This Folio article on staffing changes at the top of Print‘s masthead (the editor was fired, and now the publisher is looking for a multi-platform content manager) feels emblematic of what’s going on all over the print world right now–especially if former editor Gordon is accurately describing her accomplishments, which sound like exactly what a content manager would do.
It reminds me of one of my new year’s resolutions: stop expecting praise or credit for my work.
The fact is everyone in publishing–from editors to publishers to the accountants to the receptionists–is panicking. No one knows what the future of our industry looks like. All we know is that we have to create it. And that is one thing the publishing industry is not used to. We’re used to innovating within the confines of a working business model. The business model no longer works. All hell has broken loose.
Looking at it through that light, you can see why good, smart, innovative people are being fired because higher-ups are looking for people who are even better, smarter, and more innovative–even though they don’t know what “innovative” looks like yet. This, of course, feeds staffers’ worst fears, stifles innovation, and keeps us stuck in the spin cycle.