Title: The Content Machine: Towards a Theory of Publishing from the Printing Press to the Digital Network
Author: Michael Bhaskar
Paperback: ISBN 9780857281111, £13.99 / $19.95 (This title is also available as an eBook)
Imprint:  New York: Anthem Press, 2013.

According to the Book Business website “The Content Machine was released in October of 2013 and “explores the publishing industry in crisis, disrupted by digital innovations, yet continuing to adapt. Written by Michael Bhaskar , digital publishing director at Profile Books, The Content Machine outlines a theory of publishing that allows publishers “to focus on their core competencies in difficult times while building a broader notion of what they are capable of.” Exploring the nature of content, Bhaskar combines historical perspective and communication theory to make the case that the publishing industry will indeed survive and thrive in the digital age.

Among the ideas Bhaskar advances is a reevaluation of how content and what we typically call platforms relate to each other. While it may appear that digital technology has freed content from it’s former containers (printed pages), content must still be contained in some fashion.”

Editorial Reviews

 

‘[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’

 

‘In his bold and innovative book Michael Bhaskar tackles some of the big questions that surround publishing. He takes the reader on a quest for a unified theory of publishing, arriving at the Content Machine, which takes account of both its history and the challenges it faces from digital media.’ —Angus Phillips, Director, Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies