Johnnic e-Ventures, the Internet division of black empowerment giant Johnnic, has acquired 50% of South African digital publisher comPress (www.compress.co.za) in a bid to explore new publishing models and open up publishing to the masses.
The new business will provide tailor-made publishing services to the corporate, academic and traditional publishing markets, both in digital and in paper format.
The deal, which creates the country`s largest digital publishing business, also adds a new dimension to Johnnic`s existing media, entertainment and telecommunications portfolio, which includes holdings in print media businesses Times Media, BDFM, Struik/New Holland, Caxton and Random House.
"This is in line with our philosophy to invest in businesses which add strategic value to the group," says eVentures CEO Neil Jacobsohn.
"Digital delivery and on-demand production processes are revolutionising the legacy publishing industry, which was traditionally characterised by high risk and low margins."
Jacobsohn says one of the company`s primary aims is to give writers a marketplace. "Most manuscripts are rejected by publishers because of economics. Print-on-demand and online publishing will enable us to take a book to the market and let the public decide."
Touted as the first digital publisher in SA to sell e-books, comPress has established a strong presence in the emerging market of electronic publishing. By breaking down production and distribution barriers, it has targeted niche markets previously deemed unreachable.
"Publishing, for so long an exclusive domain, is finally being opened to the masses," says comPress joint-MD Francois van Schalkwyk. "What we`re seeing is the true democratisation of information dissemination, which will ultimately bring an end to the inequalities of information access which are entrenched by traditional publishing models."
Using the Internet as a marketing, sales and distribution mechanism, comPress has developed an e-commerce-enabled online catalogue (www.oneworldbooks.com) through which it sells a range of downloadable e-books. Traditional paper books (but printed digitally, which makes short runs economical) can in turn be printed on demand. comPress` clients include traditional publishers, consultancies, independent authors, business schools and media personalities.
Jacobsohn says the new venture also brought tremendous opportunities to eVenture`s business hub, I-Net Bridge.
"Huge numbers of documents are published by companies, and we will be using I-Net Bridge`s reach into the corporate market to exploit this opportunity," says Jacobsohn.
"By printing on an on-demand basis, problems and expenses of maintaining stock are avoided and materials need never be out-of-print," adds comPress joint-MD Ross Frylinck.
"Furthermore, e-books cater to the growing demand for digital information products that can be downloaded to personal digital assistants, laptops and other devices. They also offer the advantage of being searchable along with benefits such as forms and hyperlink navigation."
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