FROM GUTENBERG TO JOBS

We often miss the changes that impact civilization because we are too busy living. This was true for my parents who were born before airplanes, television, computers and mobile phones. It is also true today, as we witness the global transformation from the printed page to digital media.

Johannes Gutenberg gets most of the credit for the printing press. In fact, the Chinese printer, Pi Sheng, invented movable type about three hundred years before Gutenberg. Regardless, Gutenberg changed the world. His press could produce 3,600 printed pages per day compared to 40 per day at the time. By 1500 Europe was producing over 20 million books a year. This expanded literacy led to growth of the middle / merchant class and the ultimate liberation of peasants from the Monarch system. One could draw a line through time to say: Gutenberg improved human literacy to make the American, French, and Russian Revolutions possible. No small feat. Today, printing is in decline. Newspapers and magazines are struggling to maintain readers. For over 25 years I have subscribed to USA Today. USA Today was always the "People Magazine of Newspapers". Nothing to gritty just simple news. Perfect for an Airplane trip or to read with coffee. This week I let my subscription go. Like many other people I have moved on to digital media.

I currently get the Wall Street Journal and USA Today on my iPad. I also have National Geographic, Road & Track, and Los Angeles Magazine delivered via Zinio to my iPad. I'm sure I am not alone. Others are making this switch to reading books and newspapers on their mobile phones and iPads. By the holidays we will see dozens of new tablet style computers on the market. All of these will offer digital content.

If you get to Mainz Germany, just West of Frankfurt, visit the Gutenberg Museum: Link: http://www.gutenberg-museum.de/index.php?id=29&L=1
Mainz is over 2,000 years old. The Gutenberg Museum is over 100 years old. It was opened to celebrate Gutenberg's 500th Birthday. Maybe one day, 500 years from now, we will be able to visit the Jobs Museum in Cupertino. Like Gutenberg, Steve Jobs is creating change with a far reaching impact on civilization.