All Episodes
Why Readers Stick To Print
Old habits are hard to break. Just ask the Big 5 trade book publishers who just can’t seem to walk away from a business dependence on print books. Sales reports and reader surveys agree that readers continue to enjoy print book over e-books. The reasons for that...
A Pioneer Among Publishers
To be a pioneer takes guts. The work is hard and long and often lonely. Pioneers are fast learners and experts in endurance. It's a life of trial and error. The Hard Fifty Farm lies in rural Lansing, Kansas, on the Missouri River northwest of Kansas City. The...
Music Marketplaces
In July at the inaugural RightsTech Summit in New York City, leaders from startups to tech/media powerhouses gathered for an exploration on the “state of the art” when it comes to innovation in rights management. As use cases for content continually evolve, and the...
Reference Librarians Solving Problems
No one likes to see you bringing problems to the workplace – unless he or she is a reference librarian. Once upon a time, reference librarians assisted patrons to find something – usually in a book. In 2016, the job is to work out what the problem is, then find the...
Scholarly Sharing Explained
On these websites, millions of registered users around the world share published materials, argue and collaborate, or just form communities of common interests. The domain names, though, are ones you may not be familiar with. Don't think Twitter, Facebook, or...
Another B&N Chief Leaves
In journalism, August is as close to a slow season as it ever gets in the newsroom. This week, though, that changed in a hurry – with flood waters inundating Louisiana; war raging on in Syria; and fires roaring through southern California. Even the book world came...
When Publishing Emulates Software
Think like a startup, act like a mature business. It's the trick that publishing houses around the world want to master. In the digital age, every publisher needs to get closer to the consumer (also known as the reader). How they get there requires a revised...
NYPL Offers SimplyE Lending App
With the New York Public Library setting the standard, more and more public librarians will begin spelling “books” with an “e.” Public libraries, of course, have offered e-books on loan for a number of years, but few readers – and not very many publishers – were ever...
Publishing As Problem Solving
From understanding the impact of climate change on agriculture in developing countries to promoting equality for women farmers through training in livestock management as well as marketing, the global mission at CABI is “to improve people's lives by providing...
BISG Faces Uncertain Future
“The future is already here, it’s just not very evenly distributed.” That acute observation from author William Gibson, the cyberpunk pioneer, captures the predicament of our age, when new technologies overlap with the many that are already established. The lucky...
Open Music Initiative Looks For Music Owners
In Boston, a single mile and 17 years separate two technology initiatives with the power to reshape the music industry. The first led the business to the brink of collapse, and the more recent could prove to be its deliverer. In June 1999, on the Northeastern...
Saving Ebook Sales
Latest sales reports from the Association of American Publishers show clearly the direction for e-books: Down. “Are publishers finally getting a handle on what’s driving the decline? After the first quarter of 2016, I would think, yes, they would have,” reports Andrew...