Harrisburg Pennsylvania’s WITF-FM aired a show today provocatively titled Farewell Publishing as part of a series of programs focusing on how the digital revolution is affecting various industries, and what these industries must do to adapt to the rapidly changing marketplace for non-physical media. On today’s program, host Craig Cohen invites Tom Allen, President & CEO, Association of American Publishers, Tim Regan-Porter, President, Paste Media Group, and University of Chicago Press Director Garrett Kiely on the show to discuss the effect of digital media on the publishing industry.
From lit. crit., to magazines, to popular fiction, to textbooks, every day more and more titles in every genre and for every purpose are finding a home on the internet in downloadable, and often free, formats that are forcing publishing companies to make critical but quick decisions about their online business strategies. And while publishers are still hunting for the best way to turn a profit with the online sales of digital books, magazines, and newspapers, consumer demand for digital media continues to grow incrementally. From the WITF-FM website:
“With content becoming increasingly available online, what’s to become of the Houghton Mifflins of the world? What about weekly magazines? Are we closing in on a time when libraries will be filled with file servers, and no printed material?”
To find out the answers to these questions and more download the archived audio from the show.