publishing: Definition, Synonyms from Answers.com

Traditionally, the selection, preparation, and distribution of printed matter — including books, newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets. Contemporary publishing includes the production of materials in digital formats such as CD-ROMs, as well as materials created or adapted for electronic distribution. Publishing has evolved from small, ancient, and law- or religion-bound origins into a vast industry that disseminates every kind of information imaginable. In the modern sense of a copying industry supplying a lay readership, publishing began in Hellenistic Greece, in Rome, and in China. After paper reached the West from China in the 11th century, the central innovation in Western publishing was Johannes Gutenberg's invention of movable type. In the 19th and 20th centuries, technological advances, the rise of literacy and leisure, and ever-increasing information needs contributed to an unprecedented expansion of publishing. Contemporary challenges in publishing include attempts at censorship, copyright laws and plagiarism, royalties for authors and commissions for literary agents, competitive marketing techniques, pressures from advertisers affecting editorial independence, acquisition of independent publishing concerns by conglomerates, and the loss of readers to other media such as television and the Internet.

For more information on publishing, visit Britannica.com.

	database publishing (technology)
	run around (technology)
	electronic publishing (technology)

	Should you use self-publishing or traditional publishing as a writer publishing a first book? Read answer...
	What is the differences between desktop publishing and web publishing? Read answer...
	Is Shadow Mountain publishing a self-publishing company? Read answer...

	How has digital publishing changed the publishing industry?
	What is the publishing dates of Bibles by Whitman publishing?
	How has digital publishing changed the publishing industry who are the major players in digital publishing?

		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Roget's Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more