Morse summed things up perhaps most succinctly when he asserted, “We are publishing in the Age of Also.” He acknowledged the fact that content will to continue to be output in the form of printed books and magazines, cable TV, satellite TV, computers, DVDs, etc. His message? “There isn’t a best answer for things anymore. There’s not a best way to have transportation, there’s not a best way for communicating, there’s not a best way for anything. There are just good ways.”
Morse adds that Merriam-Webster “celebrates the fact” that they are print publishers predominantly, but says, “We are print publishers contingently, which is to say that we are print publishers for so long as—and to the degree that—that’s the way users want to get their language information. And because we know that users want to get their language information in many different ways ... often in the same day.”
Weiss, who asserts that his company’s Spark Notes are “the foremost brand in underground supplemental education,” discussed the backwards route to his business model. “Barnes and Noble is traditionally a distributor, a retailer, not a publisher. So the model here is rather backwards ... we’re a distributor, looking for new ways to distribute to our customers ... and, by the way, if there are new products that can be pushed through those channels—digital or otherwise—let’s be in those businesses too.”
Weiss also answered a question of Kreisky’s that is among the most prevalent ones facing publishers today: Will there be enough book readers in the future to support the industry? Weiss said yes. “Kids need content in a variety of formats, and the book is a brilliant format for certain kinds of content .... There’s not a novel in the world I’d want to read online.”
Other Conference Highlights
- Companies:
- Allworth Press
- Banta Book Group
- Black Dome Press
- Dynamic Digital Content
- ForeWord Magazine
- Global Interprint
- Green Point Technology Solutions
- HarperCollins
- Holtzbrinck Publishers
- Ingram Book Group
- Integrated Book Technology
- Knopf
- Knopf Publishing
- Lorman Business Center
- Merriam-Webster
- PubEasy
- Quirk Books
- Rittenhouse Book Distributors
- Scholastic Education
- Scholastic Inc.
- TechBooks
- The Kreisky Media Consultancy LLC
- Thomas Technology Solutions
- Univenture
- People:
- Andy Hughes
- Barnes
- Bill Clockel
- Bob Ronk
- Bruce Miller
- Charles Tolbert
- Craig Bauer
- Dan Weiss
- Dave Mead
- David Coho
- Deb Allen
- Eugene Schwartz
- Fleming
- George Clooney
- Hilton
- Jeff Gomez
- John Morse
- Jonah Spegman
- Ken Coburn
- Ken Wollins
- Kevin Timpson
- Marcella Smith
- Margery Mayer
- Megan Giuffrida
- Nicole Gallo
- Peter Kreisky
- Phil Ollila
- Samir Kakar
- Simon Schuster
- Suzanne Murphy