Our Surveillance Society: If Only We'd Listened to Jim Rockford
James Garner’s television detective warned us about Google and Facebook way back in 1978. If only we’d listened…
When Is a Feature a Product, and a Product a Business?
Publishers have to distinguish between features, products, and businesses. Not all features can become full-fledged businesses. Sometimes the best business case for a feature is to link it to an established business, where it adds value to assets that are already in place.
Big Sister: Some Beneficial Aspects of Collecting User Data
The collection of end-user data is going to become more important for all publishers and may serve to describe those publishers that will be most successful in the coming years. Although data-collection is often thought to be a malignant instance of “Big Brotherism,” it may in fact be benign when implemented thoughtfully.
Macmillan + Springer: Some Lessons to Learn, Some Twists to Watch
The merger of Macmillan and Springer holds many lessons and some interesting twists. More than anything, it indicates a future in which scale continues to confer advantages.
Exaggerated Claims — Has "Publish or Perish" Become "Publicize or Perish"?
A recent study finds that academic press offices exaggerate claims in their press releases about published research. Worse, the vast majority of these find their way into subsequent reporting.
Stick To Your Ribs: A Library Card Under the Christmas Tree
Revisiting a holiday classic: ‘Twas the month before Christmas, and by listening hard, you can hear Joe Esposito yearn for a library card. The reasons are simple, yet give publishers pause. No wonder Joe’s only hope is with Santa Claus.
Confounded Complexity — Pondering the Endless Upgrade Paths of Digital Publishing
We were wrong to expect that online publishing would be cheaper and simpler than print. Acknowledging that, and facing the slower, more complicated commercial world it has created, could put us on a better path.
Amazon Won the dot-book Top-level Internet Domain: Should Publishers Care?
Last week, Amazon won an auction for the .book Top Level Domain on the internet, paying $10 million for the new real estate. Was it worth it? And should publishers be worried about what this means for them?
Researching Amazon and Libraries
Announcing a research project to study how many academic books Amazon sells to libraries.
Every Talk Ever Given by a Successful Creative Person
How you too can use the internet to gain fame and fortune. Or perhaps a realization of the randomness of recognition.
The Size of the Open Access Market
A report from Simba Information tallies the total value of the open access marketplace, putting OA at 2.3% of the total market for STM journals. It documents as well, without comment, that more and more OA activity is the business of for-profit companies.
UPDATED — 82 Things Publishers Do (2014 Edition)
The annual update to the list adds some important items overlooked on prior versions, including design, enforcement of editorial policies, and Board interactions.
Guest Post: Elisabeth Jones on Monograph Costs and Urban Legends–What's Wrong with This Picture?
Guest Chef Elisabeth Jones offers a critical analysis of a widely-distributed statistical chart that seems to show a doubling in the unit cost of monographs since 1985.
Ask The Chefs: Are Publishers Customer Focused?
This month the Scholarly Kitchen Chefs consider how publishers identify and serve their customers? Are they doing it well? What do YOU think?
Meet the New Economy of Letters, Same As the Old Economy of Letters
Last fall in the New Yorker, Jill Lapore bemoaned the current relationship between intellectuals and the general public, which she feels is “more vexed than ever” — in part because of a system that rewards academics for outrageousness and for lousy writing. Does she have a point?