Introduction: The Industry That Quietly Disappeared For most of modern history, publishing was easy to define. It was an industry built around producing books, printing them, distributing them, and ultimately selling them. Everything else, from marketing to editorial positioning, existed to support that core function. Control the pipeline, and you controlled the industry. That model … Read more
The Industry Is Looking in the Wrong Direction For decades, global publishing has operated with a quiet assumption. The industry’s center of gravity sits firmly in the West, anchored in New York, London, and a handful of European capitals. Everything else exists somewhere along a spectrum of “emerging markets,” places to expand into, not places … Read more
Introduction: The Myth of “Building AI” There is a quiet but persistent illusion spreading across academic publishing. It usually begins with a familiar phrase: “We need to build our own AI.” It sounds ambitious. It sounds forward-thinking. It sounds like survival. It is also, for most publishers, completely misguided. The reality is far less glamorous. … Read more
Introduction: The Wrong Fear There is a comforting narrative floating around the publishing world right now. It says that AI is overhyped, readers still value human writing, and publishing will adapt just like it always has. That narrative is not entirely wrong, but it is dangerously incomplete. AI is not coming for publishing in the … Read more
Introduction Academic publishing has long relied on a narrative of stability and intellectual control. Editors read manuscripts, reviewers evaluate them, and decisions emerge from human judgment shaped by disciplinary expertise and scholarly norms. It is a system that presents itself as careful, deliberate, and grounded in reasoned evaluation. For decades, this framing has been repeated … Read more