nation with everything what's important.

"OhmyNews is as influential as any newspaper," a South Korean diplomat told the paper. "No policy maker can afford to ignore it. South Korea is changing in ways that we cannot believe ourselves."

Another clever approach to this topic is Redpaper.com. Authors can publish their writing for any fee they like. RedPaper is just the marketplace and helps structuring the content and attracting potential buyers. Their USP is sweeping:

"We launched RedPaper on the 4th of July of this year and it's been a fast ride ever since.

We have no idea how this thing is ever going to make any serious money for us or anybody else. We have no idea why people participate other than the fact that it seems to be kind of fun and very addictive. "