Category Archives: publishing

Books of the year 2024

Three years ago I cut back on journalism in order to spend more time reading books. I have never regretted it. You could have wasted a lot of time reading about the US elections in ’24. Much of it hopeful thinking about a win for Kamala Harris. Interestingly Dominic Sandbrook called it right. He predictedContinue reading “Books of the year 2024”

What will Facebook do next ?

Scandal ! ( click/share), Shock ! (click/share), Outrage !!( click/share), Anger !**! (click/Share) This is how Facebook grew its audience very fast and sold lots of ads over the past few years. It became, as the jargon has it, ” a publishing platform” and exercised the minimum possible control on what got posted lest itContinue reading “What will Facebook do next ?”

Calling all brand owners, take back control!

Programatic trading of media is clever automated technology that is spawning (AI enabled) services which will automate the creation of ad messages as well – more efficiency and cost reduction then. (This does not matter a lot as most ads- online- are fairly formulaic response/offer type stuff already) But Programatic also attacks one of ourContinue reading “Calling all brand owners, take back control!”

Smart Googling: how to get important knowledge painlessly

So many useful business books and so little time – was the thought that occurred to me as I was teaching this week. Here are my top tips for students in extracting the useful knowledge in these books with minimum cost and maximum ease. (Publishers should avert their eyes at this point) Google- “title ofContinue reading “Smart Googling: how to get important knowledge painlessly”

Predictions for the year ahead

For the 20 anniversary issue of Market Leader I looked back to the predictions made by The Economist in 1998 (what did they get right and wrong ?) and brought it up to date with 2018 predictions. Looking back was fascinating – The Economist got a lot right but on a couple of things theyContinue reading “Predictions for the year ahead”

Nine predictions:what the digital revolution will bring

Pundits say that anyone who claims to know what the digital revolution will bring is engaged in a confidence trick. My experience of publishing books and articles about digital futures suggests four things -We can’t predict a decade ahead with any confidence -A technology trend that is against the grain of human nature will most likelyContinue reading “Nine predictions:what the digital revolution will bring”

Social media is bullshit

is the title of an enlightening and helpful little book by BJ Mendelson. It helps you sort out the crap from the hype. Some things that rang bells Beware cyber hipster’s thought leadership A whole class of cyber hipsters is busy creating and spreading hype because it helps their own business/raises their fees as publicContinue reading “Social media is bullshit”

What publishers can learn from porn #edbookfest

Nick Biltons newish book ( which I have as an eBook)  sets out to study what we can learn from the porn industry (among other things) His reason? The industry always been innovative and adaptable (premium phone lives and web chats got an early boost from porn)and so they might act as a testing groundContinue reading “What publishers can learn from porn #edbookfest”