A PYMNTS Company

The Assault On The Printed Page

By  |  December 29, 2020

By: Ramsi Woodcock (What am I Missing)

When the New York Journal cabled Mark Twain in London on June 2, 1897 to inquire whether he was gravely ill, Twain famously replied that the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated.

William Randolph Hearst, the Journal’s publisher, could have saved his scoop by having Twain shot on the spot. Fortunately, he didn’t, and we got another 13 years and “Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven” out of the great humorist.

Publishers of university textbooks wouldn’t have been so patient.

Reports of the demise of the printed page, popular since the dawn of the Internet, have turned out to be greatly exaggerated: sales of print books are surging.

So textbook publishers have decided to kill the printed page themselves…

CONTINUE READING…