June 2009 Current Issue

Top 30 Book Manufacturers Chart
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Cover Story : Top 30 Book Manufacturers
In the current economy, the book manufacturing industry appears to be caught square between the proverbial rock and a hard place: on the one side, a publishing business suffering from decreased consumer demand and on the other, suppliers destabilized by...

Market Focus : 'The Dog Ate My Homework' Just Doesn’t Fly Anymore
Who hasn’t tried the excuse, “My dog ate my homework,” on a teacher? Success with that excuse now is nearly impossible, according to experts in educational book publishing. So much of what teachers currently do involves digital materials and tools...

Your Options in 'Green' Printers
Regarding the book manufacturing industry’s commitment to “green” principles, it could be said that a page has truly turned. Over the past decade, consideration of climate impacts and paper sourcing has become central to the industry’s approach, and, along the...

Editor's Note : 'Times That Try Men's Souls'
I am galvanized. Not only have I always wanted to say that, but it’s true. I am in awe of what is happening in this industry. Attending Making Information Pay (MIP) a couple of weeks ago fueled this feeling. A...

Digital Directions : Quantity = 1: Customization's Unfulfilled Promise
Digital content enables distribution on a massive scale. A few examples: (1) the ability to inexpensively and instantaneously spam the known universe; (2) the ability to distribute video content to audiences that a small cable network would find attractive; and...

Guest Column : The Kindle—Igniting the Book Business
Book businesspeople are about to make the same mistake that has devastated the music and newspaper industries: worrying about whether a new digital format will cannibalize their traditional business rather than focusing on how to make the new format more...

News & Trends : Fast Stats
10.5 million Number of sheets of paper that were used last year in Princeton University campus clusters—equivalent to 100,000 reams of paper, or about 5,000 trees. Princeton cited this figure on its Web site when explaining why it is participating...

News & Trends : How to Adapt to the Shifting Market
"We’ve almost become accustomed to an uninterrupted flow of bad news,” said Michael Healy, executive director of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) at the organization’s sixth-annual Making Information Pay event, held May 7 at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium in New...