Category Archives: Publishing and Journalism

The value of journalism

I see that This American Life is retracting their Mike Daisy piece about Apple Computer factories in China because of “significant inaccuracies” and because Daisy “lied” to the TAL producers. Wow. To me this is  lot about the value of … Continue reading

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Sic transit gloria bookstores

Keplers death spiral. As I have mentioned before, bookstores are, sadly, dead men walking in their current incarnation. A great bookstore goes into the next stage of dying: bargaining.

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Ubiquitous video and the passing of the kick-ass era

Looking at the videos of the Occupy Wall Street protest and in particular of the “pepper spray incident” I’m actually pretty hopeful. I think that it is now becoming clear to police departments and officers that there is very little … Continue reading

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Where reading is going

Reader’s digest was a powerhouse of its time. It brought together the best of a certain type of published material, so that people could sample a world of articles (often in condensed form, one of the reasons the magazine was … Continue reading

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Some stats on ebooks and ereaders

I knew that Amazon was now selling more Kindle books than paper books, but I was interested to see that ebook sales overtook hardcover sales this year. E-book sales, January 2011: $69.9 million E-book sales, January 2010: $32.4 million Hardcover sales, January … Continue reading

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Traditional Publishers are not dead

This is a follow-up to my previous post, in which I made the argument that traditional publishing is dead, due to the lack of value that they add to the process and the higher cost of printing when most people … Continue reading

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Whither Bookstores?

Are bookstores dying? This was a subject that really started taking off last year (although has been in discussion for far longer), and the question only gets more fraught now. Let me be clear–I love bookstores. I practically grew up … Continue reading

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The New York Times pay scheme: it might actually work

The New York Times has come out with one more scheme to get readers to pay for content, an effort which is only the latest in a long line of failed schemes. But this one might actually work because it … Continue reading

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Traditional Publishing is Dead

Well, maybe not dead now, but more like Dead Man Walking dead. I say this because the sales of e-readers like the Kindle are taking off in an explosive, exponential fashion. Very shortly, faster than almost anyone is realizing now, … Continue reading

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In the Bloginning …

Very late to the game, I am starting a blog. Although I have often felt that I don’t have the time to write in a blog, in addition to all the other writing I do, I have started to see … Continue reading

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