The world is going digital and online. What does it mean for the scholarly book and the newspaper?

The same day (March 23, 2009), broke the news about two institutions going online. The Ann Arbor News is going to close down as a newspaper and will continue only online. After 174 years, the newspaper is folding and being replaced by "AnnArbor.com," a new company that will publish a print newspaper twice a week and distribute a total market coverage (TMC) print product weekly.




On the very same day, the University of Michigan Press announced that is going to phase out the publishing of monographs (aka – scholarly books) in a book form and to release them only in digital editions.



Why this is happening, and more importantly what does it mean? Right now, it is not entirely clear. For sure, it has to do with the economy and with the need to cut budget. Sure, by eliminating the production that goes into printing newspapers and books, much money can be saved. But there is also something else going on. As N. Courant, dean of libraries at University of Michigan said: "This is an exciting time for book publishing and distribution. Digital technologies reduce the importance of the physical locations of books and libraries, enabling us to provide readers and researchers with information wherever they are, and whenever they need it."



The same is probably true, at least to some extent, to the commercial book and the newspaper industries. This is a time for radical changes, and instead of fighting it, it would be best for everybody to join it and think of creative ways to continue publishing, and—no less important—to make sure that good quality writing (scholars, creative writers and reporters) is being properly rewarded.

See also Scott McLemee's take on UMP Move and what it means:

Save Shaman Drum

Recently, I was very sad to hear that the independent Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor is in danger of closing. This fall and winter Shaman Drum went into a steep financial decline. The long-time owner of the shop Karl Pohrt wrote an Open Letter from a Distressed Bookseller.

I hope there is a way to save the bookstore. It would be a shame to lose shch a local treasure.

Kafka on Books

in 1904, Franz Kafka wrote in a letter to his friend Oscar Pollack :

" The books we need are those that act upon us like a misfortune, that make us suffer like the death of someone we love more than ourselves, that make us feel as though we were on the verge of suicide, or lost in a forest from all human habitation - a book should serve as the axe for the frozen sea within us."