The demise of print is starting to sound like Chicken Little and “the sky is falling.” As early as the 1990s, the CEO of a major professional publisher announced that “print is dead”, though he publicly recanted that statement several years later.
Despite the advances in digital technology and e-products, print sales have remained the prize product of almost all publishers. However, it isn’t that print has been steadfast. There has been some decline in print sales with variations over time. Even with the promise of increasing revenue from electronic products, their financial assurance remains somewhat elusive. Publisher’s Weekly brought this information to us in their article, “Challenges for Publishers in Uncertain Times.”
The best strategy is to be prepared for any eventuality. That means ensuring that archival content is consistent, well-structured, and easily retrievable, and that new titles are properly vetted for quality and consistency before being archived. It also means not letting content structure be defined by full-service suppliers.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
