We have studied a two-year project aiming at exploring the potentials of the e-newspaper, i.e. a news service published with e-paper technology. Different actors have interests in this process, e.g. newspaper publishers, device producers, readers and advertisers. These actors are forming value networks by negotiations of interests and positions. The contribution of the paper is twofold: firstly we show how the value network created around e-newspaper is dependent on the convergence of different actors and their interests; secondly our theoretical contribution is to show how Actor Network Theory (ANT) can be used in combination with other theories - in this case genre theory - to analyze emergent value networks. ANT captures the general process of how the value network takes form, while genre theory captures the domain specific context of e-newspapers, and how this structures negotiations between different stakeholders who want to form the e-newspaper genre.

As most of today’s media houses publish in multiple channels, they also exist in a multitude of infrastructures. Given the ongoing diffusion of personal computers, handheld devices, and mobile telephones as well as the advent of new technologies such as the epaper, a new type of ubiquitous media environment is emerging. Drawing on this background we address the research question what are the challenges when aligning a new promising technology (such as the e-paper) with existing value networks enabling value creation in ubiquitous media environments? In this paper we report from a study with newspaper publishers in Sweden, Belgium, France and the Netherlands consisting of 18 interviews and 9 workshops. The findings show that value networks in a multiple channel publishing environment are closely related to infrastructure environment. The nature of ubiquitous media environment will have implications on value networks openness and flexibility. Value networks will need a fluid structure to cope with changes in very short cycles.

Adoption of mobile services and m-business outcomes has not yet reached expectations. The uncertainties in m-commerce are still many occasioning a need to explore challenges and opportunities. This study provides empirical data on perceptions of value proposition in m-commerce from the supplier as well as the demand side. The first is addressed in an interview study with newspaper publishers that offer mobile services, and the second in a broad survey of 1388 mobile service users. The findings show that there are similarities as well as differences in perceptions of value held by service providers and users of mobile services. Ubiquity and service provider/user relationship were identified as general service characteristics whereas localization, personalization, convenience and socialization were identified to be mobile service value dimensions. The aim is to provide useful insights for service providers to better meet the market demands in consumer m-commerce.

Mobile advertising opportunities have attracted interest from industry and academics as a response to the trend of diffusion of new mobile technology. One industry particularly interested in new advertising opportunities is the newspaper industry. Many media houses envision a future multi-channel media environment supporting device independent, anytime, anywhere publishing, i.e. a Ubiquitous Media Environment (UME). In this paper we explore how ubiquitous advertising challenges the role of media houses. Ubiquitous advertising refers to advertising in a UME, anytime, anywhere and in any device. Based on results from interviews and workshops with advertisers and publishers we discuss how media houses traditional role is challenged. We contribute with an understanding of how media houses can develop their role to succeed with ubiquitous advertising and to m-advertising literature with insights into the dynamics of balancing consumer and advertiser value of ubiquitous advertising.

This article presents the consumer view of an innovative m-service, that is, the e-newspaper, which is published for a mobile reading device equipped with an e-paper display. The research question of this article is: What are the implications of the consumer view of future m-service innovation on business models? In this article, we present empirical results from an online survey with 3,626 respondents representing the consumer view. The factor analysis revealed three aspects of consumer preferences, that is, Ubiquitous access, Prestige of news source and Local anchorage and advertising. These were then correlated with media behavior and e-newspaper preferences to indicate three possible market segments. We then discuss the implications that these consumer views could have on developing new business models, followed by a comparison to earlier research. Finally, we propose an integrated e-newspaper business model framework consisting of three models, ubiquitous, local, and prestige.

This article investigates how audience groups differ with respect to the adoption of new media services. The authors expand the existing framework of early adopters, which is heavily directed towards the technological aspects of a product, by including users that are more interested in the social and content-related aspects of media services. The objective is to identify and explore important audience groups that can be used as initial target groups for the introduction of the e-newspaper (a newspaper that is published on e-paper technology). Data was collected from 2976 respondents through the web sites of three Swedish newspapers. © 2007 Journal of Media Business Studies.