Digitization in the Publishing Industry: how the way of thinking the product has changed throughout the productive chain

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1. Introduction 
Digitization, seen as a disruptive technological shift that enables a wide 
array of possibilities in many industries, is a highly debated topic in the 
academic field. However, not much has been said about the consequences 
of this technological change in regards to the product concept phase of 
digital goods. Strong academic experience has been collected during the 
last decade regarding the impact of digitization in various industries, in 
particular in relation to the distribution segment of the music industry. 
We decided to focus our attention on the publishing industry, given the 
recent hype around the topic: books had been available in digital form for 
more than three decades, but only in very last years the digital market 
gained traction and received an increased attention.  
The reason behind this focus is simple: the development and the 
emergence of new technologies (on which the most sophisticated digital 
reading devices rely on), combined with a much wider range of available 
content, generated a spike in demand. In turn, higher user demand 
fuelled broader attention in both the eReader and eBook markets, creating 
a self-sustaining cycle of intense growth and innovation. 
The first part of the thesis is meant to illustrate the technological 
backgrounds and the industry evolution up to the present time. 
In the second part of the research the traditional paper-publishing process 
will be compared with the digital one. The publishing value chain will be 
analyzed to understand the dynamics that shape the production process, 
defining the key phases where the digitization activity has influenced the
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way in which the product itself is designed and produced. An outlook on 
the Italian market situation will follow. In order to represent faithfully the 
internal mechanics of the publishing market, multiple interviews had been 
performed with managers and experts of the sector. 
The third section briefly introduces a theoretical background, whose 
framework will be useful to analyze the following chapter where four 
interview-based case studies will be presented, aiming at illustrating the 
different approaches towards the digital world adopted in distinct 
segments of the Italian publishing market, characterized by dissimilar 
actors and commercial logics. 
The last part of the thesis will be focused on the analysis of the key points 
from the previously exposed case, examining the conceptual findings 
correlated with the theory exposed in the third section. 
Conclusions and recommendations for further research will follow.
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2. Case background 
What is an electronic book? That is the first and main question that 
everyone should be asking himself when approaching the contemporary 
publishing industry. Over time, many definitions have been given, under 
many perspectives: however, as stated by Vassiliou and Rowley [2008], 
no definition has been generally accepted and – even in the academic 
world – the term “eBook” has been used in ambiguous manner.  
2.1 eBook definition  
Probably, rather than relying on the opinion of a single expert to answer 
such a question, a good starting point can be offered by the wisdom of the 
crowd typical of the web 2.0: the latest version of the eBook entry on 
Wikipedia.com
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 defines an “electronic book (also e-book, eBook, digital 
book)” as “a text- and image-based publication in digital form produced 
on, published by, and readable on computers or other digital devices”. 
Such definition overcomes the rigidity of the Oxford Dictionary of English
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(“an electronic version of a printed book”) while at the same time takes 
into consideration multiple key factors:  
• Rich media content and interactivity support (not just plain text) 
• Digitization in many phases of the value chain 
• Necessity of an external reading device 
• Accessibility and usability across multiple devices 
• Independence from a single product form  
                                   
1
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book latest version dated 22/01/2011 
2
 http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0254330
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However some important points are not contemplated: for example, the 
use of metadata is central in the definition provided by the Open eBook 
Forum
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, while Cox and Ormes [2001] focus their attention on the 
possibility to download the content from the internet. 
Furthermore, the term eBook has been used also to refer to the “portable 
hardware and software system that can display large quantities of 
readable textual information” [Borchers 1999]. 
It is also very important to remember that the publishing industry is 
constituted of many heterogeneous markets (consumer/trade, academic, 
educational/scholastic, business/professional, children and religious are 
the broad categories identified by the European Commission)
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 whose 
differences impact directly on the structure, content and definition itself of 
the published material (and consequently on that of eBooks, too). 
Given the fast-developing nature of digitized goods, when searching for 
the most suitable definition of eBooks, we shall consider both their 
persistent characteristics and their dynamic and evolving nature. Thus, it 
appears that any too restrictive classification should be avoided. 
The best way to overcome this impasse is to analyze the technological 
backgrounds of the new publishing industry; on one side, the eBook must 
be considered as a digital good as intended by Quah [2003]: “a payoff-
relevant […] sequence of binary digits, 0s and 1s, that affects the utility of 
or payoff to some individual”; on the other, we also have to acknowledge 
its materialization though the existence of a physical interface, thus 
analyzing the development of eReading devices. 
                                   
3
 “A Framework for the ePublishing Ecology”, September 25 2000, p.6 www.idpf.org/doc_library/ecology.htm 
4
 “Publishing Market Watch Final Report”. Brussels: European Commission.
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2.2 The evolution of reading devices 
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Since the dawn of civilization, communication had to be spread, and the 
act of writing (and conversely of reading) has always been connected to a 
specific piece of technology [Roncaglia 2010]; this unavoidable connection 
defines both the way certain content is created and the way it is enjoyed. 
Nevertheless, we must not think of a purely deterministic relationship 
between the interface and the content (or vice versa), but rather of a 
connection that allows a certain range of possibilities. 
The advent of the digitization process in the publishing industry is 
undoubtedly the biggest technological leap since the Gutenberg revolution 
and the opportunities and advantages offered by the new reading devices 
are nowadays shaking the whole sector from the ground. However, as 
most of technological products, the introduction of a new class of devices 
able to reinvent the standards takes some time: indeed, the first 
revolutionary concept dates back to the 70’s, when the available 
technology was still too immature to produce working prototypes. 
The Dynabook was the first ground-breaking concept to open the path: 
the idea was years ahead the technology of the time, but it clearly 
influenced, both in shape and functionality, some of the most modern 
eReading devices.  
Alan Kay, the mind behind the project at the Xerox PARC, claimed – in an 
article from 1977 – that even if one of the characteristics of the Dynabook 
was the possibility to read a book in a completely new way, it should not 
have been treated as a simulated paper book since it would have been a 
                                   
5
 See Appendix for a visual representation of the devices described in this section.
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new and different medium, with new properties and new capabilities; 
furthermore, one of the goals of the project was to avoid any design that 
would have made the Dynabook “worse than paper in any important way”. 
Even if the theoretical background was available, on the technical side 
there were many challenges to overcome and the creation of a device able 
to compete with the traditional paper book was delayed for many years.  
During the 90’s some tech companies (including Sony) started the 
development of a new class of interactive devices, whose market value 
and potential was nevertheless doubtful: as the Sony BookMan, none of 
these devices was fully conceived as a reading tool; they were unable to 
provide a reading experience even slightly comparable to the one offered 
by the traditional print book, thus going against the guidelines postulated 
by Kay years before. 
It was only in the last part of the decade, thanks to a more advanced 
technology and to the growing attention towards the digital world due to 
the inflating dot-com bubble, that the market saw the opportunity to 
introduce the first dedicated reading devices. 
2.2.1 The first generation of dedicated devices 
Starting from 1998, the first real eReaders entered the market with the 
aim to provide consumers with a more comfortable reading experience, by 
maintaining the advantages of print media and by imitating aspects of the 
metaphor of the book. While the first attempts (as the Rocket eBook and 
the SoftBook) made by small technological start-ups had a limited market 
distribution, when these companies were assimilated by the 
telecommunication giant RCA in 2000, the new models had a much bigger
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FIGURE 1 - e-Ink technology 
market exposure
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. However, they still had major weaknesses that 
prevented a widespread adoption: a technology far from perfection, high 
prices, the lack of a simple internet connection and, probably the most 
important factor, the closeness of the system with regards to the limited 
contents available. 
After the burst of the dot-com bubble, the interest in dedicated reading 
devices suddenly decreased and the attention shifted more on the content 
side, slowing down the development of new eBook readers. 
2.2.2 ePaper on the rise 
In 2004, a new technology was finally ready to enter the market: Sony 
launched (only in Japan) the Librié, a device based on the e-Ink 
technology. Such technology overcame many disadvantages of the 
previous generation of eReaders: the black and white screen, no more 
based on LCD, had a much higher readability, did not cause eyestrain and 
could be read in direct sunlight and from any angulation. 
                                   
6
 “Next Generation Rocket eBook and SoftBook devices” www.planetebook.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=34
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Furthermore, ePaper technical properties enable an incredible long-lasting 
battery life and a more intuitive page loading and page turning, albeit at 
the expenses of an inferior refresh rate and fluidity
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. 
Basically e-Ink (especially the latest generation, capable of displaying 
colors)
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 provides the consumer with a reading experience that is much 
more similar to the one on traditional printed paper, thus facilitating the 
transition towards the new media. However, despite the initial 
commercialization of e-Ink equipped readers by Sony, the commercial 
success arrived only in the 2007 with the introduction (just in the USA) of 
the Amazon Kindle; the first model sold out within a few hours
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, not 
thanks to an outstanding design or to superior technical screen features 
(on that side it was comparable to other readers on the market), but 
because of two main reasons: the “always connected and synchronized” 
feature and the direct access to the biggest online eBook catalog.  
In the last years the Kindle has undergone both design and technical 
upgrades, while at the same time dropping in price (the first model was 
priced at 399$, nowadays the cheapest version can be bought for 139$), 
allowing Amazon to reach (at least in the USA) a semi-monopolistic 
position in both the eBook and eReader markets before the first real 
competitors could make their appearance in the market (there are no 
official Kindle sales figures, but estimates talks about 2.4 millions units 
sold in 2009, 7 millions in 2010 and projections of 12 millions for 2011)
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. 
                                   
7
 For more technical information, beyond the scope of this paper, visit http://www.eink.com/technology.html 
8
 http://www.eink.com/history.html 
9
 http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/21/kindle-sells-out-in-two-days/ 
10
 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/01/18/businessinsider-amazon-could-sell-12-million-kindles-this-year-2011-1.DTL
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2.2.3 The iPad and its siblings  
A real shake to the publishing industry came on January 28
th
 2010, when, 
after months of speculations and rumors, Steve Jobs announced the 
imminent launch of the Apple tablet, the iPad. Tablet computers were not 
something new in the industry, but the multitouch device built by Apple 
was expected to break completely with the past experience. This type of 
device is not thought just for reading purposes (unlike the Kindle), it is 
made for all kind of media consumption: both its hardware and software 
features open up new possibilities for content creators, allowing for the 
conception of new and hybrid solutions.  
In the wake of the success of the iPad (almost 14.8 million units sold in 
less than 9 months)
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, a huge number of technological companies decided 
to jump on the tablet train demonstrating their products at the Consumer 
Electronic Show 2011
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. 
2.2.4 Mobile devices and personal computers 
A third set of technological devices, not directly engineered with the 
purpose of creating a reading tool, are the so-called “smartphones”: 
answering to the growing mobility needs of modern society, symbolically 
starting with the iPhone and its operating system, this class of devices 
managed to unify two categories of products – the cellular phone and the 
personal digital assistant (PDA) – allowing the quick access to specific 
formatted text on the go. Other forms of digital reading are more popular 
and accessible, but as mobile phones get updated and improved along 
                                   
11
 http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/18/apple-ipad-business/ 
12
 http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/ultimate-ces-2011-tablet-roundup-25-tablets-compared/