They have known for some time that an online reader isn't worth as much as one from the print world.
Some book authors now post rough drafts online to collect reader feedback.
For every thousand people who watch a Flash clip online or fill out an online Adobe Acrobat Reader tax form (without paying), there's a Web programmer or graphic designer who paid several hundred dollars for the right to create that digital content using Adobe's multimedia production and editing tools such as Flash, Acrobat, Illustrator and Photoshop.
There are a few sites like Goodreads and Indie Reader that offer alternatives to the untrustworthy online review, but for the ordinary reader, there is no single source available to sort the diamonds from the coal.
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Online, an average reader spends less than 10 minutes with any one source and they read fewer stories.
Borrow or order books online, and the reader downloads them.
Buchanan was extremely prolific, and the interested reader can peruse his works online courtesy of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
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Sony's move is also seen as a response to the widely perceived success of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader - although so far the online store has declined to reveal how many devices it has sold.
There was a lot of buzz online about this decision, and some fanatical Google Reader fans put together a petition to keep the RSS reader alive.
The publisher of a popular online newspaper in Thailand , Prachatai, was arrested after a reader posted a comment deemed offensive to the monarchy.
For a more extensive list of Google Reader alternatives, check out this This Google Spreadsheet from the Online Journalism Blog.
Content discovery has evolved from a world of searching online to find what you want to read, to a world of reader apps that aggregate thousands of content sources in one place.
Removing Google Reader rips a hole in the center of an active user's online life.
Gone is the physical distance that reduces the tension surrounding nasty attacks in other online forums, for instance in multiplayer games, chat rooms, or in the reader comments sections below news articles or blog posts.
In Germany, Heise Online, an online news site, last year faced a temporary restraining order preventing it from publishing reader comments that call on others to overload a company's server by massively downloading a program.
Last week I got a note from a reader, asking me for advice about how to elicit a response to her online job applications.
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Amazon and Barnes and Noble now make up a national used book market, Google posts public domain works such as Hamlet online for free, and Apple, Sony and Amazon are fighting for the new e-reader market.
Management has made great play of the "sixth section" online edition, and Mr Kane - also digital editor - says the Internet site will be key to generating reader involvement.
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