Carolyn Reidy’s Two Worlds

Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy sent around her annual end-of-year letter to employees today. In it, she calls this “a defining moment–in our industry and at Simon & Schuster,” and adds, “I’m proud of the ways in which we have together addressed the challenges we have faced.” Mostly, she lists the company’s accomplishments in the midst of a year in which she says, “the U.S. bookselling marketplace has been truly lackluster.”

She doesn’t use the word “eBook,” though Reidy does say, “consumers are overwhelmed by an onslaught of information and media, and faced with a bewildering array of possibilities for purchasing books,” alluding to the ways social media and blogs have largely taken over for magazine ads and your friendly neighborhood bookseller, and to the growing proliferation of eReaders and ways to read both electronically and in print.

Reidy does include a bullet list of e-ccomplishments, including the company’s partnership with Vook, the launch of iPhone apps based on Star Trek and a reading Web site for Teens. She also gives a nod to Galley Grab, Simon & Schuster’s eGalley service.

“These accomplishments,” says Reidy, “make evident that we are learning how to extend our proven ability to find and attract readers in the digital world.” But, she goes goes on, “The opportunities afforded us by digital publishing are not without risk.” And here, it begins to get juicy:

“We must do everything in our power to uphold the value of our content against the downward pressures exerted by the marketplace and the perception that ‘digital’ means ‘cheap.’ We must work to defend the livelihoods of our authors at a time when instantaneous file transfer makes piracy easier than ever, and in a world in which many consider copyright irrelevant. Because we have feet in two worlds, we must establish the right balance of attention and investment between traditional publishing, which still represents the vast majority of our revenues, and the digital publishing marketplace, which is clearly poised to take off and is essential for our future,” Reidy says.

Perhaps the real challenge, however, is for publishers, especially the big ones like Simon & Schuster, to see those “two worlds” as one world in which all the rules–for print and digital–are in flux.

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