Although the books industry has always been the more pure paid content business model, advertising has often played a part, said Shatz, Random House’s VP of digital. He named a few examples belonging to his company, involving the Fodor’s travel guides and ads in the back of pop financial adviser Suze Orman’s books. “Advertising has always played a small part and it will become more prominent for e-books. But it will remain a small part of the digital side as well.”

Fuchsberg, the president of Skiff, was even more certain that advertising will be part of the support system of books general e-reading materials. But he’s certain that if it looks like what’s on the web, the attempts will fail. “If e-books are where more consumers are spending their time, ads will inevitably follow. I just hope it won’t be as much of a sideshow as it is on the web. The prospect for e-reading is to think about how content is displayed and make the advertising naturally fit, rather than slapped on in a way that is annoying.”

Bogarty, Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Digital Publishing Group’s director, agreed with Fuchsberg about the problems of online advertising, which he feels has lacked the pleasure that come with the best print ads. “Like me, I’m sure most of you occasionally buy a magazine because you want to check out the advertising,” Bogarty said. “But I’ve never—and I’ve never heard anyone else—go to a website to look at the ads. As soon as we can replicate the values that make people seek out ad info in print, we’ll really have something. But until that point, it won’t work too well.”