Peter Donoughue (@peterdonoughue), a veteran of the Australian book publishing scene, gave a presentation to academic staff in the School of English, Media Studies, and Art History at the University Queensland on September 10, 2010. This post is the transcript. He examines, from a global perspective, "the critical issues of declining prices and revenues, relations with authors, the future of booksellers, device wars, business models, and others." His intention is to "challenge the publishing community to seriously lift its game, if it wants to survive."
He echoes the same sentiment we here at Somersault have: "I would prefer to see a publishing community characterized by boldness, not by fear; by a sense of opportunity, not of threat; by openness, not protectionism." He says
Our challenge is to move beyond the fear of cannibalization by courageously accepting the opportunity presented to us. The central tenet is to be aggressively and remorselessly customer-centric. That is hard for any business, for any industry, but it is the only way to break through into the future.