In a talk this morning at the O’Reilly Media Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York, Wired‘s Tim Carmody discussed how readers in the 21st century have a huge range of influences and are translating their expectations from one media to another.

“Readers have a huge range of experiences and skills and knowledge from which they draw on. Everything from avant guard poetry to ESPN and all of them are there for you to draw on for digital publishing,” said Carmody.

Carmody, who covers media from Hollywood to publishing for Wired, said that there are analogies happening across different forms of media and that online video can learn from publishing, as mobile phones can inform eReaders. “Content makers have to think about how do you create continuity on one kind of device and relate the experience to another,” he advised.

And despite the fact that he likes design, he said, “It’s not how the page looks, its about quantity. It’s about how much text we get, it’s about how we get more and who is in charge when we get more.” Carmody recommended that publishers experiment with form, but do so while using constraints. He continued, “We like constraints once we are in them. Constraints end up being freedom.”