Garrison Keiler on the End of Publishing

There is an interesting article from Garrison Keillor in the New York Times. It's called "The End of an Era in Publishing." If you haven't read it, you should. Keillor is a self-admitted pessimist, but he presents his pessimism in such an attractive package, it's not easy to disagree with his prediction of publishing's imminent demise.

Thad McIlroy, over at The Future of Publishing, left a short post you should read, too. Orwell vs.Huxley on the Future of Books reminds us that this discussion has been going on for a long time.

Back in March of this year, Stephen Lowman, staff writer for the Washington Post wrote an article called, The Future of Children’s Book Publishing. He quotes Michael Norris, an analyst for the media research firm Simba Information, who said publishers of children's books are "unbelievably important" to the survival of publishing as a whole. The article also interviewed Jeff Kinney, whose “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series was originally published online, not as a book. Kinney said, "I feel like I am hedging my bets by keeping one foot in the print world and one foot in the online world," Kinney said.

I work with media specialists on a regular basis. This spring I was talking to one who had her doubts that e-books would ever replace the paper version. Her reasoning? Too many kids don’t have the resources to purchase a Kindle or an iPad. Too many of her teen readers still want the feel of a book in their hands. Too many school districts don’t have the funds to buy them for their students and fix them when they break.

For the moment, I lean to the my media specialist’s side of the argument, no matter how much I enjoy the way Garrison Keillor puts words together.

What do you think? Leave me a comment. I'd like to hear which camp your experience places you in.