Once Upon a Time There Was This New Thing...

Slowly, leaders come to the forefront. Magicians like Esquire, Google, The Onion, XMpie, Self Publishing and Book Stores formed alliances with the dragon and, soon, peace and profits were the common thought of the day.

Is this a lame attempt at providing a description of the tablet revolution to date or a pretty real assessment of the current trends of the many kingdoms mentioned? Your call.

That’s the bottom line, and it was clearly seen at last week’s Publishing Business Conference and Expo held in New York City. The event was organized by Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines, both titles of the innovative Kingdom of NAPCO (North American Publishing Co.) and supported by more than 70 exhibitors and over 100 speakers.

When you look at this industry as a growing child being educated, you will begin to see that the response contained in the above fairy tale was not and is not a negative comment. In fact, if the Internet as is considered by some to be in the fifth generation or fifth grade of the industry’s “education life,” the world of Publishing is in pre-school with regard to its use of these new technological tools. If that is the case, then the worlds of publishing, book and print have done pretty well...pretty well indeed.

The keynote speaker at the Publishing Business Conference and Expo was the Universal King of the Realm, David Granger; we kneel before you oh mighty one. His mantra was “Everything is Possible” and King David provided proof of this statement in his excellent, expletive-ridden presentation. He offered a fresh, novel and I believe profitable approach to the needs of media convergence, the publishing empire and its future.

Leaders like David are rare, and the worlds of Book Publishing and Print need a person like him badly. He explained that everything is possible if you keep change on the watchtowers of the kingdoms wall, not hidden in the deepest castle keep. David implied that a more formal partnership of editorial, creative, advertising and the advertiser is needed. Creative and innovative thinking is no longer owned by the world of the advertising agency; that was gone long ago.