Thursday, March 27, 2014

Dutch Bookstore Polare's Lesson: A Call for a New Renaissance

In my previous post,  I wrote about the demise of the Dutch bookstore chain, Polare. Following is the English translation as released on DutchNews.nl, a leading provider of quality Dutch news in English.




In this article, I state that Polare is the quintessential canary in the coal mine, which signals again and again that this is not just about the collapse of a leading bookstore chain. This is about the future of Dutch city centers, about a knowledge economy and about the quality of Dutch culture. Although the focus is on the Netherlands, bookstores are under threat in other countries, including the U.S. I believe that this is a bad development not just for the book industry, but for culture as expressed in these stores. Below follows my complete article:
 

During my recent visit to Holland, where I met fellow publishers and bookstore owners to discuss developments in the book trade, naturally the situation at Polare came up. Now back in my home town New York, I keep following a steady stream of Dutch commentaries about Polare, like by author Kluun, who doesn’t consider the apparent disappearance of old-fashioned  “reading books for hours and hours” a problem, or by journalist Max Pam, who says he just needs small but knowledgeable bookstores, or others who blame Polare’s management for its demise, and then the news about the Dutch publishers’ initiative  to set up a streaming subscription service for e-Books. All contain some truth and value, but miss a bigger picture. Polare is the quintessential canary in the coal mine, which signals again and again that this is not just about the collapse of a leading bookstore chain. This is about the future of Dutch city centers, about a knowledge economy and about the quality of Dutch culture.



Before I continue, let me say something about my own background. I’ve been involved as founder-publisher of a specialized book publisher in New York that since its inception has been using digital technology, both on-demand printing and e-Books. Although I am a great proponent of technological innovation, I don’t believe that technology alone can solve every problem.



Let’s now return to the perfect storm Polare got into.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

President Obama's Historic Visit to Amsterdam

President Barack Obama and Dutch Primeminister Mark Rutte
press conference in front of The Nightwatch
U.S. President Barack Obama,  starting a week of international travel, yesterday visited Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, when he became the first U.S. President in office to visit this city. 

He gave a joint press conference with Dutch Prime minister Mark Rutte, in front of the historic 1642 painting The Night Watch ("de Nachtwacht" in Dutch), one of the most famous paintings by Rembrandt at exhibit at the recently renovated Rijksmuseum. The above photo speaks for itself: if speaking in front of such a historic piece of art inspires both speakers, one should consider doing this more often - and even if it doesn't, it's a nice backdrop for the audience.