The Sense of a Beginning

The Fab Four and The Big Six

Feature

“Someone once said that his favourite times in history were when things were collapsing, because that meant something new was being born.”

—Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending

1. The End

Julian Barnes's 2011 Man Booker Prize winning novel The Sense of an Ending is a uniquely satisfying look at what happens at the end of a life: the looking back and cataloging of regrets, the tallying of triumphs (large and small); how ideas and beliefs once thought rock-solid can be called into question. That the book has been a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic is a testament to the novel's resonating themes of memory, mortality, and change.

This past year the publishing industry has seen its fair share of mortality and change. Most significantly, in July, the American bookstore chain Borders went out of business. More than five hundred stores were closed, thousands of employees lost their jobs, miles of shelf space disappeared. The contraction that had been happening over the past decade to small independent stores was now happening on a scale that no one could imagine (or rather, that no one wanted to believe could happen). The reasons for the demise of Borders were many—the recession, bad business decisions—but a contributing factor that was mentioned in most analyses was the impact of the Internet and our connected-everywhere digital world.

The Web is changing the way that people live, love, shop, and do just about everything else. Nearly every major industry has felt the impact of the Internet, and publishing is no exception. eBooks and digital content are quickly becoming significant parts of our business, enhanced apps are pointing towards a new kind of software/book hybrid, and the Web fosters discovery of—and engagement with—new authors to readers looking to find (and pay for) literary content in either digital, audio, or print formats.

Leading the charge, in the digital realm, are four companies whose names have become synonymous with the Web itself: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. Every one of these companies has left an indelible impression on current and future generations. Indeed, it's hard to think of living daily life without them. However, these companies are now beginning to battle it out for supremacy in what's been seen as a winner-take-all fight. In a cover story by Farhad Manjoo in the October issue of Fast Company, this has been termed “The Great Tech War of 2012.” (In the story, Manjoo refers to Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google as the “Fab Four of business.” Similarly, the major New York publishers are often termed “the Big Six.”) Each of these technological titans is focused on succeeding, and users are caught in the crossfire.

“Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google don't recognize any borders; they feel no qualms about marching beyond the walls of tech into retailing, advertising, publishing, movies, TV, communications, and even finance,” writes Manjoo. “And in their competition, each combatant is getting stronger, separating the quartet further from the rest of the pack.”

All of this comes in the context of what Steve Jobs branded the “post-PC world,” an environment where most of your online interactions actually take place away from a computer. Instead of relying on a desktop or even a laptop, the Web is “packaged” into smaller and more portable devices such as phones, tablets, eReaders, etc. Seventy-six years ago Penguin revolutionized publishing with ten paperback books, offering a treasure trove of information and entertainment in small packages. However, today's gadgets are fulfilling that pocket-sized promise in ways we could have never possibly imagined.

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2. The Beginning

So where does all of this activity and innovation leave the Big Six? If the Fab Four are leading the charge, does that mean publishers are trailing behind? And, if so, have we already lost too much ground? As the year ends, do we discover that—just like a 2011 calendar—our days are numbered? Not necessarily, but the rise of the Fab Four does present a challenge—and, if we react correctly, an opportunity—to the Big Six.

The fact that millions of people are online, and have these devices, is a good thing. A computer, tablet, or even an iPod is an inert machine until someone— the user, a friend, or a publisher—creates content for it. This highlights the biggest difference between the Fab Four and the Big Six: books are not mere data. Words in a novel are not the same thing as the ones and zeroes of a computer program's code. Search results, wall postings, or a new operating system will never take the place of great literature. Books—and the stories and characters that live inside them—create hopes and dreams in the hearts of readers; Angry Birds may help kill time on the bus, but it's no match for To Kill a Mockingbird.

Because of this, the Big Six can take advantage of the Fab Four's technological innovations by using them to connect with readers and to help transform the way that authors are discovered. And while the Web may change the way stories are told, it will never replace the need for stories.

Of course, we're not just waiting to see what changes the Fab Four make, and then following their lead. We also realize that we can't afford to be complacent, resting on our laurels, brand name, or our position within the industry. As Manjoo writes, “As the four companies encroach further and further into one another's space, consumers look forward to cooler and cooler products.” Readers are no different, which is why Penguin continues to innovate in packaging and design, is creating new digital and print business models, and is engaging with its audience and fans on a daily basis via social media.

Peter Osnos, writing in the Atlantic about “Why It's a Great Time to Be a Reader,” states that, “In many respects, today's book buying process is still a familiar one: the fundamental choice now is whether to read in print or on a hand-held device. Based on reviews, publicity, and prior experience with the author, reading groups, and that trusty perennial—word of mouth—you select a book and then a means of delivery.”

No matter how many technological innovations occur, it all boils down to the same basic principle: finding something worth reading. And so readers, instead of being caught in the crossfire, are being—the same as publishers—swept along with the current. And wherever we finally end up, we're going to arrive there together.

Osnos concludes his article by stating that, “What we can say with certainty is that the transformation of publishing currently under way has demonstrated the viability of books in the digital age. And that is definitely good news.”

This means that Penguin's long history of contributing to the cultural conversation shows no sign of ending. In fact, the digital changes happening everywhere may allow us to contribute even more, through a variety of channels; connecting ideas, stories, and characters to readers in new ways and a myriad of technological means. So for all of the doom and gloom of the headlines, we end the year—and get ready to ring in the new—not with a whimper but a bang. Because one year, the same as one life, is never truly gone or forgotten. In The Sense of an Ending, Barnes sums up life and its end thus: “There is accumulation. There is responsibility. And beyond these, there is unrest.” And, of course, beyond the unrest there is yet more life; an end in one place leads to a beginning somewhere else, over and over. It never ends.

What is the role of publishers in a post-PC world? Let us know on NEO.