TOW #10 The Fate of the Publishing Industry

            With the rise of internet distributors like Amazon, brick-and-mortar stores have been struggling to bring in customers.  This is especially true in the publishing industry, where groups like Penguin and Random House are losing money as more and more books are bought online or read electronically.  In “Publish or Perish” author Adam Davidson, co-founder of NPR’s “Planet Money”, predicts how the publishing industry might change as a result of the trend towards online shopping.  The article was published by the New York Times Magazine, which serves as a supplement to the New York Times.

 In his article, Davidson suggests that the six largest publishing companies may eventually merge in order to compete with online retailers, and that this merger has the potential to significantly damage the economy.  Davidson uses logos to support his argument by citing the merger and eventual collapse of U.S. Steel, and the effect that that collapse had on the economy.  In addition, he works to make the text more accessible to the average New York Times reader by utilizing informal diction and personification.  For example, he writes that, “Ever since Amazon began ripping apart the book business, the largest houses have been looking for a way to fight back.”  By creating an article that is both easy to comprehend and logically constructed, Davidson enables his readers to understand both the current crisis the publishing industry faces and the reasoning behind his predictions for the future.