Over the past two weeks, Business Week (www.businessweek.com) and Outsell (www.outsellinc.com) published studies about the information industry.  Business Week reported on the job creation aspect of the information industry.  Over the past 5 years, the industry lost 1.1 million jobs and currently employs fewer Americans than in 1998.  Outsell’s report concentrates on industry revenues, which have grown 6.3% over the past year to a total of $358 billion.  Outsell projects that information industry revenues will grow to $458 billion by 2009.

One would like to think that rising revenues would lead to job creation.  Apparently not for the information industry.  Why this discrepency?  The obvious explanations are technology and syndication/multi-purposing of content.  In a larger sense, information has become a commodity product –  created & distributed by anyone and everyone.  Editors, a.k.a. middlemen, are unnecessary.

Using Knowledge inForm as an example, we write and publish our electronic books.  Then we sell those books via our website (www.knowledgeinform.com/knowbooks)  and through third parties, e.g. the Gale Virtual Reference Library (www.gale.com/gvrl).  We don’t have to hire additional personnel to handle the distribution; neither do our partners.  Yet we all have the potential to realize greater revenues. 

If you are a recent college grad, the information industry probably won’t be your future employer.  (Think healthcare.)  If you are a publisher or syndicator, you have access to a wider range of content to sell.  If you are a writer, you are more easily able to self-publish but probably won’t earn more than you would in years past (information/content is a commodity now).  If you are a reader, your cup runneth over.

 Posted by Samantha.