The publishing business must be in a desperate state because after all demand for ideas and creativity has fallen to an all-time low, no? Oh, no, actually industry data indicates strong revenue growth – here are some US figures. And I don’t think I’ve ever know in my lifetime such an immense appetite for debate and exchanging ideas. So while technological and market change is certainly causing upheaval on the supply side of the industry, both publishers and retailers, healthy demand growth makes for a fundamentally healthy sector. I’ve written before about the scale of innovation in publishing – another announcement this week from Princeton University Press, my own publisher (on whose European Advisory Board I also sit). But none of this gives the pessimists any pause – as this essay from Lapham’s Quarterly indicates.