Post Publishing Poetry

Jason, I was intentionally cryptic about the meaning because I wanted the video to stand on its own, but perhaps I should clarify.

I didn’t find the text of the video to be the poetry; rather, I found the fact that the video is a simultaneous representation of what is killing publishing while making pleas in hopes of saving it to be quite moving and powerful. That is the crux of the “problem” with publishing today. The costs of reaching an audience are cheaper than ever (as this blog post also shows, e.g., YouTube, WordPress, etc.), so the supply of voices in the marketplace of ideas and communications has accordingly expanded. The fact is that anyone can comment pretty much as easily as they want, irrespective of whether or not they have an audience. But, as with any market nearing more perfectly competitive conditions, the profits will disappear. Thus, the “death” of publishing is really the birth of a much broader and more inclusive paradigm, if one simply looks from the opposite (i.e., reverse) perspective.

At the same time, the video pleads that demand is still extant for the older model of distribution, and that the tricks and gimmicks (indeed, such as the video itself as it is advertising for a brand, albeit somewhat pointlessly) that are available to online publishers does not substitute for genuine content. While the point about content is indubitably correct, that profit-seeking publishers could still corner the market and monopolize the distribution of the work of the best artists, one is left to wonder whether or not publishers will be able to compete with the massive deluge of free content. Hence my original post’s silence; I was trying to create some space for the work to breathe.

Oops.