Digital Newsbook Project
The Las Vegas Review-Journal has used the Digital Newsbook format. 
Download an example (1.2 MB PDF).
Digital Newsbooks are downloadable eBooks designed for disseminating and archiving enterprise/investigative journalism. They also are designed to provide newspaper publishers and journalists with a possible new source of revenue from their in-depth special reports.
Special reports often take the form of a series that is published in printed editions and on the Web over a period of days, weeks or months. Unlike breaking news stories and commentaries, which have become low-value commodities on the Web, special reports are high-value journalistic products that differentiate newspapers from blogs and Web-based content aggregators.
Most national and metropolitan newspapers have historically invested significant portions of their editorial budgets and staff time to produce special reports. Although their reputations may be enhanced when they win prestigious journalism awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize, the monetary returns on their investments have been negligible.
The inability of newspapers to directly connect their special reports to increased revenue, may be the principal reason why so many publishers, in these difficult times, have been cutting back on in-depth reporting.
RJI is committed to fostering high-quality enterprise/investigative journalism, but we also recognize the need to find new ways of supporting this important work that are not dependent upon advertising.
This was the impetus for RJI’s Digital Newsbook Project.
We have four main goals:
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To create a format for Digital Newsbooks that is optimized for quick downloading and comfortable reading on notebook computers, eReaders and other mobile devices, such as the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.
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To create templates, automation tools and production processes that will minimize the time required to produce high-quality Digital Newsbooks, without sacrificing each newspaper’s distinctive visual branding.
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To create business models and strategies that newspapers can easily implement with minimal costs and that will make Digital Newsbooks profitable.
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To create an online library and store where Digital Newsbooks from newspapers worldwide can be aggregated and promoted. Readers would be able to search for Digital Newsbooks on topics of interest and sample the contents before making a decision to buy. The Web site could handle the transactions for newspapers or could provide links to newspapers’ online stores.
The Digital Newsbook format is a book-sized version of the original eMprint (Electronic Media Print) newspaper model, developed at RJI. The contents of special reports are repackaged using templates and JavaScript tools within Adobe InDesign page layout software.
As with all eMprint products, Digital Newsbooks can be read on any computer or display device with a basic PDF viewer. They also are ideally suited to reading on an exciting new medium called electronic paper. Thin, lightweight electronic display devices, such as the iLiad eReader and Sony eReader, are already using this technology to provide a reading experience comparable to printed publications.
To demonstrate the potential of Digital Newsbooks, RJI has offered members of the Digital Publishing Alliance (DPA) the opportunity to have up to six Digital Newsbooks produced at RJI for no cost other than their DPA membership fee. Members also can outsource the production of additional Digital Newsbooks to RJI for a negotiated fee. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Las Vegas Review-Journal and Memphis Commercial Appeal are among the DPA members who have already commissioned RJI to produce Digital Newsbooks.
Roger Fidler, RJI program director for digital publishing, is the Digital Newsbook Project’s leader and principal developer. Fidler is internationally recognized as a digital publishing pioneer and visionary. He conceived and first wrote about the idea of creating interactive newspaper editions that could be read on mobile reading devices in 1981, while he was design director for Knight-Ridder’s experimental online service called Viewtron.