What is Publishing Anyway
Most people have it wrong. Just a little terminology overview for my other texts
Let me do a little discourse from typical articles here. Let me come back to basics and start with a definition. I want to overcome typical confusion about publishing being just your favourite newspaper, magazine or book publishing company. It will help me and you too in our future discussions.
So what is publishing?
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature, music, or information — the activity of making information available to the general public. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers, meaning: originators and developers of content also provide media to deliver and display the content for the same.
(Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing)
The definition can go deeper, but note two important facts — it’s a process, and it’s about dissemination of information.
People historically separated publishing into several discrete channels as a result of technological barriers and processes around. Therefore you would hear people talking about channels (like these below) as if they were different activities/businesses, not just variations on the basic idea of publishing;
- book publishing,
- magazine publishing,
- news publishing,
- music publishing,
- movies production/publishing,
- digital newbies like websites, blogs — many times called “digital publishing”,
- and some people include in publishing also entertainment variations like — video games, software and such, which don’t really belong there. At least not in the light of the above definition.
Each of the channels above fell into its own life and created its own eco-system of operations. But more often than not people actually mistake the delivery channel for publishing activity itself.
That’s where it becomes difficult to see changes happening in Publishing from the right perspective.
Technology has changed everything and is challenging this historical split. Some companies are holding on to a dying cash-cows; take example of news publishing, resisting the change. Of course, it will be more and more difficult to stay afloat with a business which is focused on wrong medium or just one delivery channel rather than on the core of what publishing is about — delivery of information in whatever way possible and profitable.
(Find more about where we are heading in Publishing in 2020.)
I don’t why but I leave many meetings feeling that most people working in Publishing think it’s all gloomy for large publishers. It’s actually not. I’m sure large “publishers” will not disappear. Some will transform and new ones will emerge but there will always be a place for companies setting trends and serving digital publishing needs across all channels.
Publishers of the future will work the same way as publishers do inside individual channels today. They will just do so across all channels and mediums. They will possess more power and more knowledge about us — consumers, which will in turn lead to more manufactured stars than ever.
All hints mentioned above mean to me that Publishing is currently in the most thrilling period in centuries. Dissemination of information is here to stay and it’s going to accelerate and grow. Publishers just have to learn how to work with abundance of data in new ways and forms. Yes, Publishers will have to find their way to big data :)
It’s not the end, just a beginning!
Future and Beyond
Washington Post recently sold for shockingly low $250 million. Year ago GoodReads, (readers reviews app), sold for probably twice as much without any revenues. It is also one data point in the trend…If you are curious what trend, read Publishing in 2020 and Beyond to find answers.
Thank you for all your comments and recommendations.
(tweet me @pp2tech)
