What It Means to Be a Start-up: Is It a Model Publishers Should Embrace?
Is running a business without a start-up mentality dangerous in our fast-paced technological world? It’s all a matter of risk and reward.
The Challenged Association — Remaining Relevant Requires More Than Cosmetic Change
With the world changing radically, associations are struggling to attract and retain members, offer satisfying programs, remain financially efficient, and look into the future. A new book provides a lot of sound advice in very little space.
Ask the Chefs: "Are We a Service Industry Or a Product Industry?"
We often talk about products and services, but which is our primary value base?
Will We Be Ready When That Other Type of Disruption Comes?
Disruption has at least two flavors. We’ve dealt well with one, but may be blind to the second. Are those footsteps I hear?
The Kodak Moment — Unleashed from Scarcity, Editing Becomes More Important
Scarcity limited the amount of material, hence the amount of editing necessary to make sense of what we had. Now, with more information than ever, the value of editing should be increasing. Perhaps we’re just not as aware of it as we should be.
Why E-books Are Turning the Library and Publishing Worlds Upside Down
Old intersections of libraries and book publishers don’t work in the e-book era, and the rapid adoption of e-readers has shown that new bargains are inevitable. Whether libraries and publishers belong together in that future isn’t clear.
The Hidden Expense of Energy — Print Is Costly, Online Isn't Free
How many joules does it take to get a journal out? A small, quick study suggests that print consumes much more energy than online, but shows that online is far from free, with energy its main variable cost.
Paper and Press — How Vanishing Technologies Become More Precious
Two shops from a bygone era fight for survival in downtown Los Angeles. Moving into the future doesn’t guarantee that things improve or become more edifying, as this video shows.
"Hating Amazon Is Not a Strategy" — The World Reacts As Amazon Opens a New Front in the Pricing Wars
The misplaced anxiety and consternation publishers and authors showed in the face of Amazon’s Price Check app revealed an industry and culture rooted in the past. And that’s not where the readers of the future are coming from.
Healing the House Divided — A Side-Effect of Shifting to the Attention Economy?
Editors need to act more like publishers, and publishers need to have more editorial skills. Will the demands of the Age of Attention finally mend the editorial-business divide?
The World's English Mania — The Power of Pull and Opportunity
With the largest English-language countries emerging in Asia and billions of people acquiring English language skills, what will the future hold? Are we losing more than we’re gaining? Or gaining something that has eluded our predecessors for centuries?
Are Open Access and Traditional Publishers in the Same Business?
We’ve lived long enough with the proposition that OA publishers compete with traditional publishers. Perhaps they do not. Some major indicators suggest a non-competitive coexistence.
Ask the Chefs: "Who Will Win the Future — The Small, the Mid-sized, or the Big Organization?"
Does the future belong to the small and nimble, the flexible mid-range, or the large and powerful? The Chefs reflect on this question in our second installment of this monthly feature.
Content as Commodity — Price Elasticity and New Business Models
The commodity nature of the OA service seems to predict certain structural aspects, including lower prices and bigger journals.
PLoS' 2010 Progress Update — Pondering the Implications of a Watershed Year
PLoS turns its first surplus. What will this mean for an organization accustomed to acting like the rebel?