Comments on: The Future of Publishing (part n in continuing series) http://jacob.kramer-duffield.com/2010/01/11/the-future-of-publishing-part-n-in-continuing-series/ JKD's periodic thoughts on identity, technology and democracy Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:27:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Richard Nash http://jacob.kramer-duffield.com/2010/01/11/the-future-of-publishing-part-n-in-continuing-series/#comment-221 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:40:06 +0000 http://jacob.kramer-duffield.com/?p=169#comment-221 Thanks for the thumbs-up! And in terms of the critique of the B&N issue—all excellent points, and ones I basically agree with, except to note that in the end, B&N lacks a real raison d’etre. The superstore is designed to offer A. choice, and B. an experience. But Amazon trumps them on choice, and their margins just aren’t good enough to invest in experience the way other retailers can. So you list reasons, all correct, why they won’t go out of business, but when they lack a compelling reason to stay in business, as I think they lack, then I conclude it can’t survive indefinitely. Their legacy situation is good in all the ways you describe, especially good leases, but the decade will eat away at many of their advantages, I suspect. I would certainly concede it comes towards the end of the decade barring a combination of the Nook tanking and ownership/management distraction in relation to the speculators circling around it after they implemented their poison pill defense. But, sure, I was pushing it, on the decade…

]]> By: wilbur http://jacob.kramer-duffield.com/2010/01/11/the-future-of-publishing-part-n-in-continuing-series/#comment-220 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:22:24 +0000 http://jacob.kramer-duffield.com/?p=169#comment-220 Nice. I just came from a panel discussion of IP lawyers on the Google Books settlement. Not the most earth-shattering conversation–as you can imagine, people really got riled up about out-of-print books where it’s unclear whether the publisher or author owns the copyright. I have to admire Google for having an outrageously ambitious goal, and not letting the lawyers stop them from pulling it off.

Anyway, I agree completely that B&N isn’t going out of business anytime soon. It’s interesting to look at what Amazon is doing: even as they’re becoming a better bookseller with the e-reader business, Amazon has entrenched itself as a retailer of an impressively diverse set of products.

The bottom line is that the businesses that survive will be those that adapt continuously.

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