Here’s a illustrative moment, retold by “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It” author Ken Auletta to Howard Kurtz this past weekend on CNN’s Reliable Sources:
KURTZ: Now, Google also trying to build a vast online library, having disagreements with authors and publishers about that effort. Did one of the founders — did I get this right — of Google ask you why you didn’t just publish your book online?
AULETTA: Yes. In my second interview with co-founder Sergey Brin, he came in on his rollerblades and he threw his knapsack down on the table and he said, “Ken, let me ask you a question.” He said, “Why don’t you just publish a book for free online and get a much larger audience for it?”And I said, “Well, I might bet a larger audience, but who’s going to pay me an advance so I have money to live on since I’m on leave from “The New Yorker” to do this? And by the way, Sergey, who’s going to edit my book and who’s going to do an index? And who’s going to market it? And who’s going to pay for my expenses to come out here as many times I’m coming out here?”
And, of course, at that point, Sergey Brin changed the subject. But it revealed two things, I think. One is that this is a guy that doesn’t know much about publishing. I mean, he’s idealistic and he wants to digitize all the books, but he doesn’t think about how content creators or writers or directors or screenwriters make money.
KURTZ: Right.
AULETTA: And secondly, I think it suggested an attitude about copyright, which is that it’s not as important to the people at Google as it is the notion of what’s called fair use, which is, let’s get all of the information for free and put it out there on the Internet.
KURTZ: Right. But here you’ve spent a couple of years of your life researching and writing this book, and obviously you don’t want to give it away.
Full transcript here. (Via Tom Tomorrow and Matt Bors)
Very interesting. A book itself is a commodity, a durable physical object that can be traded (for sale or loan) but one already well engineered for usability and the practical functions noted by Auletta. I guess they could also say, why go to work when you can stay home and work online? Yes, you can and if it's snowing hard, then that's a good alternative. But going to work is more than just clicking on a keyboard. Just as researching, writing, editing, producing, distributing, purchasing, and reading are more than clicking and staring online. The physical product is also an instrument for a much fuller experience that adds value to the economy but can also build relationships, even those mediated by commerce. Similarly, why go to classes and ask questions of teachers when the answers are printed in books? But the school is still the most practical delivery device for education (that's why the Google guys went to Stanford instead of correspondence school or a local community college). Google has vested interests in devaluing the physical product that has an enduring track record of efficiencies, usefulness, and profitability. That means Google is competing with the print product's value and is so far winning a battle to eclipse it. With so much success in pushing newspapers into Google's field of play, their control, they have captured its value for online commerce better than the papers themselves. So of course, why not go for the rest of it? So far Google is the only media company that knows how to make money by "giving away" its products "for free". And that's the real commodity that the rest of media should be competing for: if Google wants the value, output and consumption of the products formerly known as books and newspapers, then those producers and consumers should equally want to capture the algorithms and techniques of the digital competitor (or predator, depending on your stake in the game). In addition to Auletta's observation that the Google guys don't read (heard that in his Charlie Rose interview, which was very interesting), this just says so much, "he came in on his rollerblades and he threw his knapsack down on the table." I think I'm going to have to go to a bookstore (independent), buy Auletta's book, and read it (maybe in the bath or somewhere else where the internet doesn't travel well).
#1 Posted by MB, CJR on Thu 12 Nov 2009 at 10:23 AM