We are beginning to see early examples where business visionaries are creating relationships with their distributors and channel partners and are able to reinforce that relationship by syndicating content and parts descriptions. But I would emphasize that the business process and business needs come first and syndication technologies second. That doesn't mean these tools aren't needed. Take a look at Conde Nast, the New York publisher of magazines such as Vogue, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, and Glamour. The company's foreign licensees, such as the German version of Vogue, have 30 days to purchase articles and photographs and clear rights.
Foreign licensees fax back their interests to the permissions department in New York.
Initially, licensees receive low resolutions, with high-resolution images provided after licensees make their final selection. The New York office has also recently started to provide CDs with images of Quark files and will eventually offer PDF files stripped of advertising content. Right now, we are in the stone age. It's not that we are speaking different languages. We are not even communicating.