Island Press falters

An article by Cornelia Dean in the New York Times (8 September 2009) profiles Island Press, whose president, Chuck Savitt, took it from a narrow focus on land use to a much broader one (for a niche publisher) "on environmental problems and their solutions." Now, with its foundation support ebbing, Island Press is in trouble. Like so many other print publishers, it's trying to migrate online. Yet, as Savitt notes, "Deep ideas have rarely been developed, no matter what field you are going to talk about, outside of a book." This is an interesting point: Is there a limit to what you can do online? Also, what about digital publishing? It may not be sufficiently developed yet to provide a lifeline, but it has that potential for niche publishers. A colleague commented a while ago that books on sustainable design go out of date fairly quickly. That's probably true for environmental topics, too - another reason to shift to a more malleable medium.

Comments

Popular Posts