Obligatory Nod Toward Frankfurt

October 24th, 2005 · No Comments
by Booksquare

We begin this post with a question: is it really a quiet move when it was announced in advance? We ask because, despite various announcements over the past year about publishers selling books directly to consumers, the news somehow bypassed the media. It’s like they’ve found fresh meat.

Since the online bookselling idea is old news to our readers, we will direct you to what we consider a positive step in the industry, or, if you will, enlightenment. Considering all the news about Frankfurt, it’s sort of a bummer that this is only news that captured our attention, if only for a moment:

Indeed, publishers are struggling along with many of their media and entertainment peers to adapt to evolving technology that is forcing them to rethink their business models. The issue has been a hot topic of conversation at the Frankfurt Book Fair being held this week.

“The boundaries on publishing, retailing and distribution are getting blurred,” said [Penguin Group Chairman John] Makinson. “We can’t rely any longer on the traditional assumption that we’re a publisher, he’s a retailer, we won’t retail, he won’t publish. We’ll have to accommodate one another.”

Or maybe not so much on the enlightenment front. Distribution methodology is only a small component of the model re-visioning. But we’ll save that discussion for another day (or a slew of previous posts).

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