CNN reported earlier that newspaper sales are generally down by 2% in the US, while online news viewing has increased by 8%. I definitely contribute to that increase. Living an ex-pat existence for most of the year, I appreciate, more than most, the ability to get news from my favorite dailies over the Internet. While the morning coffee is brewing, my T3 is syncing with AvantGo, and instead of six sections of the New York Times competing at the breakfast table for space with my cereal bowl, spoon in one hand and T3 in the other, I skim through their digital counterparts without the bother of advertising or clutter.

Following the Times, I skim through my collection of ten other news and technology sources, including the international edition of Time Magazine, where I can get a look at the week’s cover photo and a taste of the articles inside. I sate my information hunger with Quick News business and technical feeds, carry the dishes to the sink, and start my work day fully refreshed.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich confirmed, during his interview by Steven Colbert on May 9th, the seriousness of this trend when he said that PDAs spelled doom for the newsprint industry. I downloaded that episode of Comedy Central in Moscow, from iTunes to my PC (while I patiently wait for Apple to buy Palm and take the video iPod to its ultimate incarnation). I think PDAs (including “smart” phones) spell the same doom for book publishers, broadcast TV, music and video discs.

Before I became a voracious eBook reader, I ordered my bestsellers from Amazon, waited an average of three weeks for them to wind their way through the postal maze that stretches between California and Moscow, and paid a premium of 40% for the “pleasure.” Now, they are minutes away via eReader, Mobipocket and Fictionwise, at an average of 30% less than hardcover prices.

Most of you have broad consumer choices, as you are from cities full of shopping malls. For those of us living in the thousands of diasporas scattered around the planet, digital is our only choice. No matter what our native language or culture (or what language or culture we are studying), there are digital newspapers, libraries, music and video collections just a few keystrokes away. The Russians call it “mir tesen”—it’s a small world!

Personally, I don’t think that Sony will be any more successful with their new eBook reader than earlier failed platforms. I do think that the mobile device users of the world will increasingly read and watch on them simply because they can, but that those activities will always remain secondary. Primary will be real-time life management including phone calls, emails and instant messaging. Whatever will be, I’m smiling smugly now because I’m already there!

Jeffrey Barrie, Moscow, Russian Federation

For the previous entry, I had to dig around in some dusty areas of my sales library. The oldest sales book was part of a series of twenty volumes called “Modern Business” dating from 1958. I bought them for $5 from our next door neighbor’s garage sale. His wife had made him toss them out, and my wife was mad at me for buying them (they require three feet of shelf space). Although I consider 1958 as almost yesterday, these books are nearly fifty years old. Most of the people I work with in SalesWays were not yet born then.

In 1958, I was living in the UK. Buddy Holly had recorded “That’ll Be The Day” in 1957. The Beatles were listening and they would do their own great thing five years later. I was not thinking at all about sales. But somebody was, because the volume called “Salesmanship” has a lot of good stuff in it. When I wrote Sales Automation Done Right, I had not read these books—they had been gathering dust, waiting for my wife’s next garage sale. There are some gems here, and now, there is no way that I will ever let them go.

Here are just a few of the ideas that will be just as appropriate in 2008, sixty years on from when they were written:

1958: “When one accepts the idea that selling is a process, he has started on the right path.”
1958: “While selling seems to be primarily an art, it still has certain aspects of a science. . . as a science, it requires the mastery of certain fundamentals which have evolved from success by others.”
1958: “In selling your product, a prospect needs conviction if you would close him.”
1958: “Analyzing a sales opportunity. If a sales opportunity arises, it is important that you carefully study it before reaching a conclusion as to whether you should make an effort to take an advantage of it.”
1958: “Value of planning. In the process of selling, planning plays a major role . . .”

Of course, the most influential factor in the progress of sales is not mentioned in “Salesmanship.” It would be another 35 years before personal computers would develop as the technology tool of choice for salespeople everywhere.