Electronic publishing (also referred to as e-publishing or digital publishing or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues.

Electronic publishing has become common in scientific publishing where it has been argued that peer-reviewed scientific journals are in the process of being replaced by electronic publishing.

It is also becoming common to distribute books, magazines, and newspapers to consumers through tablet reading devices, a market that is growing by millions each year, generated by online vendors such as Apple's iTunes bookstore, Amazon's bookstore for Kindle, and books in the Google Play Bookstore.

Market research suggests that half of all magazine and newspaper circulation will be via digital delivery by the end of 2015 and that half of all reading in the United States will be done without paper by 2015.

Distribution (or place) is one of the four elements of the marketing mix.

Distribution is the process of making a product or service available for the consumer or business user that needs it.

This can be done directly by the producer or service provider, or using indirect channels with intermediaries.

A newsletter is a regularly distributed publication that is generally about one main topic of interest to its subscribers.

Newspapers and leaflets are types of newsletters.

For example, newsletters are distributed at schools to inform parents about things that happen in that school.

Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery.

The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site.

Then, the products are delivered to the customer.

The products are typically delivered directly to an address supplied by the customer, such as a home address, but occasionally the orders are delivered to a nearby retail location for the customer to pick up.

Some merchants also allow the goods to be shipped directly to a third party consumer, which is an effective way to send a gift to an out-of-town recipient.

A desktop computer is a personal computer designed for regular use at a single location on or near a desk or table due to its size and power requirements.

The most common configuration has a case that houses the power supply, motherboard (a printed circuit board with a microprocessor as the central processing unit (CPU), memory, bus, and other electronic components), disk storage (usually one or more hard disk drives, optical disc drives, and in early models a floppy disk drive); a keyboard and mouse for input; and a computer monitor, and, often, a printer for output.

The case may be oriented horizontally or vertically and placed either underneath, beside, or on top of a desk.