publishing

pub·lish·ing

noun \-shiŋ\

: the business of producing books, magazines, etc., to sell to the public

Full Definition of PUBLISHING

:  the business or profession of the commercial production and issuance of literature, information, musical scores or sometimes recordings, or art <newspaper publishing> <software publishing>

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Examples of PUBLISHING

1. He was hoping to get a job in publishing after college.
2. Her sister works for a well-known publishing company.

First Known Use of PUBLISHING

1580

publishing

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

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.