This is a follow up story from The New York Observer to the story I ran yesterday on this blog on the future of book publishing.

Jonathan Karp Writes a Not Boring Essay on the Future of Publishing in The Washington Post
by Leon Neyfakh writing in The New York Obersver, June 30, 2008

Writing in The Washington Post this weekend, Twelve publisher Jonathan Karp levels a precise, sober critique of the publishing industry in which he predicts that "quality" books built on years of work will eventually regain their value in the marketplace. Karp's piece, an articulation of what has been the implicit philosophy behind the 12-books-a-year business model of his imprint, argues that as much as high-minded traditionalists in the business like to invoke it, the distinction between highbrow and lowbrow is an obsolete one. He draws instead a line between books that are conceived with expedience in mind to those which are "built to last."

Karp writes that whole genres of books—"hyperbolic ideological tracts by insufferable cable TV pundits; guides to staying wrinkle- and toxin-free; manifestos for fixing America in 12 easy steps"—are essentially ephemeral, created not to last on the shelf but to disappear, or get "mulched," as soon as whatever brief tickle in the culture they happen to be responding to fades. He goes on:
Book publishers might be able to compete with news media, but we're foolish to try. Newspapers, magazines and electronic media can fulfill the needs of the moment far more effectively than a publishing company ever can or will. Journalism has long been regarded as the first rough draft of history; lately, however, books have too easily been thought of as the second rough draft, rather than the final word.

Link here for the full text of the story. It is worth reading.