July 17, 2008
The Publishing Market and 'Sustainability' of the Environment
I am not someone that people would describe as a tree hugger. Most people who first meet me expect me to be a steakloving, beer drinking, and football watching guy that probably drives a Hummer. As it turns out, I am indeed a big guy (6'3") but in fact do not drink beer, do not eat meat, do not watch football, and have never owned a car. At 'halftime' of my life, it has been a goal of mine never to own an automobile -- at least not the kind that depends upon fossil fuel.
You may hypothesize that I have some particular aversion to polluting the environment, but as it turns out, I don't particularly care for driving. In fact, as a kid, I dreaded getting in a car and more often than not, grew carsick just getting within a few feet of my father's Impala. The truth of the matter is, I just don't like the way gas smells.
As an adult, I made the smart move of marrying a woman who is very much into alternative transportation. In fact, her career in the NYC department of Transportation is focused around modes of travel like ferries, trains, buses, pedicabs, and the like. As it turns out, she too dreaded the automobile and to this day gets carsick just getting within a few feet of the periodic rental car we hire. But that is not why I married her of course, its just a side benefit.
We are both somewhat proud that we have offspring with the same reaction to cars that we do. In a way our anti-car genes have been passed on and even amplified in our kids, which is not something that most people can brag about.
This personal information may seem a bit extraneous to the general themes of my blog, which is around content management, project management, and so forth. However, I was interviewed by a reporter today doing a piece for the Project Management Institute about projects that are focused on environmental causes, so that got me thinking. I have written elsewhere about my revulsion as a child to the 'skyscrapers' of computer printout paper that were stacked throughout my father's office. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that I chose as a profession to be President of a company whose principal activity is to help media companies and marketing communications departments 'go digital.'
It also occurred to me that the decreasing market share of publishers selling content printed on paper might in the most subtle way be related to the growing aversion people may have to consuming their content in printed form. Certainly the increasing costs of paper and postal delivery don't help, as well as the instant gratification people can get by consuming content online. I can't help but think that in some small way, when you get a piece of mail -- be it a magazine, a brochure, or even a letter -- that there is the slightest negative reaction to that experience in our growing digital world.
Posted at 03:49 pm by Joseph Bachana
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