How I Survived 40 Years in the Most Disrupted Industry Ever (and Why the Last 12 Months Changed Everything Again)

Jan Zucker
4 days ago
5 min read

Hello there,

How was your week? I've always hated the last 2 weeks of August and the last two weeks of December. Perhaps it's a shadow of my past life, where everybody left New York and magazine sales died. Thankfully, they always picked up again until they didn't. This week's newsletter is a bit different, so please take a moment to read on and let me know what you think.

As we celebrate Labor Day, I find myself reflecting not just on the dignity of work, but on the people who give that work meaning. This holiday has always been about honoring effort, resilience, and the communities we build together. And in publishing, through every disruption I’ve witnessed, that truth has held steady.

Last summer, I shared my story of surviving 40 years in publishing, navigating one disruption after another. Telegrams gave way to fax machines. Typewriters were replaced by word processors. The internet unleashed a wave of free content that gutted entire industries.

Each shift felt massive at the time. Each one forced me to adapt, retool, and keep moving forward.

But if I thought those 40 years were turbulent, the last 12 months have moved faster than all of them combined. AI hasn’t just changed how we work. It has compressed decades of disruption into a single year.

And yet, through it all, one truth has never changed: success still comes down to people and connections. Tools evolve. The pace accelerates. But relationships remain the one constant that determines who thrives and who fades away.

That is why I have updated my story now, as we turn the corner into fall, the moment when summer ends, focus sharpens, and the real push into 2026 begins. If there is one lesson worth carrying forward, it is this: technology rewrites the rules, but people still write the story.

The Golden Age (no, not retrievers, magazines)

My first 2 employees waiting for their routes

When I first entered publishing, my “office” was simple:

A calculator
Two filing cabinets
A landline
A piece of plywood for a desk
And stacks of paper

The metric was clear: how many copies you could print and where you could place them. Distribution channels were the lifeline.

But even then, the difference wasn’t paper and ink. It was the people who opened the doors, took the calls, and trusted you to deliver.

Experiments That Taught Me More Than Success Did

I launched COMEDY, a magazine on the business of laughter. Great content, strong vision. Three issues in, it was gone.

I opened The Idle Hour, a bookstore in Greenwich Village. Beautiful space, filled with books I loved. Six months later, I sold it.

On paper, failures. In reality, some of my most valuable lessons.

Content is worthless if nobody knows you exist.
You cannot serve clients until you understand their struggles firsthand.

The lesson wasn’t about magazines or bookstores. It was about perspective, empathy, and the importance of relationships.

The Collapse That Forced Me to Start Over

For 35 years, my distribution company survived recessions, terrorist attacks, and economic shocks. Each time, I thought: We will ride this out.

Then came free online content. At first, just another dip. Then deeper. Then permanent.

When I sold the company, the number of distributors had shrunk from 500 to three. An entire industry had been gutted. I was two years too late and lost more money than I care to remember.

The takeaway? You can adapt to storms. But you cannot outwait a tidal wave.

And once again, the difference wasn’t technology. It was people. My team, my clients, and the relationships that carried me forward when the old playbook no longer worked.

The Pivot That Saved Me

Out of that collapse came Digital Content Creators.

This time, I made a vow: never fight change again. Embrace it. Stay ahead of it. Pivot quickly when the ground shifts.

For 15 years, that is what we have done. But the heart of the work has not been about tools. It has been about authors, coaches, entrepreneurs, and the people behind the content.

One of my proudest moments was when an author turned down a traditional publisher because, in their words, “You really get me and my work.”

That is when I knew the model worked. Technology scales us. Relationships define us.

The AI Tsunami

Now we face the fastest disruption yet.

AI has done in 12 months what used to take decades. Workflows reimagined. Creativity questioned. Entire industries unsettled.

Some fear AI will kill creativity. I see the opposite.

Used well, AI is a tool to:

Spark new ideas
Increase productivity
Act as a sounding board
Scale a business without scaling headcount

But here is the deeper truth: AI can generate content. It cannot generate trust.

And trust is still the currency of survival.

Lessons That Still Matter

After 40 years, and especially after this past year, the same principles hold true:

Relationships beat algorithms. Tech shifts. People don’t.
Unique value matters more than volume. Tools amplify. But only originality cuts through.
Flexibility is survival. If you can pivot fast, you will outlast those who cannot.

The publishing industry has reinvented itself countless times. AI is just the latest.

But the constant is clear: technology may rewrite the rules, but people still write the story.

So as we mark Labor Day, the moment between coasting and building, ask yourself: How can you use these new tools not just to work faster, but to connect deeper?

Because in the end, it will not be AI that determines who thrives. It will be the relationships you build, the trust you earn, and the people who choose to walk with you into 2026.

Let’s Talk

If you are an author, coach, or content creator who wants to harness these new tools without losing the human connection that makes your work matter, here are the options we can connect:

Thanks again for being part of this community. Let’s keep showing up — for ourselves, for each other, and for the work that still deserves to be seen.

More soon,

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