Publishing Processes and New Technology

Publishing Processes and New Technology

Joshua Pitt

jossapitt@gmail.com

The publishing industry has seen some dramatic changes in recent times, from production methods to the means of delivery to the reader. The rapid advancement of technology in the last fifty years has had a profound effect on publishers, prompting some non-believers to predict that the end of the publishing firm is just around the corner. Rupert Murdoch stated in 1993 that, ‘the traditional distinctions are breaking down. Five of the world’s biggest industries: computing, communications, consumer electronics, publishing and entertainment are converging into one large dynamic whole’ . This essay will identify some of the major changes which have occurred and how these changes have affected the publishing industry, while also looking at the cultural importance and inherent value of a printed book, which is so closely aligned to the future of publishing as a profitable business.

The introduction of the internet, online ordering and selling, as well as the advent of e-books has caused a shift in traditional business relationships within the industry and has allowed the consumer direct access to texts from their home computer, including online versions which will never exist in a physical sense. It is possible to then assume that this will eventually lead to a total eradication of printed material. However, the implications of this ‘technological revolution’ might not be as extensive and some would suggest. The cost of producing electronic books is significantly less than producing actual texts; they are easier to distribute to a much larger audience, less risky, more flexible and much easier to assemble and reference. For these reasons there has been an increased demand for electronic books in medical and educational fields, although the likelihood of consumers demanding books for pleasure electronically, is slim.

The very nature of a book implies that it is used for the comfortable learning and absorbing of information to be enjoyed and stored in one’s memory. Conversely, computers are used for quickly accessing information to be rapidly absorbed, utilised and then discarded, ‘computers aren’t for knowing….computers are for doing’ . As Brian Johns, Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Authority, stated in his keynote address at the first National Book Summit in 1993, ‘the book is resilient (and its) strength is its force. It is a vehicle for ideas, ideas of the imagination and over the whole range of human activities and concerns’ . Books are an integral part of society, and as Mark Tredinnick, a publisher with Allen & Unwin elaborates, ‘books are things that people like to have around. They keep them to re-read and refer to….because they are objects of emotional and cultural importance’ he goes