NY Times story

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Subject: NY Times story


John Markoff's story in today's New York Times (2/8/94, D1) on
the Encyclopedia Britannica's decision to publish on the
Internet is an important piece of business reporting that
com-priv readers should definitely not miss.  Coming, as this
news does, on the heels of a similar move by Dow-Jones, it
represents a significant shift in perceptions about the primary
value of the global Internet.


Markoff's above-the-fold article is interestingly juxtaposed
with a another piece on the same page by Steve Lohr questioning
AOL's ability to keep growing and remain competitive.


John quoted my own elliptical slur on the non-Internet players
as:  "Companies in the electronic publishing market are
beginning to see they want the largest possible market...  They
don't want to be trapped in markets that are Balkanized or
private."


But it gets much better.  Toward the end of the piece, EB
president Joseph Esposito says: "If you do believe that content
is king, it's rather unfortunate that so many of the content
providers have put themselves in a position where they're held
hostage to the online services."


The final graph quotes Larry Smarr, director of NCSA, saying:
"We're creating a new market for content providers...  Here is a
whole world of people who are using cyberspace as their
information stream.  They are all potential customers for
commercial information providers."  Given NCSA's development of
Mosaic -- which is mentioned in the story along with WAIS, as
tools EB will use for delivery -- it's plain he's not referring
to the AOL, Compuserve and Prodigy constituencies.


Kudos, once again, to Markoff and the NY Times for elevating an
important trend -- to publishing on the Internet -- into high
visibility within mainstream business circles.


chris
Christopher Locke <clocke () panix com>