At Outside Magazine, there would be writers that would have special deals that governed how their stuff could be used. These deals would later came to haunt the publication when it started working with Seattle-based Starwave on its first online initiative. Once you run into a situation like that it makes you take a hard look at all of your contracts: a single person could prevent you from issuing the digital version of an entire magazine.

And, unless things have changed drastically, BPA won’t allow you to count the readership of a digital version of a publication unless it is substantially the same as the audited print version.

As a result, since the 1990s most publishers have added ancillary rights clauses that give them perpetual rights in whatever digital products happen to come along.

By the way, the link to “Internet is ruining travel journalism” is sending me to the wrong thing.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by kevinlukemay: Time Out creates eBooks for city guides, takes the Murdoch paid-for route | Tnooz http://bit.ly/7Thx9c...