Idea, Instagram's Favorite Bookseller, Is Ready to Go Offline – The New York Times

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIdea, the fashion industry’s go-to dealer of rare art books, is sick of social media, so it’s moving to something more physical: a bookstore.David Owen, left, and Angela Hill built Idea, a beloved rare-book seller, largely on the back of Instagram’s early infrastructure. But now they’re ready to leave the app behind.Credit…Oscar EckelBy Nathan Taylor PembertonSept. 26, 2023Updated 5:24 p.m. ETFor Idea, a rare-book dealer and publisher in London, the dwindling of print has never been much of an issue. If anything, it has been a boon for the understated business that David Owen and Angela Hill have built, largely on the back of Instagram’s early infrastructure.But now, Idea is navigating yet another swerve — the death of the Instagram timeline. In 2021 the social media platform moved from a chronological feed to a more opaque algorithm, which boosted videos. That meant less exposure for posts of, for example, vintage fashion books, which in turn made book selling on Instagram something of a slog.And even though Idea has some 500,000 followers — W magazine called it an “Instagram phenomenon” in 2015 — the company is ready to experiment with a fairly antiquated idea that some may consider riskier than
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