The Future Of Publishing Blog by Thad McIlroy
January 19th, 2012
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.
January 11th, 2012
According to public filings on the Canadian Heritage website (link broken), the Government of Canada contributed $4,166,190 to McClelland & Stewart between 2000 and 2011 via several programs designed to aid Canadian-owned publishers (link broken).
January 10th, 2012
Cultures die symbolically. Canadian culture took a major hit on Monday with the sale of Canada’s most important book publisher, McClelland & Stewart. Canada’s largest university, the University of Toronto, took a gift horse and sold it to the Bertelsmann AG, the fifth-largest book publisher in the world, via its proxy, Random House of Canada.
January 4th, 2012
How I wish that were a compliment. It likely would have been in 2004 when Best Buy was named “Company of the Year” by Forbes. Today it’s an insult. Or a threat. Or a doom-filled prediction.
December 7th, 2011
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) today published its new policy for best practices in assigning ISBNs to digital products, aka ebooks. With endorsement from BookNet Canada, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), and IBPA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, it’s therefore applicable across North America (“but could be applied elsewhere as well”).