When publishing outsiders are suggesting cures for what ails the business, one very common suggestion is that publishers ditch their New York real estate and head for the sticks. Why do they need to pay Manhattan rent?
Why indeed?
Well, first this ignores that there are actually quite a few publishers outside of New York. You have Sourcebooks in Chicago, Chronicle in San Francisco, and many many more.
And there’s a historical explanation as well: New York has been an important center of the American publishing world since the early 1800s.
But setting that aside, why are the Big Six all still in New York? Why don’t they hightail it to South Dakota?
The same reason Apple and Google are in Silicon Valley, Wall Street is on Wall Street, and Hollywood is in Hollywood: Industries tend to cluster in certain areas and derive more benefit from drawing upon a talent pool and networking than they lose in increased rent.
You can actually observe this on an individual store level (think: the Diamond District in New York). Shops cluster together and derive benefits from the increased traffic. But that’s retail.
Urban studies theorist Richard Florida has written about the power of industry density. He writes:
Density makes it easier for people and firms to interact and connect with one another, and it reduces the effort, friction, and energy that’s used to make these connections. Density increases the speed at which new ideas are conceived and diffused across the economy, accelerating the speed with which new enterprises and new industries are created.
In New York, publishers can draw upon being close to the other major media outlets, they can draw upon a highly educated and creative workforce, are more likely to attract executive talent, draw upon the cachet of being one of the New York publishers, and network with writers themselves, many of whom live in New York.
And to a certain extent publishers have already moved to Scranton: one of the jokes on The Office was that they were trying to win HarperCollins’ business. Well, Scranton really is where HarperCollins’ accounting department is located. What’s in New York? Editorial, art, marketing, sales, executives.
It’s easy to just say, oh, well, all those people can up and move, or you can find people with those qualifications elsewhere. But moving carries its own costs, and the people working at publishers are highly skilled. It would be extremely difficult to migrate those operations elsewhere on a major scale.
All that said: Things do change!
Los Angeles and New York used to be the center of the music industry, but no longer. Now Nashville is growing in clout. Detroit used to be the undisputed center of the auto industry, but now plants are increasingly opening in the Deep South.
Could publishing be forced from NYC? Random House recently saved “millions” of dollars by downsizing its footprint, and these days millions isn’t anything to sneeze at, but we’re talking about a company with revenue in the billions. “Millions” is not exactly the difference between wild profitability and turning out the lights.
And then there’s this: Publishers are able to draw upon a tremendous wealth of publishing talent in New York, and if there’s one thing publishers need to weather this massive transformation: it’s talent.
What do you think? Is it NYC or bust for publishers?
%20Publishers%20Are%20Still%20In%20New%20York){kind=link}
Thank you for this, Nathan. I've long wondered about this, though many of my publishing houses are scattered around the nation (Oregon, Michigan, Colorado). It's also important to note that folks can have really amazing power lunches in Manhattan! (Just not the same in Colorado Springs.)
I think it's more basic than that.
1.) It's easy to stay. The wheels are already in motion. The resources are already there. I'm a person who's moved 10x in 10 years, it's always hard to get going in a new place.
2.) History runs deep.
That being said, they could do it. Life outside of New York isn't as soul sucking or artless as it's made out to be. The skilled employees would move with their job. Or other qualified people would step in.
Personally, a move shakes up the pot in a good way. A little more diversity. A little more growth. Neither of which would be bad for the publishing industry.
It's easier to move an industry that relies on unskilled workers (textile manufacturing moved out of New York, then offshore without too much trouble) than it is to move skilled workers away en masse.
Also, commercial real estate in NY (+ tax incentives) isn't as pricy as you might think since 9/11. There are still many empty offices downtown, and that drives prices down.
That said, as the industry consolidates more and more, and the Big Six becomes the Big Two or the Big 0.67, it becomes easier for an industry to move out because there are fewer decision-makers.
So New York could lose the publishing industry when HarperCollinsHachetteMacMillianPenguin & Schuster gets a better offer somewhere else.
Interesting post. I think you have some good points about drawing on talent, etc, but there is a lot of talent elsewhere and the truth is there are a lot of people who move to NYC because of publishing. People who might not have to move if publishing were spread throughout the country.
Another thought about this, is would we think more broadly, have different perspectives on our readership, were we spread throughout the country? Would it give us a marketing edge if we were less NYC centric?
I'm not sure if the cost savings is enough to leave, but I think that as time goes on we'll see more smaller presses in other parts of the country, like Sourcebooks for example, make bigger inroads and make NYC less important as a publishing town.
–jhf
You cite the availability of a highly educated workforce as a major reason to center in NYC. I'm wondering what the workforce there has over any other city.
There are an awful lot of English majors graduating every year that would like a publishing/editing position. Even in South Dakota.
I don't have any experience with this yet, and hate to sound negative. But are New York editors really that educated and talented compared to elsewhere?
Jessica-
Definitely, and that's one reason I found it helpful as an agent to be outside of NYC. Having things concentrated in one place does have its disadvantages as well.
Others-
It's not snobbery that's keeping publishing in New York any more than it's snobbery keeping the computer industry in Silicon Valley. That's, historically, where it set up, that's where the concentration of skilled workers are. Yes, there are educated people elsewhere, but industries benefit from drawing upon a concentration of an industry in one place and the networking opportunities it affords. Please read the Richard Florida articles!
New York is a mindset all its own. Good and bad, the mindset is one of megatropolis-itis. It's Gotham high brow, great for mass culture urbanism. The downside is a thought process that treats everywhere else like hinterlands subserviently serving the primate city. New York doesn't give two figs or know what it's like in Ruralania. Everywhere else is beneath New York in stature. As a consequence, what New York publishes doesn't fully serve the hinterlands, writers or readers.
Take off the blinders, get out and enjoy the countryside, New York. Discover rural arts and broaden horizons.
Given the rise of eBooks, publishing needs to be a low cost business. Being in New York does not make publishing a low cost business. If anything, being in NY raises the overhead for a business that already has slim margins.
With computers, cover art can be freelanced out and files can be sent in. Edits can also be done remotely. And book layout in InDesign can be done anywhere. These skills are not location specific or incredibly difficult to learn.
Book marketing barely exists now, and publishers would hire outside firms anyway.
So what else am I missing besides copyright stuff and book sales to distributors and chains?
Why do you need a highly educated work force for this business model? What is so challenging about it?
Nathan: what are these skills that can only be found in NY? I just don't get it.
Don't forget that these places can also draw talent to the pool. Just like publishers settling in one place they can draw talent to them. Writers can go to New York, like actors go to LA and computer programmers go to Silicon Valley. You can always be small in one market, but there is always a place called the Big-time.
I don't think it matters where a publisher is located. Signing on excellent authors and publishing great books – that's the deal. I believe publishers can find talent in every corner of the globe.
I think this sort of ignores one important point. The assumption seems to be that there needs to be a central office at all. I think we all know that people are working remotely more and more. (I type this from my couch between editing articles of my own.) In fact, it was always my experience with editors that when ever they wanted to get some real editing done…they worked from home where there aren't pointless meetings and a million phone calls. The question isn't really "Do publishers need NY offices?" but "Do they need an office, and if so, how big does it really need to be?"
There's also something to be said for hiring the best, and not just the closest person for the job…and the ability to pay "South Dakota" salaries instead of "NYC salaries."
anon-
The same could be said of the computer industry. Everyone could work remotely, particularly because everyone is already so Internet savvy. So why are so many companies in San Francisco and Silicon Valley?
Because there's a benefit to face to face communication, networking, and talent (and experience) pools.
Well, isn't it obvious? New York is just cooler.
🙂
Having worked in NYC publishing for a couple of decades, I thrived in the density of talent with creative, intelligent people working very hard to produce the best possible work.
Now, living and working across the river, I can tell you it just ain't the same. I miss the stimulation of a bright, creative environment (but I don't miss the commute).
@Nathan:
But I would argue that the computer industry has challenging problems that need the talent to be available locally in teams. So I get Silicon Valley.
But Hollywood has seen a shift to Canada, where most of our TV shows and some movies today are filmed to save money.
I don't think publishing has many new problems that need folks available in person on a day to day basis. Besides networking, what are the advantages for publishing to be in NY?
Nathan,
As a New Yorker myself, I for one hope New York remains the hub of publishing; both for my own writing interests and as a New York tax payer!
That said, I think the "overhead" of the publishing business will probably migrate out of NY as the publishing business continues to evolve and face pricing pressure. I'm talking about the "worker-bees" (i.e. administration, marketing, shipping, design, etc.) There is no reason to maintain this presence in a pricey market such as NY, and other emerging business hubs are offering favorable tax advantages to businesses to move work forces to their town (Cincinnati, and Minneapolis come to mind).
Nathan – you parallel this to the technology industry maintaining their presence in Silicon Valley. Interestingly enough, my day job is in tech so I know a lot about this. A lot of the Silicon Valley companies are maintaining their management presence in pricey CA, but moving their developers, QA people, support, etc. to cheaper areas. We all know about outsourcing to India, but I am seeing a move to Florida, Texas, and even Canada.
Publishers will always maintain some presence in NY. They can't afford not to. Their "worker-bees" may move elsewhere, but management will stay in NY.
anon-
Even if movies are filmed in Canada, the studios and agents are mostly in LA.
Publishing is a collaborative process–there are meetings to decide which books to acquire, how best to produce and market them, etc. etc., and this means lots and lots of meetings. Not to mention lunches with agents and editors from other houses and various other socializing, during which lots and lots and lots of information and ideas are exchanged.
And yeah, you can videoconference, but it's just not the same.
But really, all of this kind of strikes me as kind of missing the forest from the trees. The marginal cost of renting Manhattan office space vs. Illinois office space is what, a couple million dollars? Ten million dollars? For a company that measures its revenue in the billions and profit in the hundreds of millions that ten million dollars is a relative drop in the bucket.
I loved loved loved being in New York, but the oh-god-why-cost of living is wretched and I didn't even live there. I lived in Boston which is absolutely no better, and took a train to NY every weekend. The density of everything is incredibly stimulating and awesome, but financially it made no sense for little old me to move there, not when I could move home to Nebraska and pay a third of what I paid out East and do most of the same work from home.
I get that it is nice to be so close to each other and to talent – because let's face it, the city itself draws the talent – but when companies are struggling and people are struggling, maybe changing locales is something to think about. Moving out to cheaper real estate climate isn't necessarily a bad idea to consider. I don't run a billion dollar company though so who knows? Maybe it isn't such an expense in the big picture.
Still, I think it is interesting that one of the big problems the publishing industry seems to be facing is the fact they aren't adapting quickly to the technological changes being made around them by others. These days so much work doesn't even need to be made IN the workplace thanks to technology. Some things yes, and occassionally definitely, but I work in an office that functions quite well when people work from home.
As someone who works in regional planning and deals with this kind of stuff all the time, let me tell you it's not all about land values. There are many factors that go into whether (or NOT) you can attract a talent pool to a location, whether workers will be happy, whether they will *flee* because they can't handle the political/economic/religious/civic nature of the area. I'm sorry, but as cheap as (for instance) central California is, there is no way either the publishing industry or the computer industry could thrive here with the region's majority values (including rampant anti-intellectualism). That being said, I do think the publishing industry could make better use of information technology to spread out at least a little bit, if there was really a benefit to doing so. I doubt the real estate is as big an issue as employee salaries and benefits, and I'm not going to suggest slashing someone's pay so I can have a paperback a dollar cheaper. No, I think NY's future (if it has much of one) is going to have to be innovation and evolution rather than budget-balancing.
Sometimes I daydream about how much easier my life would be if the publishing industry picked up and moved lock, stock, and barrel from New York to Cleveland, a city that's been bleeding jobs and population for decades, but which retains the vestiges and mystique of an old American city. I mean, I used to live in New York, used to work in publishing. I loved working in publishing and I loved living in New York. But I moved back to Cleveland because life is complicated and as you get older, you find that you have other responsibilities. I guess.
There's been a lot of talk lately about enticing artists into moving to the Rust Belt. I overheard a couple of enthusiastic new urbanist types talking about this on the bus the other day: "All you need to attract artists is cheap rent and a positive attitude!" Well, but also you need decent day jobs for them, and a critical mass of educated people who will be interested in their art. New York has those things; Rust Belt cities, maybe not as much.
I also think creative people just like living in places that look and feel like *somewhere*, and while relocating them to an office park in central Pennsylvania might make better business sense, it's going to squash the life out of them. (See "Michigan CEO: Soul-Crushing Sprawl Killing Business" at RustWire.)
I think Nicholas Cage said it best in one of his movies. "If Rome was the center of civilization for the Roman Empire then New York City is the Rome for modern times." Or something like that.
Thank you for the history lesson, Nathan. I always wondered why NYC is the center. NYC always had a glamorous connection with publishing. In comic novels NYC and publishing is also appeared one way or another (i.e.: Daily Planet). NYC is not lost. The question is; do they want to save it or not. But I don't believe that a new symbol can replace NYC. That publisher is going to win who will stay behind in NYC after all the others left. That one will have the greatest prestige, a symbol, while the rest must rebuild everything from the beginning.
MaryZ
"I miss the stimulation of a bright, creative environment"
The usual quantity vs. quality problem. Unfortunately it's appearing in every industry.
yes, there's the critical mass theory / argument as for why the publishing industry is NYC centric. However, that attitude breeds a snobbery that insulates NY pubs from larger, national realities. Riding the subway, one might assume from the many people one sees reading that the publishing industry is fine (tons of people read on the train.) Although I doubt publishing execs take their cues from the No.6, I believe it relates to a snobbery – about the rest of the country – that works against a NY centric world view, specifically writers who, if they don't live there, are viewed as provincial. I've lived in NY, and not lived in NY, and have come to the conclusion that while it's exciting to live there, it's not particularly conducive to actual writing. The self-inflation New Yorkers seem to derive from weathering snow, and riding around in metal containers underground is funny if you think about it (esp. since they all look so serious doing it.)
Not living there affects one's career in the practical way you describe: during the course of the day, you're less likely (okay, unlikely) to run into a colleague. However, that lack of personal contact would seem to be contradicted by the oft played tune, "The internet's going to solve everything." Maybe the fact that there are advantages and disadvantages to living in an 19th century city are the same contradictions we're seeing played out in publishing ie., print vs. digital?
The tech industry, and Hollywood, are different animals that operate a bit differently. Still, what I'm suggesting is that at least one publisher get out ahead of the curve, and downsize its offices. Publishers already work with freelancers all over the country — designers, proofreaders, etc. — many of whom have left New York and the full-time publishing world. In fact, at some houses, I'd say those freelancers do the majority of the heavy lifting. Smaller, smarter offices and a digital workforce could really kick-start a much needed change in an industry struggling with profit margins.
I agree with the cluster theory. Even porn has its own little cluster thing going on in The Valley.
I think he simplest answer is that they're in New York because that's where they've always been. Why move? I mean, besides the obvious pool of talent, agents, editors, et al, the mechanics of the industry are located in and around the area.
I'm sure we'll start to see more imprints popping up in other areas, but if I'm a huge publishing house that's been in a specific area for years, and I'm experiencing relative success, why would I want to change that?
I don't think WHERE the publishing industry is will be as important in the digital age as its mindset. If they can't stop thinking in the old pre-digital ways, they're going to be in trouble wherever they're located, just like the big brick and mortar bookstores.
If moving would help them start thinking in newer ways, then it might be good for them, but there's no reason they can't do the same thing right where they are.
New York and other large cities seem to have a vibrancy that appeals to all – they have super jazz spots, fashion houses,and the big publishers.
There is also a certain business logic to consolidating to be near suppliers and associated industries, but writing talent isn't clustered in 3 or 4 cities.
It's not as important as it was — with online access — to live near the centre of the publishing world.
Elitism survives in daily life, simply because the elite like to be above the masses. Do NY publishers give preference to NY writers, considering the rest of us to be 'lesser than'?
I'd prefer to see publishing in a large city rather than a small town, based on attitudes that seem prevalent in small communities. I can't see that moving out of NY is going to change anything that much. Especially when no one is sure what is on the horizon.
Just let the authors/writers survive, that's what really counts.
It seems now that most people in publishing (lit agents,editors,etc)have a book in mind themselves that they want to get published.
Is that why agents, editors & writers are clustered in New York?
I see the validity of your arguments, Nathan, but there's another factor that I think should be considered: Being centered in New York, a unique and rarefied environment, can cause publishers to be out of touch with the majority of their potential readers scattered across the country. The ethos of Middle America, the South, the Northwest, or any other region you care to name is radically different from the ethos of New York.
Also, I contend that many writers only live in New York in order to be close to publishers. Chances are a lot of them would rather live somewhere else.
Personally, I wish the industry would move to the middle of the country somewhere. It's frustrating for writers on the West Coast to be so far from "where it's happening." Especially since, as writers, we don't have the budget for travel.
Nathan,
Great work, look forward to each post. I really think this day in age if you are putting out a great product people will find you. I come from the print side of things and worked with hundreds and hundreds of publishers big and small and we never thought one area of the country stood out…being big does not mean they were great to work with or knew what they were doing. That I can promise you. I think getting back to working directly with the author is the way things are going and you the author should have more and more say in each decision, if you're not…then you're losing opportunities. Keep up the great work.
Nathan Kuiper
Compass Book
I can see why clustering works really well for publishers.
But have you ever seen the movie Interstate 60? Remember the town of Morlaw?
Sometimes I wonder if clustering that much is healthy.
I am an editor who is located in Montreal, Canada, when most of mainstream publishing is located in Toronto, and some of the more renegade publishing is in British Columbia (out west). I can tell you from my experience that location has certainly affected how I feel about publishing. Montreal is in Quebec, which is primarily a French-language province, and I work at an English-language publisher. There is certainly a place for that in Quebec as well, but I don't know of any other publishing house that works in mainstream publishing in Montreal. As a result, I do often feel isolated and not steeped in publishing the way I would like to be (though at times I appreciate the break as well). But as an editor, I feel it's important to be in touch with a community — editing is about collaboration and conversation — in order to understand the shifts that are happening in form and market — in order to better communicate them — and I sometimes fear the lack of that (I compensate by reading wonderful blogs such as these!). It's easy to quantify financial benefits — but there are some things, while not easily measurable, really determine not only our success but also our satisfaction with what we are doing.
I hink another reason, industry density works for publishing is that it's still very much a face-to-face industry.
Lots of business meetings over lunch, which could arguably be done by email. But that's just a characteristic of the industry. And as long as those lunches stay important, publishers, agents, authors and illustrators will have every reason to be in NYC or at least within striking distance.
Clustering happens with criminals too. Here's a link to a Wired mag article about how a small town in Romania became "Cybercrime Central"…
https://tinyurl.com/5wccy64
NOTE to those commenters referring to the movie industry filming a lot in Canada – it's mainly Vancouver.
We have an film industry in Vancouver that has proved very efficient and sometimes cheaper than producing in LA. There is also a large talent pool of actors & support industries to select from.
Recent productions (still filming) include the current sequel for Twilight. Tom Cruise and his wife shop and visit here while he's filming another Mission Impossible movie. They call Vancouver 'Hollywood North' for a reason.
So the film industry knows that expansion outside the 'centre' can be profitable. Some of their best directors are stepping outside the protective bubble of familiarity.
As an author, I love having a California agent. But there's nothing quite like having a NYC publisher, even as the empire is wobbling.
New authors must differentiate themselves as never before, these days. Landing a New York publisher isn't a bad way to do that.
And it's not easy getting past the old-school gatekeepers. After all that striving for all those years, I'd prefer not to receive editorial and publicity correspondence from Just Anywhere, USA.
Call it sentimental or elitist or delusional but, as with the mythic notion of Hollywood, I think it's great that authors still have a physical address for their dreams.
1) Not all tech industries are in Silicon Valley. And these days, the HQ may be in one locale but the majority of tech workers are either at low-cost hubs (Arkansas and Texas, and other places without a state income tax) in the States, offshore or they work from home.
2) Just because a company or industry has revenue in the billions doesn't mean it's profitable. You have to look at profit margins, which may be razor thin or even negative. In that case, cutting overhead costs by even a few million CAN make a huge difference to the bottom line. The Big 6 chose to cut a heck of a lot of talent instead of real estate a couple of years ago, opting for short-term gain over long-term value. That's because investors are interested in short-term profitability in a shaky economy, NOT in the overall health of a company or industry.
You only have to look at Michigan and its housing economy and unemployment stats to see what happens when an industry stays concentrated.
I think this underscores another important point: If the market's doing something, it's doing it for a reason. Believe it or not, most businesses tend to make rational decisions. (Otherwise, they wouldn't stay in business very long.) We don't have to complain about this; we just have to find our own place in the market, our own little niche.
Great post, Nathan. This is the sort of stuff that makes the economist in me smile:)
I think Windsor, Ontario, would be far superior. Just sayin'.
Good question…I've worked in publishing or printing in NYC for most of my career and sometimes I've wanted to relocate, but it's hard to figure out where to go. There are great publishing houses here and there outside NYC, but it would be risky to take a job at one of them–in case it didn't work out.
I disagree that NYC publishers are provincial and don't care about the hinterlands. My novel is set in NYC and that's not something that's very interesting to people in publishing–I think they'd much rather read about a place that seems exotic to them (a ranch in Montana? another country? etc etc)…
Publishing requires a whole lot of younger assistants who will work for very little money–and no, not all of them have trust funds. Perhaps it's easier to find this pool of well educated, liberal arts grads in and near NYC than in some other cities.
But I think it's mostly just due to tradition….
Tradition is a heavy weight. I think there will still be major publishers in New York for a long time to come. But times "are a changing…"
I just had a picture book accepted by Beach Lane Books. Beach Lane Books is Allyn Johnston's imprint at Simon and Schuster and it's located in La Jolla, CA Allyn is, for my money, the Steven Spielberg of editors. I think where she is located is unimportant.
I have three books published by Guardian Angel Publishing. GAP is located in St Louis Mo.
The WWW had made us all much more of a global community. We're all local now.
One thing that one might point out about the publishing talent is that it came to New York – it likely wasn’t born and raised there. ☺ I would argue that if someone in publishing doesn’t want to relocate to … oh, I dunno, Utah or Nevada or a less exciting area, he/she probably went into it for all the wrong reasons.
The manufacturing plants that moved to the South (nonunion states) had the right idea. I’ve noticed that most of my clients have small offices in big cities like NYC and LA but do the bulk of their business out of Texas or Washington State. Reason? Austin and Seattle are the two most educated cities in the U.S. One of two people has a four-year university degree, and Austin takes the lead in the highest population with masters degrees and PhDs. It would be easier to go where the biggest pools of talent exist.
All of these things are points to consider for the publishing industry, not only when considering its future but when looking at our shabby state of our country’s economics — which is not going to change soon. It would very still be sad to see the industry leave New York. Will the industry make a smart business decision? I don’t know. I mean, I never thought I’d see the day where the music industry in L.A. would crumble, and yet it did. Had it already had a presence established anywhere else but one of the most cost-prohibitive cities in which to do business, it could have rallied.
Great review on this topic and you did it again.
It took a day to do? It's loaded with information.
Thanks for all you do Nathan Bransford.
Nathan, you write about the most interesting things! Albeit, controversial. And I have to admit, I was very judgemental about Publishing in New York, but you've changed my mind.
You're right. History, contact density, access to professional worker, it makes sense that publishers haven't moved.
I also just realized that after all those years of paying rent, not to mention billion dollar budgets, they probably own the buildings by now, anyway.
Besides, I really don't think that cost-cutting is the way for publishers to go right now anyway. They need to spend MORE money. They need to spend money on fostering author loyalty and strengthening their imprint. They also need to start thinking creatively. In the same way that we've been advising bookstores to diversify and think out of the box, I think publishers could benefit from doing the same thing.
I would like to see the major publishers spread throughout the country rather than all located in one city. I think their having a little more cultural/regional diversity would help them do a better job of selling books, collectively, to the entire nation.
Plus, I don't see publishing as a high-margin business. If it was high margin in the past, it won't be in the future. Low-margin businesses need to keep their overhead low.
re: talent, people go where the jobs are. I live in Seattle because a Seattle-area tech company offered me a job. Not all tech companies are located in Silicon Valley. Seattle is a major tech hub, as is Austin, TX. This is a good thing, if for no other reason than we wouldn't want our entire tech industry to be wiped out by an earthquake 🙂
Also, I'm told many publishing industry jobs don't pay very well. Doesn't that make the cost of living in New York a problem for some people?
My supervisor in grad school once said if you want to build a world-class research university, the one thing you must do is put everybody's offices in the same building.
Human beings spark ideas off one another and come up with better solutions than they could working alone.
This is why it's so important for writers to read widely–most of our work must be done alone, so reading is our way to spark ideas off one another.
It's important to note that most of these industries clustered in one location before the advent of electronic communication, which allows people on different continents to communicate almost instantaneously. The industry in New York probably has enough gravity to keep attracting people there, but it's not completely implausible that new companies could rise up elsewhere and help distribute the industry more geographically, especially given all the shake-ups lately.
Interesting points – I've never given a thought to why all the publishers are located in one place but it makes sense.
I love New York so much. If my husband would agree to it, I'd pay a ton of money to live in a closet-sized studio in East Village. I can see why publishers would want to stay put.
This makes a lot of sense, but one reason publishers should consider migrating is that talent is also migrating. More and more urban intensification and reclaimed industrial space is happening in smaller, once-robust towns (such as my own, Winston-Salem, which is re-imagining itself a hub for the arts instead of the cradle of the tobacco industry).
Although saving on Manhattan rent may not ultimately be the difference between fiscal life and death, cost of living for employees is also startlingly lower outside major urban areas, most prominently in New York.
While I certainly don't want a trend of underpaying publishing employees, adjusting salaries commensurate with cost of living—when coupled with lower operating expenses—could certainly make a difference to a house's bottom line. And maybe plumbing other reservoirs of talent (particularly the kind of talent already focused on seeing new possibilities in established areas) might bring some fresh ideas to the industry.