Five Things: September 10, 2026

NOTE: We’re still digging out from our big move last month, so trying to maintain a consistent routine has been impossible. I’ve started a KISS bullet journal, which has helped a lot, and I somehow managed to pull together this newsletter on schedule in a cozy corner of our bedroom because my new home office is at least a month from being ready. What I’ll be doing in that office is still a mystery, but now that the summer is over, my lowkey job search is finally shifting into high gear; if you see something, say something!

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_ONE

Publishing Industry ‘Study’ Says Digital Library Lending Is Cannibalizing Retail Sales—Librarians Say It Reveals Something Else | Andrew Albanese

Secretariat is a legal consulting firm. They’re not qualified to do an ‘independent’ analysis of the digital book marketplace. And if this isn’t an independent analysis, but part of a legal strategy to stop library ebook legislation, then people of good faith who are interested in truly understanding the digital book marketplace should absolutely ignore it.

The AAP and Authors Guild shenanigans continue, inexplicably investing money and resources into demonizing libraries rather than sitting down and negotiating in good faith, all to protect the inflexible business models of a handful of multinational conglomerates and (maybe) a few dozen millionaire authors who publish books some readers have decided they don’t want to own in print.

I wonder how the rest of their respective constituents feel about being associated with such relentless anti-library propaganda at a time when libraries are under threat by political actors, too? I wonder if any of the non-millionaire authors published by Big 5 imprints will speak up publicly in support of libraries, perhaps with op-eds published in their own hometown newspapers?

As always, Albanese digs in and puts it all in context in ways I’ll never have the patience to do over and over and over again.

__TWO

AI Is Blurring the Line Between Sales and Marketing | Chung, Fann, Lun Plotkin, Stanley and Valdivieso

The second is organizational: shared incentives and metrics that measure outcomes across the full customer journey. Traditional distinctions of marketing-qualified leads versus sales-qualified leads give way to measures of pipeline quality, conversion, and customer lifetime value.

This article is a great example of hyping a magic bullet while downplaying the strategic organizational changes required to make it work, that when done correctly, make the technology an optional accessory rather than a core necessity. I wasn’t at all surprised to see 4/5ths of the authors are McKinseyites, aka the “AI 0.9” of capitalism. -_-

You don’t need “artificial intelligence” to align your sales and marketing operations to work more effectively; you need the political will to tear down silos and eliminate vanity metrics, and the market intelligence to understand how buyers — often in loosely organized teams — actually solve problems and make decisions in an increasingly noisy world that your product or service is usually a very small part of.

Spamming them with hyper-personalized emails and automated phone calls — the primary outputs of almost every “AI-powered sales” and marketing tool — ain’t it.

___THREE

The Death of Discovery? | Kerry Cunningham

Buyers live inside a social and organizational ecosystem that is constantly exposing them to tools, vendors, and ideas.

I’ve spotlighted Cunningham a few times in recent months, and he’s become a fixture in my LinkedIn feed despite his fondness for using AI images. I agree with his core premise (in general, and in this specific post), but this quote describes the traditional discovery process that’s existed my entire career, only the channels have changed. It’s why I still believe that good content strategy is a critical component for most B2B products and services, and vertical communities.

You have to be an active participant in the ecosystem you’re serving long before the decision-making process begins, and no amount of “AI-powered” outreach will help you stand out if you’re not.

And yes, this is yet another Cluetrain reference!

____FOUR

Getting Found is No Longer Enough | Linda Ruth

Being used is not the same as being credited. Being credited is not the same as building traffic. And building traffic is not the same as creating a sustainable business.

This is an insightful look at SEO vs. OAO vs. GEO, and a great example of why “AI search” affects magazine / digital publishers differently than book publishers who are mostly obsessed with Amazon.

That said, I’ve long argued the latter could greatly benefit from paying attention to the former, especially if DTC is an important part of their revenue mix. Although the magazine world looks very different than 15 years ago, the fundamentals still apply.

_____FIVE

Remembering the pre-Google web, when search was an experiment | Alan Bradley

The real story of pre-Google search is not that early engines were inferior. It’s that they reflected a different Internet entirely, one where directories mattered, crawling was still an art, ranking was fragile, and the idea of “search” had not yet hardened into a single dominant interface.

I’ve periodically mourned the loss of Google Reader, but over the past couple of years I’ve actually started to miss the original Yahoo! even more. Old school, human-curated directories (including blogrolls!) arguably have even more value today as an alternative to the algorithm-driven experiences that dominate every aspect of our online lives, which are now giving way to even worse “AI-powered” experiences.

Bradley’s curated walk down memory lane (no Dogpile? wait, Dogpile still exists?!?) is simultaneously heartening and depressing; a reminder of what we’ve lost along the way. I still believe we have the collective power to make the internet a better place for everyone — we just have to make better choices about where we spend our time.

______BONUS