I think that any time I have an opinion or a question regarding the media industry in general, I’m going to post that picture of “girl on laptop” because to me, that epitomizes where we are right now as a society. We are all sitting by ourselves, connected to the internet, while the clock ticks endlessly forward, wondering what the future holds.

A recent piece in AdAge asks if we are ready to pay for content online, content that, if we do enough searching and sifting, we should be able to find for free somewhere else. And what is happening to the quality of this content?

According to a survey released this week by PWR New Media, a leading e-marketing firm based in Chicago, Illinois, 60% of journalists responded that they now contribute to a blog or other on-line site. 39% of these journalists said they acquired these responsibilities in the past year and 71% added on-line work to their duties in the past two years.

Lisa Genova, self-published author of Still Alice, credits Kelley & Hall for getting her book noticed by national media, which resulted in a six-figure book deal.

We wanted to send a congratulations to our wonderful client, Lisa Genova, for her new deal with Simon & Schuster! Here is the mention from Publisher’s Weekly.

Pocket Wins Debut

Anthony Ziccardi at Pocket was the victor in an auction for a first novel by Lisa Genova titled Still Alice; Vicky Bijur sold world rights. The book is about a successful 50-year-old professor and renowned linguistics specialist who has finally found time to enjoy her marriage and career now that her three children are grown, but whose accelerating memory lapses culminate in a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s. As she struggles with the steady stripping away of her cognitive abilities, she finds new meaning in the moment and a different level of intimacy in the indeterminate time that remains. Genova, who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard, is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer’s Association. Senior editor Kathy Sagan will edit, and planned pub date is early 2009; post-BEA, there are translation rights offers on the table in several countries.