Biting Into the Post-Cookie Era

My former colleague and long-time min editor Steve Cohn was fond of characterizing the magazine industry as a “people business.” I believe he meant a number of things. On the most basic, transactional level, much of the trade was centered around a small patch of Manhattan real estate where everyone seemed to know one another, and regularly ran into each other at any number of watering holes or subway stops. A lot of large and small things got done in these sometime impromptu meet-ups. People were hired, companies merged, stories were given inspiration and later written and jealousies were stoked just by the core intimacy of the industry. But on another level, the “people business” of magazines was about creating a real connection with our audiences. The great periodicals of pre-mass circulation America like The Atlantic, Harper’s and Scribner’s spoke directly to the “gentle reader” in their pages. This highly personal mode of address carried over into the more raucous golden age of mass-consumer magazines in the tradition of the “letter” from the publisher or editor that opens most print magazines to this day. It's hard to imagine in the age of streaming video and algorithm-driven media rabbit holes. Today, subscribers have been largely replaced by eyeballs, where readers are “users” and where audiences are “data.” Let’s not mince words: the very nomenclature of digital media has always carried with it a tendency to dehumanize and mechanize the people on the other side... Continue reading at 'Folio Magazine'

[ Folio Magazine | 2020-01-23 15:41:48 UTC ]
News tagged with: #long term #ad tech #digital media

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Monstrous Acts and Erections of Doom: On Five ’80s-Era “Paperbacks from Hell”

THE MOST TERRIFYING WORK of fiction you may read in 2019 — Elizabeth Engstrom’s When Darkness Loves Us — first crawled to life as a cheapo paperback in the mid-1980s. Now back in print as part of Valancourt’s Paperbacks from Hell series of ’70s and ’80s horror rediscoveries, Engstrom’s genre... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-09-18 12:30:01 UTC ]
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‘Come on, guys, it’s just a novel.’ Lucy Ellmann bites back at critics of her book’s length

‘Ducks, Newburyport’ is a 1,000-plus page female monologue. Might our focus on its heft be a little sexist, the author wonders? Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-09-18 12:00:00 UTC ]
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'Biting' Ian McEwan satire on Brexit to be released this month

Ian McEwan is releasing a new novella at the end of this month, a “biting political satire” on Brexit about a man’s metamorphosis into the Prime Minister, hellbent on carrying out the will of the people. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-12 00:26:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ian mcewan #prime minister


Sourcebooks Posts Double Digit Six Month Sales Gain

Unit sales rose 24% in the first six months of 2019 over the comparable period in 2018, while revenue increased 26% at Sourcebooks. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-09-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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How 'cookie matching' at Google caused an ad tech divide

Google's most vocal critics have caused a schism among the ad-tech community: One group led by Brave, a rival web browser, claims to have analyzed Google's ad exchange and found sneaky data-sharing with partners. Meanwhile, Google's defenders say rivals are being alarmist about a common industry... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-09-09 16:35:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital advertising #phone interview #e-mail statement #big deal #digital publishers


Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Newsroom Donates Pulitzer Monetary Award to Tree of Life Congregation

Staffers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette were surprised to learn April 15 that, along with the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news, Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2019-09-06 14:54:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #breaking news #pulitzer prize


PRH Posts Double-Digit Gains in Sales, Earnings in First Half of '19

Driven by a number of acquisitions and hundreds of bestselling books, profits at Penguin Random House jumped 33.0% in the first half of 2019 over the comparable period in 2018 and revenue rose 11.3%. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bestselling books #penguin random house


Mensch snaps up Waldegrave's 'clear-eyed analysis' of post-Brexit referendum Britain

Indie publisher Mensch will publish William Waldegrave's analysis of post-Brexit referendum Britain next month.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-13 09:41:25 UTC ]
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‘The Chelsea Girls’ revisits the fear and desperation of the McCarthy-era theater world

Historical novelist Fiona Davis sets her books in famous New York buildings.This time: the Chelsea Hotel. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-08-12 17:25:32 UTC ]
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Bill Berkson’s ‘A Frank O’Hara Notebook’ is a magical artifact from another era

The literary collage amounts to a charming, intriguing and insightful portrait of a poet who continues to fascinate. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-08-08 15:35:36 UTC ]
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Quad Posts Q2 Net loss on Lower Revenue

Roughly a week after it announced it was cancelling its planned purchase of LSC Communications due to objections from the Department of Justice, Quad reported that second quarter sales fell 1.2% compared to a year ago. It had a net loss of $14.7 million. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-07-31 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Weirdly specific mix tape Vol. 6: The post-apocalyptic road trip

In these novels, the idyllic images of life on the road are replaced by something more sinister. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-07-24 15:55:08 UTC ]
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In another post-merger purge, Donna Speciale splits with WarnerMedia

The aftershocks of AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner continue to rumble through the WarnerMedia unit, as longtime ad sales chief Donna Speciale is parting ways with the company just one week after she closed out the last bit of its upfront business. Speciale, who joined WarnerMedia... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-07-11 01:55:08 UTC ]
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How would we repair the damage in a post-Trump America?

Two new books critical of the president -- one from the left, one from the right -- imagine a path beyond our current divisions. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-07-05 16:00:22 UTC ]
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Mitchel Levitas, Editor in Leading Posts at The Times, Dies at 89

A Polk Award winner, he edited the Op-Ed page, The Book Review, The Week in Review and also oversaw coverage of the New York area. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-06-24 21:24:11 UTC ]
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Former Harper-era minister doubles down on calling MMIWG inquiry report 'propagandist'

A former federal Aboriginal affairs minister under the Stephen Harper government is doubling down on his social media claim that the finding of "genocide" by the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and girls was... Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2019-06-02 21:28:29 UTC ]
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Bookseller Options in the Post-B&T Retail World

If you’re a bookseller, you’re probably looking to figure out the best way to keep books coming in following Baker & Taylor's withdrawal from retail wholesale. Here are your options. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #books coming #baker taylor


‘Don’t Read Poetry’ is a literary manual for the Instagram era

Stephanie Burt’s target demographic is “people who do not, or do not yet, read nearly as much” as she does. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-05-30 14:41:42 UTC ]
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The volatile era that gave rise to Jane Austen and Lord Byron

In “The Regency Years,” Robert Morrison looks at a dramatic era of 19th-century Britain. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-05-29 16:53:00 UTC ]
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Indigo Posts Fiscal 2019 Loss

After a record-breaking fiscal 2018, Indigo Books & Music reported a 3% drop in sales in fiscal 2019 and a net loss of C$36.8 million. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-05-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #3% drop #net loss