Strategic developments for the European publishing industry towards the year 2000
The European Commission, DG XIII, has published a call for tender for the completion of a study on strategic developments for the European publishing industry towards the year 2000. The call for tender is issued within the context of the Commission's the proposed INFO2000 programme, aimed at stimulating the development of a European multimedia content industry and encouraging the use of multimedia content in the emerging Information Society. The content industry is composed of those enterprises involved in the creation, development, packaging and distribution of content: data, text, sound, images or multimedia combination thereof, represented in analogue or digital format on a variety of carriers such as paper, microfilm, magnetic or optical storage. The content industry comprises, on the one hand, the different segments of print publishing (newspapers, books, magazines, corporate publishing) and electronic publishing (on-line databases, videotext services, audiotext services, facsimile and CD-based services, videogames) and, on the other, the audiovisual industries (television, video, radio, audio and cinema). In the past two years, European businesses have started major activities in electronic publishing with initiatives such as Europe on-line, America on-line and the Microsoft(R) network operations. Moreover, the dramatic impact of Internet in Europe has mobilized the attention of the industry and opened up new opportunities at all stages of the information value chain. This has put European publishers in a business environment that is even more competitive and dominated by strategic alliances. The European information industry is faced with a number of barriers to growth that prevent it from quickly realizing the critical mass necessary to compete on equal terms, at a global level, in the newly developing multimedia markets. The Commission is now looking for consultants or research institutes to complete a strategic study surveying the electronic multimedia publishing market and highlighting new opportunities which have become available to the publishing industry, multimedia companies and television producers in the European Community. Requests for tender documentation should be sent to: Commission of the European Communities Directorate-General XIII/E Contract Management Jean Monnet Building (B4/41) L-2920 Luxembourg Fax +352-430134079 Completed tenders should be sent to the same address.