Course 2010-2011 a.y.

Course Objectives

The course Publishing and Electronic Publishing aims at shedding light on information as an economic good and on the publishing industries as the competitive space for information production and distribution. The course objectives are:

• understanding the specificities of information production and distribution as economic activities;
• analyzing structure, dynamics and players of traditional publishing industries;
• reflecting upon the impacts of digital technologies on information: rethinking space, time and quality of information;
• reflecting upon the structural changes driven by digital technologies in the publishing industries: convergence, newcomers, organizational changes for publishing companies.

Course Content Summary

The course provides participants with the essential conceptual tools to understand the specificities of information industry chains within cultural industries. The course covers the following topics:

• what is information and how the concept of information has evolved over time: from paper to net, new technologies have made it possible to unbundle information from its physical support, opportunities for new bundles have emerged and quality is redefined
• how the economics of information work and how different publishing industry chains are structured: both those focusing on printed information (newspapers, magazines, books) and those focusing on digital information (websites, mobile sites)
• how digital technologies have initiated a reconfiguration process in the publishing industry, as they have determined structural changes
• who are key actors involved, both as incumbents and newcomers, in the industry change, how their core activities are structured and what role they play in the newly defined competitive space
• how these actors organize their operations and design the organizational change

Detailed Description of Assessment Methods

The course provides 6 credits. Attendance is not compulsory, but is warmly recommended, as the program is highly interactive.

Attending students
the exam consists of a written test (70%) and two assignements (30%).

Non attending students
the exam consists of a written test accounting for 100% of the total grade.

Textbooks

Attending students
Cases collection by the teacher
Epstein Book business: publishing past, present and future

Non Attending students
Students are provided a list of readings

Prerequisites

Business Administration.