Publishing can be the engine of the engagement economy

Brian O'Leary on the opportunities and obstacles of content abundance.

by Jenn Webb | 8 March 2012

Brian O'Leary, founder of Magellan Media, says the roles of publishers and editors are changing — where the role used to be deciding what would get published, now it's figuring out how what is published will be found.

In the following interview, O'Leary addresses issues of — and solutions for — content abundance from the viewpoint of publishers as well as consumers. He argues that the increasing numbers of non-readers, people who don't engage with content, "represent a threat not just to publishing, but to the way we function as a country, an economy and as a part of a world order." It is the responsibility of the publishing industry, O'Leary says, to reposition itself as the "engine of the engagement economy."
Full piece at O'Reilly Radar.