Jon Bruner interviews Tim O’Reilly for Forbes Magazine. O’Reilly Media doesn’t put DRM on any of its books, he explains why:
People who don’t pay you generally wouldn’t have paid you anyway. We’re delighted when people who can’t afford our books don’t pay us for them, if they go out and do something useful with that information.
I think having faith in that basic logic of the market is important. Besides, DRM interferes with the user experience. It makes it much harder to have people adopt your product.
The lack of DRM is one of the reasons I purchase books from O’Reilly directly. It feels like you’re actually buying something — they’ll also give it to you in whatever format you want and will email when there’s an update. If you keep an eye on their twitter feed, they offer decent discounts.
In 1913, Wolfgang Riepl, chief editor and a Nuremburg daily, made this statement in his dissertation concerning ancient modes of news communications.
New, further developed types of media never replace the existing modes of media and their usage patterns. Instead, a convergence takes place in their field, leading to a different way and field of use for these older forms.
The old doesn’t necessarily die out. In some instances, the old methods are absorbed or recycled into a new form. In others cases, those methods are refined and distilled down to their essence.
For anyone concerned that print media is dying, Dave Eggers has sent out an email to reassure us.
The American newspaper industry had its worst quarter in modern history, with advertising sales declining almost thirty percent. Not that anyone didn’t see it coming. We’ll see which organizations can adapt to different models with professional and grass-roots journalism, in a combination of print and electronic media.
Can design save the newspaper?
Give power to designers. You can work for a small company, in a boring branch. You can have no budget, no people, but still can put your work to the highest possible level. Everyone can do it, you just need inspiration, vision and determination. And you need to remember, that to be good, is not enough.
A short, but inspiring TED presentation.
