We are working on a project in this office to “grid” the ebook world. We’ll have a hard time doing it in fewer than four dimensions. What we see as “major headings” are: 1) hardware/readingdevices, 2) software/platforms, 3) file formats, and 4) ebook retailers. And after we get that sorted out, we’ll start thinking about […]
Vertical and horizontal count in the newspaper business too
For some reason, I had missed the Mark Bowden article in the May issue of Vanity Fair about Arthur Sulzberger, the publisher and chairman of The New York Times. It’s a painful article, really, describing a guy who seems to be intelligent, decent, and ethical, and who is trying mightily to save his family legacy […]
BEA will be a shame to lose, but can it be saved?
Dinner Saturday night. 12 of us. Three spouses who had no particular interest in the BEA. Eight of us with one interest or another in the book business, but no possibility of personally being an exhibitor. And one publishing company CEO with a stand. Of course, I got my money’s worth. I got in free as […]
The publisher’s evolving role
Michael Cairns has a really good post today that distills a lot of thoughts I have had over the last several years into a clear formulation: that the publisher needs to serve as a “digital concierge” for its author. Three years ago, Brian O’Leary, Ted Hill, and I did a study of marketing spend for […]
Another copyright reshuffle that’s in the cards
Evan Schnittman at Black Plastic Glasses posted the final chunk of a 3-parter yesterday that contained a real shocker (to me) at the end. The 3-part post shows through Evan’s personal experience that a) we now insist that content come when we want it and how we want it and b) the very existence of […]