Strategic developments for the European publishing industry towards the year 2000
The main report of a project on electronic publishing (EL-PUB 2), entitled "Strategic developments for the European publishing industry towards the year 2000" has recently been published by the European Commission, DG XIII. This project was supported by the Commission under the INFO2000 programme, with the aim of analysing the changes that have taken place in electronic publishing over the past three years and increasing understanding of what these mean for the future. The report summarizes the findings of the project, which conducted extensive research and a large number of interviews with publishers in Europe, the USA, Canada and Japan. In addition, several workshops involving industry experts were held and a selective user survey was undertaken. The report is divided into the following main sections: - Overview of trends; - Conclusions - drivers and constraints; - Conclusions - options and challenges; - Research findings. The appendices contain supplementary information, including examples of electronic publishing and detailed case studies of a number of firms currently active in electronic publishing. The report also gives information on the interviewees contacted during the study. The executive summary, available separately, contains theses on the fundamentals of electronic publishing, perspectives for the year 2000, and strategic recommendations for different types of publishers and stakeholders.