Go to the U of M home page

Pages

Friday, November 9, 2012

Random House and Penguin Merge to Meet the Digital Imperative

What do you think of the changes in book publishing today? It seems like the only common denominator in the industry is change. Options range from the death of books or chaos to comments like this from blogger "Passive Guy:"


"Twenty-five years from now the creative destruction of legacy publishing we are witnessing today will be regarded as a major cultural turning point, a literary renaissance. We will celebrate countless brilliant books created by authors who would never have been published by the corporate cretins that slithered into control of the levers of Big Publishing."


Where do you stand?



The latest chapter in this cultural shift is the contraction and/or reinvention of publishing itself. The 'Big Six' will be the 'Big Five' next year - if not less as Random House and Penguin merge. I was asked to cover this as a NewsBreak for Information Today. You might want to give it a read.


One image that I can't get over comes from long-time Penn State University Press editor Sandy Thatcher. In an email to me, jokingly noted that "they missed a real opportunity at renaming: this should have become Random Penguins in the House!"



I love the image in my mind that could have become the logo!



4 comments:

  1. Your writing has influenced me to carry on focusing on my own site.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Husband says; "When I'm gone you'll never find another man like me". Wife replied; "What makes you think I'd want another man like you!"

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is best to participate in a contest for the most effective blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I still cant understand why i cant open this page from my samsung galaxy s2

    ReplyDelete