July 2007
An update on VISTA's merger with Ingenta: our new online proposition
Earlier this year VISTA merged with online publishing provider Ingenta to form a new organization, Publishing Technology plc. We have spent the intervening months integrating the two companies' product lines and identifying areas where a combined proposition will bring a unique offering to the market. For VISTA, the core value of the merger lies in gaining access to Ingenta's online capabilities, and we are pleased to announce that we are now in a position to offer a suite of services which integrates sophisticated, proven online technologies with our own print publishing applications. Our digital platform:
- Meets fast-evolving user needs, with state-of-the-art features that integrate with other online and offline tools.
- Supports flexible delivery of granular, multi-format content, beyond the simplistic siloing of journals and books.
- Adheres to key industry standards to ensure full interoperabilility with other applications in use throughout the supply chain.
- Builds on changes to users’ behavior, technological literacy, expectations and broadband penetration to deliver appropriate levels of service.
- Capitalizes on judicious alliances to drive across-the-board discoverability of your content.
- Competes strongly in fundamentals such as search, browse, performance, accessibility, navigability.
The services we offer provide you with end-to-end support for the online publishing process including:
- Content conversion. We can convert a range of input formats (SGML, XML, PDF, desktop publishing files) into online-ready content, enhanced with interactive functions, comprehensively tagged, and fragmented for easy repurposing. While your content remains the main attraction for the user, these supporting features and the flexibility of the surrounding access models deliver the additional value which can be critical to attracting users and fulfilling the potential of your assets.
- Content hosting. Our Tier 1 hosting facilities incorporate full backup and recovery, server administration, monitoring and reporting. The system is designed to scale according to your needs and provides you with proven security.
- Content management. Our content library provides you with the means to store, manage, and control your content with a full administration toolkit and comprehensive back office integration. Our content management systems give you full control over the marketing copy around your content.
- Content delivery. You can opt for the website format that will best showcase your publications. All deliver the personalization, community and standards-driven options that your users demand.
- Monetizing content. Flexible licensing and e-commerce modules provide you with multiple options for achieving return on your digital investment – from traditional subscription and pay-per-view models to bundled purchasing, with the option to capture additional revenue through selling advertising inventory.
- Increasing visibility. Our systems can distribute, or expose, your metadata to key search engines, retailers, social networks and subject portals and other strategic partners to ensure that users are directed to your content regardless of their web entry point.
- Branding. Using the latest web development techniques, we can deliver multiple themed websites that acknowledge the variety of ways in which you choose to brand and sell your content, from your top-level publisher brand to those used for specific publications or packages.
- Marketing. Take advantage of business intelligence tools that deliver the analytics you need to inform your marketing strategies. Our expert consultants can provide additional services to ensure you increase awareness and sales through smart positioning.
Our services are ready to be configured to meet your individual needs. As an application service provider (ASP), our software is hosted on servers maintained by us and accessible via the web: you benefit from a robust and fully-supported service, while avoiding the costs and complications of integrating, updating, scaling and securing the software. We provide the infrastructure to manage your online and offline production streams, including full integration with warehouse and distribution functions alongside controlled access for online delivery. We can consolidate the customer data you need for functions including access control, customer service, renewals and more into a single customer record. You can benefit from our expertise, capabilities, and experience while maintaining full control over your assets.
We will be showcasing our new online proposition at events including October's Frankfurt Book Fair and London Online Information in December, if you would like to arrange an appointment to discuss your needs please contact:
John Lawson (UK/Europe)
john.lawson@publishingtechnology.com
+44 1923 830239
Randy Petway (North America)
randy.petway@publishingtechnology.com
+1 732 563 9292 x235
Harry Potter & The VISTA Connection
On July 21st, the world was treated to the latest and final installment in the Harry Potter series – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The highly anticipated book went on to sell 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours in the United States alone. This was after an unprecedented 12 million copies were shipped to the U.S. for an initial run.
While Scholastic (the book’s US publisher) and Bloomsbury (the UK publisher) have been in the forefront of the media addressing everything from ship dates to internet leaks, VISTA International played a far less publicized but pivotal role for the book. VISTA’s Book Distribution and Royalty systems handled and/or managed the following:
- The initial 12 million books Scholastic printed in the United States.
- The 17% increase in pre-orders reported by Bloomsbury in the UK (order entry and distribution).
- J.K. Rowling’s royalty payments.
e4books Forum – An education in e-commerce and the e4books project
The Royal Institute of British Architects at Portland Place, London was the venue for the second successful e4books Forum organized in collaboration with the Book Industry Communication (the Small Business Forum of the BA), and the Independent Publishers Guild. The event attracted 80 delegates and a dozen industry suppliers, the purpose being to provide publishers and booksellers with the opportunity to gain an understanding of e-commerce and BIC’s e4books project, to hear objective advice from e-commerce experts, and to discuss requirements with specialist systems and service providers.
The day began with an introduction to the e4books project from Peter Kilborn of BIC. This was followed by an enlightening case study by Emma Barnes, Managing Director of Snowbooks, who has proudly implemented a low cost solution to manage and distribute her company’s product data to Nielsen BookData. Louise Vance, of The Sandwich Bookshop in Kent explained how she keeps her competitive edge through superior customer service and optimal use of technology to maximize efficiency and minimize cost. Simon Edwards, BIC’s e4books consultant rounded up the presentations with information about a new service called batch.connect. The conference closed with a Q&A panel session.
Attendees enjoyed an excellent buffet lunch and then had the valuable opportunity to browse the exhibition area and talk to an impressive selection of software and industry suppliers about their services and solutions, all under one roof. The industry suppliers included PubEasy, Batch, Lightning Source, Gardners, Bertrams, and Nielsen BookData.
VISTA was present to promote its Production Information Manager system (PIM) which was one of the first e4books accredited systems. In line with the e4books project, VISTA Business Development Consultant, John Lawson was asking publishers:
1. Do you maintain a fully integrated product database capable of supplying an ONIX feed to data aggregators and other recipients?
2. Can your database supply information for your website, for use in your catalogues and for supply to data aggregators and key customers?
VISTA’s Product Information Manager is available as an in-house or a hosted solution. To find out more contact john.lawson@vistacomp.com or visit http://www.vistacomp.com/solutions/pim.html
Further information about e4books including downloadable reports, case studies, and information about the accreditation scheme can be found at http://www.bic.org.uk/e4books/
Social media site Shelfari has joined with Facebook, a social networking site, to launch the new Shelfari Facebook application, which will allow users to put all their books on a virtual bookshelf and feature them on a Facebook profile. Current Shelfari users can easily import their virtual bookshelves onto Facebook through the application. The application is designed to let Facebook members easily share information about their favorite books to their Facebook friends.
"The Facebook platform represents a seismic shift in the way people are using social networks to express themselves and new applications like Shelfari's will enable Facebook members to instantly engage with a large community of readers," said Shelfari's C.E.O. and co-founder Josh Hug. "The Shelfari application is unique because it not only enables Facebook members to quickly share their reading lists, but it also provides an avenue of exploration via the Shelfari site."
Source: Bookseller
MediaBistro.com Sold
MediaBistro.com, the site that owns the Galleycat literary blog, has been sold to Jupitermedia Corporation for $23 million — $20 million in cash and $3 million over the next two years. The website, which was founded more than 10 years ago, brings together those in the media and offers job postings, a freelancers database, educational seminars and premium content to paid subscribers. The founder and CEO of MediaBistro, Laurel Touby, will stay on as a senior vice president.
Source: Book Trade News Digest
MediaBay Closing Down
After investing millions of dollars in an unsuccessful attempt to develop a digital download system for spokenword audio, MediaBay announced that it was closing down all of its operations.
Source: Publishers Weekly
