While writing her new book, “Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules to Success,” Katty Kay had a front seat view of the new media disruption in the publishing industry. She shared her thoughts at mediabistro.com’s eBook Summit today.
Kay has covered two Presidential elections and wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition, she contributes to Meet the Press, Larry King Live, The Chris Matthews Show and a regular guest host for Diane Rehm on NPR. This powerful platform was key to her book writing success: “Part of the reason they gave us a good contract was we had access to traditional media.”
Nevertheless, these platforms don’t seem as sturdy as they once did. “If you are working for an online publication or even television news, you can’t rely on that one outlet to support you in the long term. The more areas you have to create a platform, the safer you feel,” she explained.
“I don’t see how a younger journalist coming out of college makes it … Is the writing blogging coming alongside conventional jobs? How does this model work for the journalist?” she concluded, a sad meditation on the future of nonfiction publishing.