Information Today
Volume 15, Number 6 • June 1998
Publiotech Software for Creating, Managing Digital Publications

Electric Press has announced a new software product called Publiotech version 1.0 that helps publishers realize greater return on their investment from the Internet. Publiotech not only uses the Internet in unique ways but also is capable of reducing the cost and risk generally associated with the publishing business, according to the announcement.

Publiotech enables publishers to create and manage digital publications that are purchased online and then printed on demand as needed. This reduces traditional printing and inventory carrying costs and enables publishers to "repurpose" their publications by enabling customers to create their own "custom" publications. For example, Publiotech enables a customer to create a custom publication using keywords of interest and have it printed and delivered by a local on-demand printer.

A New Business Model

Since Publiotech eliminates nearly all of the traditional cost of creating and marketing these publications, there is virtually no risk to the publisher—just a new publication that can be printed on demand as it is purchased. This completely changes the traditional publishing business model—where a publisher created a publication, projected its demand, published and stored adequate inventory, then hoped the demand met the projections.

Publiotech is designed for organizations that want to use the Internet to the greatest advantage, such as finding new sources of revenue for existing publications, developing cost-effective ways of creating and marketing new publications, and reducing internal costs.

Publiotech can be used to augment or replace traditional publishing processes. For example, electronic publishers can create and test market new products without incurring traditional development and distribution costs. Magazine and newsletter publishers can create new revenue by selling article reprints on demand and by repackaging information on specific topics into a new report or anthology. Book publishers can use Publiotech to keep rare books in print indefinitely while also lowering printing and inventory costs. Any publisher can enter a new market with a new publication, without the risk associated with printing, marketing, warehousing, and shipping.

Printers can use Publiotech to establish a stronger business relationship with their clients by offering on-demand print services for local Publiotech users. The first of these business partnerships was recently announced between Balmar Printing and Electric Press: Balmar will provide on-demand printing service to Publiotech users in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.

Publiotech fills a unique need. Although there are document-management systems on the market, they are primarily intended for intranet applications—the sharing of similar documents within a company. Publiotech is different in three key areas: First, it is primarily for selling publications via the Internet. Secondly, its unique technology enables the publisher to package on-the-fly and sell dissimilar documents, such as HTML, Microsoft Word, TIFF, and PDF files. Third, it's a complete online publishing management system, integrating with a publisher's back-end accounting and fulfillment systems and also linking to on-demand printing technology.

The technology used in Publiotech was originally pioneered by Carnegie Mellon University and employed by the National Academy Press (NAP) to successfully put thousands of books online. Electric Press is making this technology available commercially for the first time under the name Publiotech.

Publiotech is a complete, pre-integrated software product that includes a document manager called "book object," Internet commerce transaction software, a shopping cart, a print director to control where a publication will be printed, and gateway modules for back-end integration with accounting, fulfillment, and publishing systems.

Copyright Management and Permissions

In related news, Electric Press and Yankee Rights Management, a division of Yankee Book Peddler, Inc., have signed a letter of intent to integrate Yankee's Copyright Direct system and Electric Press' publishing solution, Publiotech. This integrated offering will enable publishers to reach new markets for their digital content, sell more publications, and cut inventory costs with print-on-demand capabilities, while simultaneously allowing users to clear permissions and pay appropriate royalties online. Copyright Direct is an Internet-based copyright management and commerce service that links digital content directly to online rights and permissions services.

By automating the permissions process as much as possible, Copyright Direct collects the data that publishers need to make permissions decisions, provides an online license and payment capabilities for the user, and provides a tracking mechanism for both.

Electric Press has a unique background. The Electric Press founders originally worked at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) where they collaborated with the people who created the Internet and the World Wide Web. They left the NAS to form Electric Press, the first company in the business of developing Web applications for corporations. Among the first Web sites developed was the Electronic Newstand, the first online mall for publishers. Since the company was formed in 1994, more than 150 companies and organizations have chosen Electric Press products to successfully conduct business on the Web, including publishers such as Hearst Business Publishing, World Book, Omni, Popular Mechanics, Army Times, Editor and Publisher, USA Today, and Thomson Publishing.

Source: Electric Press, Reston, VA, 703/742-3308; Fax: 703/742-4648; http://www.elpress.com.

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