Abstract
Reports on papers presented at the Directory & Database Publishers Association’s Summer 1999 conference on the theme: ‘Defining the New Database Publisher’. In these papers leading publishers and information providers gave their views on strategies for managing the metamorphosis from print to a variety of new media, notably the Internet and Web. The unanimous view was that: 1999 represents a watershed for traditional publishers in which they must respond soon to the rapid convergence of print and CD-ROM or be too far behind ever to catch up. Their fate will be sealed because, although CD-ROM is currently a better and more profitable option than publishing on the Web, it will inevitably become an intermediate medium; publishing profitably on the Web involves more than simply transferring data from one medium to another; and applications of the Internet to business reference information are fast becoming commodities. Advice and opinions were given by key people in the electronic publishing business: Alastair Graham (Graham & Whiteside); John Minch (Reed Business Information); Neil Thackray (Miller Freeman UK); Andrew Lucas (Reuters’ Corporate & Media Information Group).
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