Save us, O mighty Internet, Save Us!

Or at least, that seems to be the gist of yet another one of AP’s desultory reports about the industry. Although, at least to my mind, it’s hard to argue with logic like this:

“There has been a lot of tension among publishers about technology. But if you ask me if I’d rather have someone watching television or someone surfing the Internet, I’d prefer the Internet because it requires some form of reading,” says Richard Sarnoff, president of the Random House, Inc. corporate development group.

That said, it amazes me just how internet-clueless some publishers really are. HarperCollins gets it (or thinks it does) as it’s got a longstanding online marketing department and the whole digital archiving story from earlier in the week won’t go away. Several of the other big houses are. But if your senior management still has to ask what a blog is — or more tellingly, devotes no money and resources to online marketing — then that whole internet-savviness idea might still be a pipe dream…

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