Editing Mass media (section)

=== Publishing ===
[[File:PrintMus 081.jpg|thumb|A member of staff at the [[International Printing Museum]] demonstrates printing with a 19th-century, hand-operated [[Columbian press]].]]<nowiki> </nowiki>[[Publishing]] is the industry concerned with the production of [[literature]] or [[information]] – the activity of making information available for public view. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers.
Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works such as [[book]]s and [[newspaper]]s. With the advent of digital information systems and the [[Internet]], the scope of publishing has expanded to include [[website]]s, [[blog]]s and the like.

As a [[business]], publishing includes the development, [[marketing]], [[Mass production|production]], and [[distribution (business)|distribution]] of newspapers, magazines, books, [[literary work]]s, [[musical composition|musical works]], [[software]] and other works dealing with information.

Publication is also important as a [[law|legal concept]]; (1) as the process of giving formal notice to the world of a significant intention, for example, to marry or enter bankruptcy, and; (2) as the essential precondition of being able to claim [[defamation]]; that is, the alleged [[libel]] must have been published.

==== Software publishing ====

A [[software publisher]] is a [[publishing]] [[company (law)|company]] in the [[software industry]] between the [[software developer|developer]] and the [[distribution (business)|distributor]]. In some companies, two or all three of these roles may be combined (and indeed, may reside in a single person, especially in the case of [[shareware]]).

Software publishers often license software from developers with specific limitations, such as a time limit or geographical region. The terms of licensing vary enormously, and are typically secret.

Developers may use publishers to reach larger or foreign markets, or to avoid focussing on marketing. Or publishers may use developers to create software to meet a market need that the publisher has identified.