BevLog

The LA Times (online) reported that "Amazon.com says it's sellling 80% more downloaded books than hardcovers." Future trend accelerator: Price of Amazon's Kindle portable reader was lowered in June to $189 from $259.

"The Kindle reader has been Amazon's top-selling single item for the last two years." But 80% of the priced e-books go for $9.99 or less vs. $25 average for hardbacks. Many e-books are free. Now book publishers' business and revenue models are going the way of music, newspapers and TV.

How long will it be before we hear, "Mommy? What's a 'hardcover?'"

A report by the University of Missouri School of Journalism concludes that "citizen journalism isn't stepping up sufficiently to fill the information shortfall."

No surprise that I found the news in Editor & Publisher, America's Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry.

Find out more about citizen journalism.

Speaking of the value of "news" and how credibility of source is changing...MediaPost ran this blog today. Looks like the "truth" is coming out that "real news journalism is dying" faster and faster. As media companies are being forced to compete for ratings - what's the difference between "news" and "entertainment" these days?

Journalism competing with entertainment? This could reflect the failure of well-researched journalism to monetize effectively with today's technology - free access. But to what?

MediaPost reported that Gannett Co. "quietly leaked word" of a controversial paywall initiative for three local newspapers. This is yet another round in the search for a successful way for newspapers to charge for content.

"Pay wall" isn't new. But it has met with limited success in the old (mass market) media's desparate search for lost advertising revenue.

Hollywood screenwriters "emerged from a bruising strike two years ago" only to the see opportunities in filmmaking at the studios dwindle. Employment has fallen 11% in the last three years, the lowest number of writers in at least six years.

"Confronted with a sharp drop in DVD sales," studios have cut fees to filmwriters, top stars and filmmakers and slashed spending on R&D. The Writers Guild of America, West reported writers' credits on 237 films in 2009 down from 299 in 2008. Hollywood profits continue to fall as pirated copies of films are sold at the same time the films are released, a practice that further confirms that copyright protection is another once unquestionable broken business model.