The Future Of Publishing Blog by Thad McIlroy
November 19th, 2009
The Schumpeter column in the current issue of The Economist examines the question of whether CEOs serve their firms better when they are high-profile egoists like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, or low-profile “anonymous managers,” such as Sam Palmisano at IBM. It mentions Haruku Nishimatsu, the boss of Japan Airlines, “who travels to work on…
November 16th, 2009
From today’s Publishers Weekly: “Bookstore sales jumped 7.0% in September, to $1.58 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Monday morning. The increase was most likely due to gains at college stores and the release of The Lost Symbol in the middle of the month. Despite the September increase, and an upward revision in the August numbers, bookstore…
November 13th, 2009
This gem from this week’s The Economist: “In the eyes of media executives, the internet is a malevolent vacuum-cleaner, sucking in one business after another.”
November 12th, 2009
Dr. Joe Webb is one of the long-time leading economists focused on the printing industry. In his column today on WhatTheyThink? (membership may be required) he looks at the employment drop in the printing industry, but offers a charts the reveals comparisons to other publishing sectors. Only newspapers and direct mail advertising are dropping staff faster…
November 11th, 2009
Since its launch in 1995 I’ve been a fan of Salon.com, even though it was still in the early days of the Web. Salon’s history has been oft-recorded. One account, from the improbable Scripophily.com (which is selling an early share certifiate as memorabilia for $70 bucks) notes that “journalism veterans David Talbot, Andrew Ross, and David…