What is the competitive landscape of this industry in the USA?

Question: What is the competitive landscape of this industry in the USA?

Summary: The media industry has been focusing on digitalization for the last decade or so. The competitive landscape is defined primarily by which companies are converting their traditional media methods into more digital ones.

Though broadcasting, advertising, and other media sectors have been engaging in this digitalization, the publishing industry has been the industry which has been the one most visibly going through the transition. Paper products, such as newspapers, magazines, and books, are the first products that come to mind when one discusses converting information into electronic format. Competitive companies have been those most quickly and efficiently joining the digital revolution. For example, Barnes and Noble has managed to survive in part by more quickly entering the ereader market with the Nook, while Borders failed, having been too late to become a part of the ebook market.

One of the companies investing in new, more digital methods of publishing and production is the Perseus Book Group. Recently, they have created a new branch to allow e-book authors to self publish, outlined in the article below;

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/business/media/perseus-creates-new-service-for-authors-seeking-to-self-publish.html?_r=1&ref=media

Also outlined in the article are publishing companies which have found their own niche in the e-book publishing industry. "Bloomsbury, a publisher based in Britain, said on Wednesday it had created a new publishing arm that would release digital-only titles. Companies like Open Road Integrated Media have successfully published digital editions of backlist books whose rights were not held by a publisher."

Opinion: The competitive landscape of the media industry is not being shaped by which companies are entering or leaving, but by where the currently existing companies are moving. To retain a place in the industry, publishing companies are moving into digital formats and into ebooks. The creation of these services by Perseus Media Group, Bloomsbury, and Open Road Integrated Media is one of the best ways for them to keep themselves alive through the digital revolution which has already claimed publishing and book giant Borders.