There are the cool kids — who use the latest slang, wear the latest fashion and listen to all the right music — and then there are the camp followers who try ever so hard, but never quite fit in.

I’m beginning to think that all those kids went on to be publishers.

The iPad comes out, and all the cool kids go and play with it. Publishers desperately search around for a way they can play too. Never mind that customers don’t really seem to want to read magazines and such on iPads.

“We just have to do it so we can be out there.”

I heard a publishing industry exec say exactly that.

And then there’s the whole “the web is social” business.

“Oh, gee, the web is social, so we have to get on the bandwagon and be social.”

It sounds so sad and desperate.

You can’t tweet how to comply with the FLSA.

Rather than the dreamy, awkward looks at what all the cool kids are doing, publishers need to look at how their market wants to use their content … and do that. The solution may not be sexy or cool, and that’s okay.