I've been aware that the book publishing industry was being challenged by social change.  It became seriously apparent to me about 18 months ago when I attended a writer-publishers conference.  I listened to publishers talking about the increasing stressors on their industry, and how their more traditional brick and mortar style businesses were becoming less and less profitable.   

When I questioned them about the trends, I realized that they were thinking about their business from an old worldview perspective.  They had not yet built interactive, new worldview websites and were not yet adapting to the massive changes enroute.  They did not seem to comprehend that the movement towards online publishing was increasing - and that it was slowly putting them out of business, and they did not understand it.

That seemed incredible to me.  I realized they literally "had their head in the books" for the Internet is on the leading edge of the publishing industry - like it or not - and they did not realize it.  It is like the frog in the water on a stove that gets turned on, and as the water warms up, the frog gets lulled to sleep, rather than jumping out.  The world was passing them by, as they were wondering what happened.

When I heard that Amazon.com was adding ways that people could download certain chapters of books immediately online and working with online publishing, I realized that they were adapting to change...even while they still sold real books.  Worldviews makes a difference in profitability.

Then a bit ago our local Bellingham Herald newspaper shrunk down to half-size as they went more online.  Now a Seattle paper just quit publishing in the written form.  I read an article at the financial site, 24/7 written by Douglas A. McIntyre. It was fascinating even to me to see the dramatic deterioration of an entire era of newspapers.  They have been a part of my life my entire life...and it is clear they are history.

I listened to an NPR radio interview where people were lamenting that the watchdog of the government was now defunct, and what were we going to do about that?  What happens now? Who would report the news from the city council and other places?  I don't know the answer to that per se.

I do know that in Bellingham its been changing for awhile.  We now have a city operated TV station where City Council meetings are aired.  Maybe they will also go onto the Internet, too.  I don't know.

So the question is, what is happening instead?  What is composing while the print newspaper industry is down?

We get to watch a new industry rising - blogs and social media.  McIntyre, the same guy that writes about the decline in print news, also writes a piece on the economic values of the 25 top blogs.  I find it fascinating to see the ebb and flow of life as it is showing up in the economic world.

People are choosing to hear from real world news as other real people are making it and talking about it in a new way.  Reader interest is arranging the market, by being able to read what they want to read, the way they want to read it. And the dollars follow.

What I do know is this.  If you look around people are very free to choose where they get their news.  And they do not pay for it.  The news is a service, and up to the minute news is available the minute they want to read it.  They are choosing what kind of news they want to see, what news they want to make,and what news they want to comment on.  It is an all new world out there, and we need to adapt to it, because it is real. It is changing the fabric of our lives.

Al Gore launched CurrentTV.com on purpose to give people the option to get news from somewhere other than the media networks.  It is an online TV station where people submit their own videos for publication.  It got an Emmy Award right away - more big news for someone who had just gotten an Oscar for the Inconvenient Truth. To me it exemplifies news by the people, for the people.  I don't know if Al Gore intended it to be that, but to me, that is what I think when I see it.  To me this was an example of an outstanding, very proactive way of responding to the stranglehold that large media has held over the news that we got to read. No more.  It is changing.

Going deeper still into the psyche of people, we are seeing the rise in social media and business networks such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Biznik.com, TED.com and this site, UnitingCreatives.com.  These sites are being developed grassroots in response to a real live human need to connect with people who are going our way, so to speak.  It is a new way to be able to build community and get real people news to real people now.

Think about it this way.  Traditionally the news was transmitted more geographically, and our communities existed in physical areas. News was often slow to travel.

Today with a click of a button you can reach millions of people online virtually instantaneously.  Today everything has been going global.  The speed of change is instant.

The reflection of the movement of people is being seen online...for people feel like they live in a more national, or international community connected to others by electronics if not physically.  We travel everywhere, do all kinds of things, and eat all kinds of food from many cultures...even in a few square blocks in a big city. This affects us on all kinds of levels.  We talk to people on our cell phones 24/7 and can tell thousands on Twitter that we are eating an ice cream cone.  Incredible.

If you read books like Groundswell, Tribes, Wikinomics, you start to get the picture.  We are experiencing a sea change in all forms of business.  It is affecting how we organize, what we choose to do, how we take in information, how we process it, who we believe in, and how it affects us.

This is a powerful trend that all brick and mortar businesses, and all politicians and community leaders would be smart to study, work with and understand.  Rather than fight and resist it, learn to listen and feel the real live movement of the people, and respond appropriately. Pathfinding is not about following the trail of what has been, but being able to notice changes, and then blaze new trails when other ones no longer work. - Joy