Taking Old Media Into The Future

By: Amy Johnson

The Walt Disney Company plans to take an old form of media and transform it into a media of the future. Beginning Tuesday, Disney Publishing plans to make their children's storybooks available online for a fee of $79.95 a year. Families will have access to hundreds of Disney's classical stories and brand new books.

DisneyDigitalBooks.com is organized by reading levels for children ages three to 12. For children just beginning to read, the books will read aloud to them. For children who can already read on their own, a guide can be found when the reader comes across an unfamiliar word; the guide says the word aloud for the child. For teenagers, chapter books and trivia games are available.

Disney's idea for a subscription online model for their storybooks could start a popular trend among publishers everywhere. The synergy of Disney works wonders. Disney on average sells 250 million children's books a year; the company is taking a big step by updating their storybooks, a media source of the old, and posting them on the Internet, a media source of the new.

This type of update is being seen often as of late. How long will it be until books and newspapers are never printed out? In today's age, major newspapers are becoming popular online sources, and books are easily found on the Internet to read. Publishers everywhere will be keeping an eye on Disney's new project; if it takes off, we may see more and more books being published online and less books being put on the shelves of book stores.

( Photo Credit Shareware Connection)