This content was created by GHION.AI . This content was uploaded by GHION.AI . This is a YouTube video titled "Brian Murray: Partners as 'Frenemies'" featuring a discussion from June 12, 2012, with Brian Murray about the complex relationships in the book publishing industry, particularly with major companies like Amazon and Google, described as 'frenemies'.
Amazon is the big elephant in the room, right? When we talk about book publishing, I mean, they have changed the entire landscape. And how do you think of them? Are they. Do you love them? I mean, are they your best friends? Because they're this incredible distribution channel. You know, what's the relationship?
It's a complex relationship. I mean, it's. You know, the term frenemy is a great term to kind of capture what business is like today. I mean, we've had the situation with Amazon where they're a very large distributor, they're also a publisher. We've had this in the past. I mean, Barnes and Noble was, you know, was what Amazon is today, five, 10 years ago. They were a publisher then, too. So we've sort of been through this, you know, But Amazon is a really terrific company. They have achieved amazing success in a very short amount of time. So they are. They're a challenge. They're a challenge for us. You know, we. We love working with them on some dimensions, and we do. And then there are other dimensions where we have to be very careful because they're so good at whatever they set their mind to do. So it's a very complex relationship. And we see that more and more in business today. We also, I mean, Google is another one. Google is an unbelievable company. They're helping people discover our books through search. They're getting into the E book business. But we've also had problems in terms of them scanning all of our books. So there's another company. Great. Unbelievable on the one hand and very complicated on the other hand. So you have to be a little schizophrenic, I think, today to work with some of these really big successful companies and figure out what are your policy positions and try to work with them with your left hand and then sometimes argue with your right hand. So it's complicated, and I don't know what else to do about it.
