I’m not sure if everyone has seen this, but it is definitely worth taking a look at a man in Newmarket and his work with his 20,000 light display which is synchronized to music on Rutledge Drive.
A video of him and the famous music video is available from The Toronto Star here
A New Revamped Website for the Toronto Star
Another major development that I noticed, is that the Toronto Star website was just revamped a couple of days ago. I have to say I am very impressed with the look of the website. It is clean, it is relatively simple and the user interface is actually quite intuitive. A comparison can be made to the Globe and Mail website which implemented their redesigned website months ago. In my opinion, the information that I used to be able to find with ease on the Globe’s website is now much more cumbersome to get to and the website is much too crowded.
Just because the website design is bad does not necessarily mean that visitors will stop visiting. A major aspect of marketing is brand and the Globe and Mail is a substantial brand in terms of nation-wide news. Many people including myself visit the Globe and Mail website or read the actual paper every morning of everyday. Nevertheless, that redesign still sticks in my mind as a bad choice.
Google Book Search Part Deux vs. Amazon
It’s rather interesting when I hear or read about new developments with Google and Amazon. Some people are fanatical critics of Google, while others literally worship the ground that Amazon walk upon. Others operate in the opposite manner. I don’t necessarily support either, but I do understand from the economic point of view, more competition makes a better environment for consumers, publishers, book sellers, suppliers, and other spin off economic effects that affect other areas in the industry. While most have groaned and moaned about the fact that Indigo-Chapters have been a bane to many Canadian publishers, many publishers do not realize that Amazon has grown to a point where they act a lot like Indigo-Chapters, not necessarily to the same degree, but gradually getting there. I actually dislike the manner in which both retailers (in-store) and online charge for placement. The rigged so called “bestsellers” are simply the big publishers paying for the title. It is rather funny that by carrying out this policy, major book sellers are actually hurting themselves in the long run. Bestsellers should always be dictated by the demand side of the economic market, NEVER the supply side. Why? Well as a book seller, it is really only beneficial to you in the long-run to have all of your partners succeed. Notice why book publishers have a tough time? They have to pay ridiculous amounts for placement or even a “bestseller” title. This money is great for the retailer, but for publishers that cannot afford such costs, what now?
This is why I believe in the freedom of information and the deconstruction of an industry framework that is not efficient nor is it helpful to both all the stakeholders involved. In the short-term, yes … retailers and book sellers earn more money off of the publishers. But, in the long-term … when these book publishers fail to sustain themselves in the market, everyone loses. Suddenly, there is less competition, innovation and one less party to help keep book sellers and suppliers afloat. That may be a little simplistic, but if we strip down all the overbearing details, that’s what we would likely get. Back to freedom of information. The freedom of information does not merely mean simply everyone gets to read whatever they want. It is more so the flow of information and the unrestrictive manner that information can be shared by individuals or groups that will help the book industry and its many stakeholders. What does that mean? Well, let me put it to you this way. What if we were able to simply search within all the books in the world, and a list were to come up based on relevance? No money behind the search results, only what is relevant for what you are seeking. No money behind a company that is trying to tell you what should be relevant to you. Suddenly, this changes how we think of competition. The playing field is levelled because everything revolves around demand. The problem with the idea of placement and advertising is the idea that you can create and shape the demand. Demand cannot be created as it already exists, we can encourage interest, but demand itself is amorphous and will always remain so. What a free and pure competitive market permits is for everyone to jump in and determine the amount of demand there already is and produce a supply for that demand. What freedom of information provides is an infrastructure that allows for such an environment to exist. Google Book Search has the right idea in mind. Will it stay that way? No one knows. So all in all, placement and advertising really does nothing but entice interest. Does interest = demand? No. Can interest = leads to demand? Yes. Does demand = purchase? Not necessarily.
More on this topic later … with Part Three coming soon…
technorati tags:toronto, books, publishing, canada, economics, google, search, technology, information, marketing, sales, design, news
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