Thanks for bringing up the “cultural mission” crusade.

I think something Doc Searls said in his response to the iPad is salient here:

“Content is not king, wrote Andrew Oldyzko in 2001. And he’s right. Naturally big publishers (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, Condé Nast, the Book People) think so. Their fantasy is the iPad as a hand-held newsstand (where, as with real-world newsstands, you have to pay for the goods). Same goes for the TV and movie people, who see the iPad as a replacement for their old distribution systems (also for pay). No doubt these are Very Big Deals. But how the rest of us use iPads (and other tablets) is a much bigger deal.”

Any one person's artistic mission may be important to them and their circles, but it doesn't keep the lights on. Because really, building on Greco's assertion, if it were only about artistic mission, then we could just give away our art to everyone on the internet.

I think Tim O'Reilly and Cory Doctorow are leading the way when it comes to the new breed of publishing.

Do you know of anyone else out there who would fall into this “new breed” category?

“The book-publishing business, despite philosophical arguments from academia, is a business; and too many publishers, editors, authors, agents, etc., never figured out whether it was (1) a cultural and commercial endeavor or (2) a commercial and cultural enterprise. In reality, it is both, a double helix so intertwined that one cannot exist without the other. So much for assuming that marketing myopia was a thing of the past.”

Most book publishers (especially trade) focus on the “cultural mission” of book publishing and ignore the business side. In the golden age of US book publishing (1950s), the big New York houses were headed by editors. It's a content-driven industry where Editors-in-Chief generally run the house.

Because book publishers are rooted in their cultural/artistic mission, I am highly skeptical that old-publishers can shift into thinking of themselves as a business-driven company. Maybe they should take Andreessen's radical idea, cut losses, and get out of there. Let's make room for a new breed of publishers.

(Good thoughts, Andrew. Can't believe I missed this post when it was first posted.)