About This Site

Here’s a QuickStart for this site: The column on the left lists the industries which I believe comprise publishing today. Below are some of the influences that are changing publishing, and the impact of those changes. Click on a topic, whether it’s your sector or just a topic that interests you, and you’ll begin your [...]

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Laws of Future of Publishing

  1. 1 The Web is still in its infancy.
  2. 2 Technology will never be the obstacle.
  3. 3 The value of face-to-face experience increases in value in direct proportion to the spread of disintermediated electronic encounters.
  4. 4 Broad scope + mere comprehension replace targeted attention + full understanding. Today's media consumer gets less from more rather than more from less.
  5. 5 Don't blame readers for their lack of attention: reduced attention to detail is a required skill for coping with media saturation. All content creators must work within this limitation.
  6. 6 There remain just 24 hours in a day, and not all of that time can be devoted to the consumption of media. Multitasking increases total media consumption, though not the level of attention devoted.
  7. 7 On a level playing field good content always wins.
  8. 8 Advertising spend is a zero-sum game, in other words, marketers do not increase budgets just because an attractive new channel to spend money becomes available.
  9. 9 There is a limit to the number of separate digital devices people want to carry. That limit is one.
See all Laws

Blog

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  • NewJan. 23, 2012

    One-Third of American Adults Own a Dedicated e-Reading Device

    You’ll be seeing the graph below a lot in the next few days and weeks. Often the headline will read “20 per cent of Americans Own an e-Reader” or “Tablet and E-Book Reader Ownership Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period” which is the theme of the Pew report announcement. But the big number appears on page [...]

  • Jan. 19, 2012

    Publishers Sleep Easy After Apple Textbook “Disruption”

    At first I thought we should blame ourselves for getting our knickers all in a knot when the rumors started circulating that Steve Jobs’ deadly forces of disruption, honoring his dying wishes, had turned their sights on textbooks. But don’t we frighten easily! Then I felt angry at Apple.

  • Jan. 11, 2012

    Canadian Government Agencies Invested $4.7 Million in McClelland & Stewart in the Past Decade

    According to public filings on the Canadian Heritage website, the Government of Canada contributed $4,166,190 to McClelland & Stewart between 2000 and 2011 via several programs designed to aid Canadian-owned publishers.

All Entries
  • “For all publishers, it’s really important that brick-and-mortar retailers survive" -- and how are you ensuring this??? http://t.co/FOCnXBwf
  • When William Lynch talks, you get the sense that he could be selling just about anything, although he is selling books. http://t.co/FOCnXBwf
  • Hugh McGuire & Brian O'Leary are co-editing Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto, being published in 3 stages by O’Reilly. http://t.co/Cb8lQa0N