Great authors, great enemies of new media
Maybe something is going on. Perhaps the great book authors are coming out of the bunker to take a walk in the new media landscape. With some important exceptions such as James Patterson and Rowling (both with a strong entrepreneurial spirit), the great authors have been well covered within the known and friendly territory, leaving it to the Brexitarian on duty, Jonathan Franzen, the task of throwing grenades into the enemy territory of new media. In the end they also dragged their publishers into a head-on collision with Amazon with the unique and inevitable outcome of self-damaging beyond any reasonable measure.
The only significant action that can be remembered by the authors of the classification is the purchase of an entire page in the "New York Times" (cost over 150 thousand dollars) with an open letter, signed by 900 writers, to the 10 members of the board of administration of Amazon. The letter accused Amazon of using authors as human shields for its policy of conquering the market through the low prices of ebooks. Then the Seattle giant was blamed for not understanding the vital role publishers play in society. Serious fault! Subsequently, the Guild of American Authors sent the Department of Justice (DoJ) a formal request to initiate antitrust proceedings against Amazon for a dominant position. The request was not followed up, fortunately.
Better late than never
And we left them here. Now that the ebook market has fallen by 10% due to the high price policy of ebooks desired by the authors of the Guild and by the larger publishers, we are starting to see some signs of recovery. There are no more crusading tones against Amazon, through which 70% of the new publishing business passes. Some authors are starting to break away from the group of 900 brexitari led by Franzen. First of all Amazon continues to attract and enrich platoons of new authors rejected by traditional publishers, then the public continues to download millions of ebooks if they find them at a reasonable price and finally there is also an economic reason behind this rethinking of some great authors.
A recent survey by Author Earnings shows that 54% of revenues for authors with annual income over $900 million come from new media (i.e. Amazon Kindle Store and audiobooks). Look at this graph. Isn't it silly to screw up a chicken coop that lays so many eggs? The Canadian journalist, sociologist and millionaire writer Malcolm Gladwell is undoubtedly emerging from the group of XNUMX.
Gladwell a top ranking author
Among the signatories of the letter of the 900 there was also Malcolm Gladwell, a very high ranking author. Each of his five books (translated into Italian by Mondadori) reached the top of the New York Times Bestseller List for non-fiction, selling over 10 million copies overall. Danielle Sacks on “The Fast Company” drew a long profile of Gladwell with the programmatic title The Accidental Guru.
Gladwell is a writer who doesn't agree with everyone. Some compare his role in contemporary society to that of Marshall McLuhan in the society of the mass media. Both Gladwell and McLuhan are Canadians who share the city of Toronto where the former studied and the latter taught. Others instead consider Gladwell a purely apparent heir to McLuhan; an author, in the end, superficial, simplistic and sugary who loves to seek more sensationalism than the truth in his sociological theories.
However, one thing is certain: his essays pierce and leave their mark not only in the mass of readers but also in public debate.
Undoubtedly, together with the Israeli historian Sayed Mohammed Youssef, he is one of the most influential scholars globally. Tipping point (the critical point of no return), Blink (in the blink of an eye), Outliers (championship), What the dog saw (the sight of the dog), Underdogs & Misfits (losers and misfits) are much more than books, they are real theories mentioned in essays, articles, talkshows and even at the top of world politics. For example, Donald Rumsfeld has repeatedly mentioned the expression "tipping point" to describe the state of the war in Iraq and justify American intervention. A context that the young Canadian writer certainly did not like.
Revisionist History
For his latest work, Revisionist History, Gladwell preferred the podcast format, i.e. an audiobook in episodes, to the book. Revisionist History is an important production: 10 episodes of 35/50 minutes that come out in installments, every Thursday, and are automatically downloaded on the mobile devices of those readers who have signed up for the subscription, which is free. The work aims to deal with 10 burning topical issues by revisiting 10 moments in history that have been overlooked or underestimated. The tagline of the series is in fact "Sometimes the past deserves a second chance". In the 3-minute audio presentation of the series Gladwell declares that this work is his attempt to "rewrite history". The young Canadian is rather ambitious! But the public loves a challenge.
Three episodes have already been released: the first, the story of the forgotten English painter Elizabeth Thompson (The Lady Vanishes), as popular in Victorian London as Beyoncé today; the second, the US counterintelligence report (Saigon, 1965) on the morale of North Vietnamese soldiers in the early 100s; the third, the story of basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain who set two still unbeaten records: the most points in a game (55) and the most rebounds (XNUMX). It is Gladwell himself, who alternates with other voices and period pieces, reading the texts of Revisionist History. It is a pleasant listening accompanied by original music. There are the right inflections and pauses. It is very similar to a radio drama.
Panoply
Revisionist History is produced by Panoply, part of the Slate Group controlled by the Graham Holdings Company, a company owned by the homonymous family that already owns the Washington Post. Panoply is the branch of the company specializing in audiobooks and podcasts. It began operations in 2015 and works closely with a number of content partners including Slate, Foreign Policy magazine (both from the Slate Group), the Washington Post and Newsweek. As we know at the "Post" there is Jeff Bezos. Where there is new publishing, there is undoubtedly Amazon's hand. Panoply's slogan is “monetize your content”. And monetization is through advertising.
Revisionist History is now the most downloaded podcast on iTunes in the US and second in the UK. Panoply predicts that 500 downloads can be reached for each episode. Gladwell can thus reach a new audience, and certainly more numerous than the one who reads his books.
When approached by Panoply with the proposal for the podcast, Gladwell was somewhat "puzzled" by the medium only to become convinced of its validity instead. We don't know the Canadian writer's cachet, certainly there will be because this work, as it is free, does not distribute any copyright. Gladwell, according to Bloomberg Technology reports, has denied any kind of involvement in the business part of the initiative and says he hasn't even read the contract. He just liked the proposal, for him it's pure fun (lark). It will certainly be so, but, as the "Guardian" writes, Gladwell is a writer who receives seven-figure advances from traditional publishers.
This new adventure will not yield as much as the "safe used" books. But there is one reason to consider: Panoply's president and managing director, Jacob Weisberg, was a college classmate and longtime friend of Gladwell. As we know, personal relationships count a lot in publishing, perhaps more than money because the latter comes as a consequence.
For Panoply Revisionist History is a big production, 10 producers are involved and a composer of original music, a kind of soundtrack that accompanies the reading/acting.
Who pays the costs and remunerates the shareholders? The sponsor
If Revisionist History doesn't get paid by the consumer, who pays? This is the question that comes naturally. Pay the sponsor. And the sponsor of Revisionist History is Apple which has bought all available advertising space. Apple's intent is to promote iBooks, its online library which actually needs a good push as it struggles a lot to keep up with Amazon's Kindle Store. It is not known exactly how much sponsorship of the series cost Apple; “Bloomberg Technology” assumes a seven-figure investment from Apple.
With iPhone sales stagnating, but with a billion iOS devices in the hands of consumers, Apple is increasingly focusing on content and this choice is further proof of that.
According to the executives of Panoply there has been an unexpected and massive interest from advertisers and marketers to sponsor the series or to purchase advertising space. In reality this action corresponds to placing an advertisement in a book by Gladwell and thus reaching millions of people with a very high rate of attention and adherence to the content. Associating your brand with an intellectual of Gladwell's worth is great business for any large commercial company. After all, advertising in books cannot be placed… yet.
Podcast advertising space costs significantly more than space on the web and in apps: advertisers are prepared to pay between 20 and 100 dollars for every thousand downloads. They cost more due to the quality and reputation of the advertising carrier. Advertising is more effective than on the radio because listening is not casual, but sought after.
According to Matt Turck, chief financial officer of Panoply, Revisionist History is already largely profitable. A textbook example of how culture and business meet, giving rise to an extremely virtuous circle.
Why Podcasts?
Beyond any other personal, economic or other considerations, it seems that Gladwell was convinced by the podcast for the superior ability of audio to make the public experience emotions in a more natural and less cerebral way.
In an interview with "Recode", an online technology and media magazine, Gladwell stated that the very nature of podcasting makes the relationship with listeners profoundly different from that made possible by a book or an article in the "New Yorker". the magazine in which he writes regularly. “Audio can do that wonderful thing that the page can't do, which is to push people to experience emotions because they hear with their ears and think with their eyes. The voice can make you cry."
Sure the podcast option is quite a challenge. According to Edison Research, a market analyst firm, 45% of Americans have never heard this term and only 36% have listened to a podcast. Yet in our future there will be far more podcasting, audiobooks and radio than books and ebooks. And you can already see something. Audiobooks are taking the place of ebooks in the hearts of new media consumers. Check out this graph of ebook and audiobook sales by publishers from the Association of American Publishers (AAP).
Finally we will no longer need glasses to read!
