“Innovation and disruption are ideas that originated in the arena of business but which have since been applied to arenas whose values and goals are remote from the values and goals of business. People aren’t disk drives. Public schools, colleges and universities, churches, museums, and many hospitals, all of which have been subjected to disruptive innovation, have revenues and expenses and infrastructures, but they aren’t industries in the same way that manufacturers of hard-disk drives or truck engines or drygoods are industries. Journalism isn’t an industry in that sense, either.Doctors have obligations to their patients, teachers to their students, pastors to their congregations, curators to the public, and journalists to their readers--obligations that lie outside the realm of earnings, and are fundamentally different from the obligations that a business executive has to employees, partners, and investors. Historically, institutions like museums, hospitals, schools, and universities have been supported by patronage, donations made by individuals or funding from church or state. The press has generally supported itself by charging subscribers and selling advertising. (Underwriting by corporations and foundations is a funding source of more recent vintage.) Charging for admission, membership, subscriptions and, for some, earning profits are similarities these institutions have with businesses. Still, that doesn’t make them industries, which turn things into commodities and sell them for gain.”

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About Jill Lepore

American historian and journalist, born 1966

Jill Lepore is an American historian and journalist. She is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Born in 1966, she is known for writing across American history, law, literature, and politics. Since joining The New Yorker in 2005, Lepore has written essays and reported pieces that connect the past to public life. Her work often moves between historical inquiry and contemporary debate, with a focus on how institutions, ideas, and narratives shape American life.

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Books by Jill Lepore

These Truths

2018

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The Secret History of Wonder Woman

2014

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If Then

2021

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Book of Ages

2013

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Encounters in the New World

1999

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