New Thinking for 21st-Century Publishers. Emerging Patterns and Evolving Stratagems*
Written by a former vice president of Wolters Kluwer, the leading international publishing group. This authoritative book addresses the compelling question: how will the publishing profession survive and thrive in the 21st century? Publishing companies today find themselves in the midst of a sea change in the nature of the content they create; the modes of its delivery; the converging of content and service; and even in the structure of the publishing industry itself. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century we are witnessing an accelerating change in the transition from traditional printing and printing – and publishing-on-demand to online and wireless delivery of content. One of the questions that will be discussed in this book is whether new electronic publishing technologies can help to structure and organise the publishing industry in this transitional period and assist the book and the other former traditional print publications to find their rightful place in a new dynamic environment. The aim of this books is to provide the reader of a blueprint – a concept for a roadmap – that may guide him or her into the new not so level and even uncharted playing fields of the 21st century. The main themes of the book are: publishing houses have to rethink and reformulate their strategy and tactics in the information chain to recover lost ground and recapture lost positions in the information market; readers and users of information are not all the same but have very different profiles, tastes and behaviour; the value of information can be measured only in the context of the quality of tis content and its enchancements and specific applications in the market.
