Amazon is busy peddling its Kindle as the next-generation digitalized ‘book,’ Sony is coming up with its e-reader to challenge Kindle, and many book stores like Borders are struggling to stay in business. Forecasting pundits say that we will soon do all our reading on electronic devices like laptops or e-readers. All this seems to sound a death knell to the printing of physical books, and as many newspapers are struggling in their print avatar, so too will many publishers.
I was therefore surprised when I read recently that “the number of books in print in 2008 rose 38 percent from the year before (which itself was up 38 percent from 2006).” While a lot of these books are coming from mainstream and self-publishers, universities are selling publishing rights to the contents under their ownership. But while this surge in publishing is sweet music to the ears of a die-hard bibliophile like me, I wonder if it a small blip in the horizon, and that the printed book will go the way of the dinosaurs.
What do you think?
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I doubt that printed books will ever go out of business totally. Online media are good for some purposes, but the experience of reading a “physical” book cannot be replaced so easily. Even in Amazon, we need to look at how much business they get out of selling books.
Moreover, in a recent study that we did at Prayag, we found that most people are still averse to embracing digital reading habits wholeheartedly. And so, my prediction is that books are nowhere near getting extinct!
Needs remain constant and wants change. Change is resisted but soon follow the mass adoptions.
what is to be looked at is that as time goes and information gains more and more importance, the availability and the speed at which you can get relevant information would become more important. It is far easier to search a electronic database than a physical one. then comes the limiting factor of space. Would I prefer carrying thirty books during my vacation or a kindle in which i can carry 30000?
I dont remember what exactly I read in my last book. But hey I have an ecopy of the book and do a search and I get exactly what I wanted. User friendly? Certainly!
Music industry never thought that music could be shared online, they laughed the whole idea off, Then came napster and pirate bay. Kodak never thought that digital photography could become the future and neither did the users. and what happened to Kodak? They are finding it hard to change its image.
amazon does business by selling books but then why does jeff bezos want to enter the ebook market with its own rumoured ebook reader? because it does not want to be another kodak.
Rupert murdoch too sees the convergence coming and is shifting from traditional newspapers. Newspaper industry as a whole is suffering. The observer is sold. Readers digest by the way is preparing to file for bankruptcy.
Cheers
Arun Rafi
I buy your point Arun on the convenience, but imagine reading Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol on Kindle! What digitial photography has done is that it has demystified photography and expanded the market. Likewise downloading music online is a means to an end- the listener’s experience is still unaltered. So, there is a difference. Also, Reader’s digest poor performance can be attributed to many reasons, including their inability to adapt their content to a changing audience, and also the subscription based model. There is nothing to suggest that they are dying because books are going out of fashion.
Another point to note: we are the generation whose primary reading medium was books, and so we are inclined to defend our first love. But there is a whole new generation growing up that obtains its daily news feeds not from newspapers but from electroic media such as the Web and via their cell phones, and that does most of their work- and non-work related reading on their laptops. They are also ecologically conscious – and shun the traditonal media as being hard on the forests and the planet.
The newspaper and other publishing industries are definitely struggling – will they die out completely or morph into another avatar is the question. It will be interesting to revisit this topic in a couple of years….
I am sorry but I still have to disagree. My kids are very this generation- they still read books, and a lot of it, even though they may be far more digitally savvy than us. Not buying books to save the environment seems too idealistic. There are many more ways to save the environment, example, adopting a moderate lifestyle.
It certainly would be interesting to revisit the topic.
One important point to consider might be that ebooks have still not become a great threat simply because the category is being nurtured and developed right now and it is still at its infancy. and amazon is trying hard to convince that this is the future. They are slowly but surely changing attitudes towards the product.
Attitude is a learned behavior. and it is not expected to be radical. Good wants always get replaced by better wants. and hence experience also transforms over a period of time. So it is not a question of whether the print will survive or not. But the pertinent point is : over the period of time do we see more of books being replaced by other mediums? I certainly think so. That doesnt mean that the print is ending in the next 5 years or so, that will be extrememly myopic, but to the fact that the “means to an end” i.e the way we read will certainly undergo changes and sometimes not out of choice but simply because of force.
The point on music downloads was not a example of how technology has influenced music but how our attitudes have changed. Listening to vinyl records were gradually replaced by other mediums. There were people, there still are, who praise the “experience” that it used to give. but over the years possessing bulky records gave way to possessing freely transferable bytes of music. Experience can be redefined and shaped.
Readers Digest has decided to file for bankruptcy for it’s US businesses.It would have no effect on its business across the rest of the world.More than the effect of online digital media, the economic slowdown which has paralyzed the world is the reason behind the decision to file for chapter 11.The slowdown has hampered RD’s abilities to repay debt.The recession has cut ad spending , and also people are increasingly flocking to the internet to gather free news.
So yes, the print industry as a whole is under increased pressure. It would be fascinating to watch what the future holds for the printed book.