Amazon’s Russell Grandinetti: Kindle champ takes on the books trade | Observer profile | From the Observer | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2014/aug/17/russell-grandinetti-amazon-kindle-hachette-book-war-profile
Grandinetti believes the publishing industry has failed to recognise fundamental shifts in its business. Part of Amazon’s mission, then, has been to jolt an often sleepy industry with revolutionary, customer-focused retailing zeal. The real competition, he believes, is not rival publications or publishers but the entire array of information and entertainment, free or otherwise, available to consumers. “Books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free news sites and more,” he says.
Amazon claims its power in the market is exaggerated and publishers, ever on the lookout for a good storyline, are in love with a plot that ends with their own demise. “It’s always the end of the world,” Grandinetti says. “You could set your watch on it arriving.” But, he adds, the publishing industry is going through a dramatic shift. “_The only really necessary people in the publishing process now are the writer and reader. Everyone who stands between those two has both risk and opportunit y._”