Er-uh-excuse me. The ship is sinking.

Bob Sacks reports back from the Periodical and Book Association of America(PBAA) meeting. He and Samir Husni had a stimulating debate. There were some thoughtful and hope-inducing presentations. But there also was a shocking supply of self-destructive conventional wisdom. It was as if some industry people thought it okay to steer through the icebergs. Apparently there was a supply chain panel and a wholesaler told of a program that reduced inefficiencies. This was good; but another panelist dismissed the results by trotting out that old chestnut, "cut the draw and you cut the sales."
Sacks notes

Anyone that tells you there absolutely cannot be improvement in the print-ten-copies-and-sell-three model is leading you towards a big iceberg in an increasingly digitized sea. Get off now or get off later, it's your decision, but I guarantee you are getting off that ship or sinking with it.

I can attest to the self-delusional conventional wisdom that poisons the magazine publishing industry. In preparation for the launch of Magazine Retailer magazine, I asked a number of leading publishing people what information they thought I should deliver to retailers. They told me the following:

Since the magazine category is one of the most profitable in a retail store, they should know that they should devote more space to magazines.

I thought, thank you very much. I'm going to tell retailers what does and doesn't sell in their stores. That was just the first of the many quaint notions that it was my privilege to encounter. But jeez, I thought the "cut the draw" routine had gone to that great shredder in the sky.