The Future of Chunk Sales … Today!

The blog PersonaNonData pointed us to a new model that might bring the future into tighter focus for some publishers. At AcquireContent.com, a new Web site from Gale, they have made their content available for sale through “customer pull” transactions.

We have tried to make the points that new revenue opportunities will be small dollars and we’ve suggested that XML-structured content facilitated profitable exploitation of those opportunities. Gale has taken a big step in taking costs out by sharply reducing transaction costs for both buyer and seller through this Web site. Gale already has rich databases of content so they can create a standalone offer. Other publishers will be waiting for vertical aggregators (one of which is Gale) to pull their content into offerings like this.

It is pretty likely that those vertical aggregators will find XML-structured content easier to ingest and offer seamlessly than content which is not. And the quantity of content suitable for a vertical will be another way an aggregator will rank the potential providers of content, so the sooner content starts to live in XML, the more attractive a publisher will be when opportunity knocks.

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