Archive for the ‘business models’ Category

the winter of disintermediated content

Welcome back, dear reader, and a belated Happy New Year! Are you optimistic about this year? The news is so full of economic doom and gloom these days, I’d understand if you were feeling a bit mis. January was a long, dark month. Then today saw the start of the heaviest snowfall in the UK [...]

the end of book publishing

Jon Reed | 9:21 pm 22 Sep 08 Comments 3

Before you switch off from another doomsaying prophesy, this is actually quite an interesting article from New York Magazine:
The book business as we know it will not be living happily ever after. With sales stagnating, CEO heads rolling, big-name authors playing musical chairs, and Amazon looming as the new boogeyman, publishing might have to look [...]

who needs publishers?

Jon Reed | 9:43 pm 02 Jun 08 Comments 3

A quick heads-up for anyone who’s not yet seen Sara Lloyd’s excellent piece for US-based library journal, Library Trends, called A Book Publisher’s Manifesto for the 21st Century, on how traditional publishers need to adapt to the new media economy – something we’re always banging on about on this blog. The whole article is now [...]

the future for publishers

Jon Reed | 6:36 pm 28 Mar 08 Comments 4

More on business models and the future of publishing this week – this time from Paul Watson of The Lazarus Corporation. I love the strapline on his blog: “all that you think you know is wrong”. Always a good mantra for thinking the unthinkable, that one. Anyway, here’s his eloquent take on the failure of [...]

a storm brewing?

Jon Reed | 10:19 pm 05 Oct 07 Comments Off

You know, for those who want to stick with the old media, the old top-down content distribution models, and cultural gatekeeping duties, the scary thing is: that’s not your decision to make.
Publisher, web producer and friend of the show, Rich Holman, has written a very interesting post about the implications of digital media for the [...]

publishing and the internet

Jon Reed | 11:44 pm 26 Jun 07 Comments Off

I’m pleased to see that, while I’ve been hard at work flanneuring around the Online Marketing Show (more of which later), the Internet seems to have become the hot topic of the week for publishers, with not one but two events at University College London. So here’s a last-minute heads-up to anyone in the London [...]

the cult of the amateur

Jon Reed | 11:20 pm 06 Jun 07 Comments Off

A reprise of the Stephen Page argument this week, with the publication of Andrew Keen’s book The Cult of the Amateur: How today’s Internet is killing our culture.
At the Margaret Atwood Digitise or Die event in April, Stephen Page applauded bloggers for the valuable service they provide to publishers: “we don’t have to read that [...]

monetizing your content online

Jon Reed | 12:01 am 27 Apr 07 Comments Off

I love MONOCLE magazine. And not just because Tyler Brûlé is at the helm – one publisher against whom the ‘publisher as arbiter of taste’ argument actually stands up.
The magazine is well-produced – even a lovely object, with its stylish matt pages. I love its obsession with Japanese culture, the coverage of politics, design, business [...]