The virtual print industry is born

For the last few months I've been checking out Secondlife.com, a 3D "virtual" world that starts to make you rethink the meaning of the term "virtual" to begin with. That's because in addition to having 800,000 worldwide registered users (up from 130,000 when I started using it earlier this year), it has its own economy in the form of Linden Dollars that can be converted into any real currency at any time based on a publicly traded exchange.

That, and the fact that individuals in Second Life own the intellectual property rights to things they create, has caused a flurry of real-life business activity. I could talk for hours about the stores, clothing, casinos and even virtual ice cream cones available to Second Life consumers. What I find most interesting for media is that there is a growing print industry in Second Life.

Here's a screen shot from one of the Second Life welcome plazas where my avatar is confronted with not just one, but seven kiosks for different "print" publications. When my avatar clicks on a kiosk, I can choose to pay a few Lindens (one Linden is about 1/300th of a U.S. dollar) for a PDF newspaper or magazine with news about people in the Second Life universe.

While the production quality of these publications isn't on par with The New York Times, it's as good as any local magazine you may find in a coffee shop or restaurant. And even crazier than that -- the pages include display ads of businesses in Second Life that can sell you those same ice cream cones, shirts, Avatar makeovers, virtual real estate and more. Presumably those advertisers paid for the placements.

I wish I could get my hands on some numbers that show how many avatars buy these publications, but given that they are increasing in number, pages and ads, it would reason that business is good. One indication of success is that The Metaverse Messenger, one of the first Second Life pubs, has a swanky new office tower with post-modern furniture and a working elevator that must have cost a lot of Lindens, as a typical plot of land in Second Life sells for $2,000 USD. (I'm not making that up -- check it out by downloading Second Life and searching for "Metaverse Messenger").

Of course the irony here is enormous, because "real life" print circulation is going in the opposite direction, with most newspapers reporting 2-3% drops in circulation in recent years. The Knight Ridder chain is no more after a shareholder revolt, and every month we hear of new layoffs and buyouts at newspapers big and small.

This makes me wonder. Could the virtual print industry one day supplant the "real" print industry? And what is "real" anyway? How long will it be before the hundreds of newspapers that sell PDF versions of their daily products online start selling them in Second Life kiosks?

After writing this I feel like I've now seen everything, and also that this is just the first chapter in a whole new aspect to digital life.

Technorati Tags: Second Life, Virtual Reality, Newspapers