Tomorrow will mark the anniversary of the passing of our founder, Sir John Templeton. You can read more about his legacy as an investor, philanthropist, and visionary in our memorial post from last year.
1912-2008
One of the hallmarks of his personal philosophy was the idea of seeking “progress” in all endeavors. I think he would have found the past year fascinating — especially with regard to the progress we’ve been pursuing in our little corner of the publishing world. In our mission statement, he tasked us with seeking progress “through the development, acquisition, and publishing of books, videos, and other publications that will ultimately result in distribution of the materials to individuals and institutions through domestic and international sales, distribution, and translations.” In other words, he wanted us to disseminate knowledge on our core subject areas through any and all means to the widest possible audience.
In the past year we’ve not only witnessed the blossoming of new technologies that will bring our titles to a wider global audience (e-books, widgets, downloadable audio books, freely browsable online samples, etc.), but also an explosion of new ways of spreading our message beyond the book format through social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, our blogs, etc.). We’re even working on building our first iPhone App. It’s an exciting time to be involved in the publishing business — full of uncertainty, but also full of the kinds of possibilities that Sir John famously sought during other uncertain times.
Things are changing. The publishing world is experiencing progress on an unprecedented scale, and by embracing these advances we hope to honor his legacy as a true forward-thinking visionary.
