‘Long Tail’ May be Great for Publishing, but Not for Printing. . .Unless Printers Act to Make It Otherwise
An article in The Wall Street Journal applied significant scrutiny to many of Anderson’s claims in the book. Some of them poked holes in the book’s data, which Anderson defended and refuted. It has to be remembered that The Long Tail, like many other business books point out trends and concepts. It’s for others to take them up and run with them if they see fit. The marketplace is constantly changing: Anderson is not writing a history, but expressing ideas about things as they have happened so far. As business people we have to walk with one foot in the past, another in the present, and a hand reaching for the future. All of our future sales will come, by definition, sometime in the future, and we have to remember that the technologies that make the “long tail” possible also affect the costs in the head. Competition from the products in the tail, affect the nature and design of the ones in the head. Business is not a lab experiment where we can control one variable. The business environment is almost chaotic, which is why such a premium is placed on good forecasting. Anderson’s writings are just his ideas, and there will certainly be others opposite his. The world economy is so large and diverse that conflicting paths to success can always be found.
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- Christopher Anderson