Chicago Tribune (August 17)
“In the ongoing war for our attention, books are losing. Badly.” The average American only reads 19 minutes per day, but spends over 2 hours watching TV. “So to get modern readers’ attention, some publishers are taking a cue from Charles Dickens and releasing their books in installments.” The serials are “A-OK with us. We admire this approachable, one-bit-at-a-time tactic. It could be a godsend for a niche market of readers.” That said, “the best method for binge-reading is the same today as it was in Dickens’ day: a good, old-fashioned book”.
Tags: Approachable, Attention, Binge-reading, Books, Dickens, Installments, Publishers, Reading, Serials, TV, U.S.
The Economist (August 17)
“The web is beginning to fit into the media world’s oldest script: a new technology rides into town, the moguls try to destroy it, but it survives and becomes part of the town’s future. Hollywood loathed the VCR (comparing it to the Boston Strangler); the networks hated cable TV; sheet-music publishers feared the phonograph…. Yet nearly always two things happen: the old media survive (people are still buying vinyl records and even the odd printed magazine), and the new media expand the market.”
Tags: Cable, Hollywood, Magazine, Market, Music, Networks, New media, Old media, Phonograph, Print, Publishers, Records, Technology, TV, VCR, Vinyl, Web
The Economist (September 10)
“More quickly than almost anyone predicted, e-books are emerging as a serious alternative to the paper kind.” This may be better for readers than publishers, who must now overcome hurdles similar to those that have challenged the music and film industries.
