Friday, March 27, 2009

George Braziller Acquires Water Cooler


Dear Readers,

In response to a recent David Godine blogspot post regarding water coolers, I am pleased to announce that George Braziller Publishers, too, has acquired one of these indispensible appliances. Ultimately, I can only echo Godine blogger Jessica O'Neill's sentiments about office life before and after water-cooler installation, and I encourage you to review her anecdotes; but I would like to add that the hot water spigots to which she refers are as useful for making instant oatmeal and possibly (the thought just occurred to me) soup-in-a-cup as they are for making tea.

While old-guard book publishing houses struggle to adapt in an age of Kindle, free internet content, and improved print-on-demand technologies, we must all look to innovators like Ms. O'Neill—cultural workers willing to take risks, roll up their sleeves, and make the tough decisions necessary to keeping their publishing houses in stride with modern developments. Let the water-cooler stand as a symbol of our collective duty to look outside antiquated delivery methods (rusty pipes, bound books) to see the potential of recent innovations (inverted jugs and, yes, digital readers). After all, it is not how we produce and deliver our books that matters, but that we continue to deliver them.

Best regards,

Maxwell Heller
Editor

3 comments:

  1. I'm sure your employees are pretty excited about the new water cooler. As funny as it sounds, having a new water cooler can actually uplift spirits around the office. The random conversations and interactions had while filling up a cup, mug or bottle can be just the thing to get someone through a long day!

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  2. hmm nice water cooler and Chuck you have really given a nice comment. Great post!!
    fresh coolers

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