How cyber-stores are tempted to become publishers

In the absence of any significant means of identifying the profile of visitors who visit without seeking information, analysing the requests addressed to your commercial service is the most efficient means of measuring the value of your site. It can be risky to evaluate the efficiency of a site simply by looking at the number of visitors, which pages they read or the time they spend there. A relevant promotion strategy consists of creating sites which offer value-added services, notably via a wealth of editorial content, to a clearly identified public. For example, a cyber-store aimed at children can generate traffic from hypertext or hypermedia links, by creating sites dedicated to stories, early-learning activities, nature, holidays ... Another approach consists of offering interesting editorial content at the same time as commercial offers. Thus, a video games magazine could include special offers, as relevantly as possible, in the middle of previews, tips and best listings. This approach allows a classic demographic targeting to be combined with targeting by interest. In fact, in the case of the written press, whilst at present the reader flicks through the magazine in a linear fashion, in the case of the interactive press (online or off-line) the reader only consults the articles which really interest him, thanks to hypertext. This linking of editorial and promotion could even affect publishing in a much wider sense. Thus, it is possible to envisage the publication of a completely free online book, earning money only by advertising. So, for a book about online marketing, advertising space could be sold to companies which supply relevant services (equipment and software manufacturers, service industries ...), who would have the advantage of a highly targeted advertising campaign aimed at a particular public by placing their insert under carefully chosen headings. This development is possible thanks to the minimal cost of online distribution (as opposed to traditional publishing which involves high printing and distribution costs, making selling space essential). The book industry would not be able to finance itself in this way, notably because the cost of advertising space would not bring about much of a return on a high investment for the advertiser. You will have understood, if publishing is to move in this direction, that its basic economics will have to change fundamentally : the strategy will change from that of 'pull' to that of 'push'. Whereas at present it is vital for a publisher to control his production costs and invest in the physical distribution of the product, tomorrow he must be able to invest it a commercial team specialised in online media and an advertising service which will generate the whole of his online revenue. The consequences on the world of publishing will not be insignificant, and one can envisage a drift towards the changes seen in the world of commercial television in the United States during the last 20 years. Although the particular quality of Internet protects it against the uniformity of its content, one cannot help fearing the diktat of audience ratings for the publishers who chose this type of funding. In fact, the Web allows a relatively precise measurement of audience volumes. It can be seen that the Internet information business may experience some fundamental changes, and the development of free information services at the same time as the reduction in charges for paying information services may transform the information industry's value-added chain. In a universe where information is over-abundant, added value will be found less in terms of information suppliers, than in terms of organisations which allow users to find relevant information. Certain players have already started to emerge : Newspage is one of these services. Another answer to this problem is that offered by the search engines, such as Altavista, the directories like Yahoo ! or the intelligent agents, software programmes which allow a certain number of tasks to be automated. Finally, specialised companies such as Cybion allow their customers to define the set-up strategies, to improve information organisation.

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