One on One with Todd Eckler of North Plains Systems

Todd Eckler is executive vice president, print and publishing at North Plains Systems. Eckler oversees the direction and growth of the company's DAM business. FierceContentManagement recently sat down with Eckler to discuss the new directions the publishing industry is taking and the impact of eBook readers on the marketplace.

FCM: How does a DAM help publishers manage and produce to multiple formats including print and eBooks?
TE: DAM software that has specialized components for book publishers provides several capabilities that assist in the management and production of content. With the growing needs for mixed medium delivery (print, eBooks, mobile, interactive) the DAM software can assist publishers in transforming content into high quality print and eBooks.
 
The DAM software does this by creating a repository for all of the components that go into producing the content for the book. The content is easily retrievable by ISBN, author, title or other tags that are assigned to the content. Then this content is made available to either the tools within the DAM software for automated book creation or delivered to third-party tools for the page assembly. By managing all of the content within the DAM and in a reusable format, publishers are better equipped to quickly adapt the content to new ways of selling it in the future.
 
FCM: How can a DAM help publishers manage their author's assets (e.g., pictures, podcasts, free eBook excerpts and so forth)?
TE: An author's assets are an integral part of marketing and selling the book. The DAM software allows for the management of all of the author's assets plus more. The correct approach is to leverage specialized components of the DAM software that allow for the management of structured author assets (pictures, podcasts, etc), but also unstructured user generated content such as reviews, videos and interviews. DAM software that specialized in management of book content can also provide preview applications for consumers to sample the book and components for users to upload free content to their favorite social networking platform like Facebook or LinkedIn, for example.  
 
FCM: Forrester did some research that found that most people won't buy an eBook Reader unless it falls below $100? Do you think this is realistic?
TE: I don't disagree with the Forrester research, but I think there is more at play here than just price. Consumers in general approach new media devices on the market in the same way. The eBook adoption could be compared to the transitions between VHS, DVD and Blue-Ray. Consumers need the right amount of content available for the platform and there are ranges of consumers that buy early and other consumers that wait until the price hits rock bottom. eBook devices follow that same pattern with the extra facet that the medium is going from paper to electronic at the same time. 
 

FCM: What, in your estimation, will it take to mainstream eBooks and eBook Readers?
TE: The avid book reader needs to make the leap that the eBook experience is equally or more satisfying than the paper based book. The casual reader needs to weigh the cost factor and convenience of eBook readers. A real growth for eBooks will come when the form factor, quality and experience will support all academic content. When this happens a new generation of readers will not have to make the paper-to-electronic jump and as such will desire only electronic content.


FCM: What's your prediction for the eBook market in 2010?
TE: I believe we will still see the high growth numbers for eBooks in 2010, but the question is how much of that is the total market. I expect you will see publishers launch electronic-first content or even content that will only be offered in electronic form. There are additional devices scheduled to come to market within the next year which will continue to drive down the price as well as publishers continuing to convert older titles to eBook formats.

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