Class Today: Reflection Writing

"Until the early 20th century capitalists were more than willing to invest in what appeared to be an expanding market for print. Nonetheless, complex and costly machinery upset all the relationships among the various types of printing. The bulk of the presses' work was now newspapers, government work, and advertising, and increases in fixed costs obliged the industry to work for long press-runs. This meant that redoubled efforts had to be made to enlarge the book market, and the book, a medium whose vocation had been largely elitist, henceforth tended to lose importance from an economic viewpoint" (Martin 414).