The Content Machine: Towards a Theory of Publishing from the Printing Press to the Digital Network

Description

This ground-breaking study, the first of its kind, outlines a theory of publishing that allows publishing houses to focus on their core competencies in times of crisis. Tracing the history of publishing from the press works of fifteenth-century Germany to twenty-first-century Silicon Valley, via Venice, Beijing, Paris and London, and fusing media theory and business experience, 'The Content Machine' offers a new understanding of content, publishing and technology, and defiantly answers those who contend that publishing has no future in a digital age.

Michael Bhaskar is a digital publisher, researcher and writer based in London.

'[A] sophisticated approach to what most interested readers would agree is an exceptionally daunting task. The book is detail-rich but capacious in its selection of examples and its synthesis of what the author argues are the essential elements tying together publishing circumstances that many might consider discrete or incompatible. [...] Bhaskar's treatment of familiar problematics [is] refreshingly well-reasoned and well-argued.' -Aaron McCollough, 'Journal of Electronic Publishing'