The Future Of Publishing Blog by Thad McIlroy

Pity the Newspaper

March 24th, 2008

Pity the Newspaper

Of all media industries assaulted by changes wrought by the Internet, it’s a toss-up as to which is considered the more beleaguered, newspapers or music. Not an enviable prize for which to compete. Certainly both receive plenty of coverage of their varying woes — their problems are not well-kept secrets. But I’ve not seen such…

March 21st, 2008

Putting Humanity Back Into Technology

It was some time after I finished school that I first heard about the trend towards co-operative non-competitive games and sports. I had been raised on games and sports the relied upon killing your opponent before he killed you, and so was taken aback by this new twist on things. It sounded kind of OK,…

March 8th, 2008

The Slow and Ugly Demise of Ziff Davis

The New York Times stated it tastefully: “Ziff Davis Media Seeks Bankruptcy; Ad Revenue Down”; The Wall Street Journal‘s Deal Journal a little more directly: “Billionaire Brand Joins the 2008 Bankruptcy Bonanza.” As the Deal Journal points out, Ziff-Davis is a company with a proud history that only in the last decade-and-a-half fell prey to…

March 6th, 2008

A Major Announcment From Quark

Check out the new section of the Quark Web site on what they’re calling the “Quark Dynamic Publishing Solution.” (1-1-2011: No longer there. Very dynamic indeed.) Dynamic Publishing is something altogether new for Quark, and reflects, I think, the relatively recent infusion of a host of senior staff from the old Arbortext (now owned by…