Author name: Kassia Krozser

One of our official jobs is to watch how the various entertainment industries adapt to changing consumer habits. Though there is a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo behind this work, the key factor is that the world is changing, and the media needs to change, too. Mostly, this involves a lot of jumping on the latest bandwagon without a real strategy. Mobile phones. Second Life. MySpace. Blogs. You name the buzzword, and the publishing industry is dabbling in it alongside television, motion pictures, and music (Penguin UK deserves extra credit for their efforts — one gets the impression that they have

We live in a world of false gratification. We want to know that something is a success before it’s even launched. We want big shipping numbers that bear no relationship to long-term profitability. We live in a world predicated on old-fashioned mores. There was incredible buzz about Bob Woodward’s book, State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III…the week before it was released. While the title and its revelations were on everybody’s lips, the books were safely locked away in boxes. Not. For. Sale.