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There are times when technology displaces existing products and services, and times when it augments or supports existing products and services. Further, while there is little doubt that online news and publishing is displacing newspapers and magazines - - it's at minimum forcing them to revise their missions and alter business models - - the same can not be said, at least at this stage of the digital age, regarding the Internet's impact on books.
Try curling up with a good computer screen
Initially, critics and other observers declared 'the end of books' - - that readers would gravitate toward reading books on computer screens. Reading a book on a computer screen?
Thankfully, the initial panic that gripped book publishers soon faded after what was clear to anyone who reads books became clear to publishing executives during a calmer moment: that the experience of reading a printed book in a traditional setting (such as in your favorite chair in a living room or study, or even on an outdoor deck / patio) is vastly superior to reading a book on a flat panel screen. Try curling up with a good computer screen.
True, there will always be those who will want to read books online, and the medium has advantages (sometimes, book access online is possible where the printed book is not), but the view from here argues that they'll represent a niche in the book market, not the norm.
Further, the success of Kindle (NYSE: AMZN) and other wireless reading devices, again, at least at this juncture, does not represent a threat to printed books. As noted, technology does not always displace technology: sometimes, it augments it, and like radio's impact on major league baseball ticket sales, this appears to be the case with Kindle.
In the 1930s, some major league baseball clubs, the New York Yankees included, delayed broadcasting baseball games live on radio because the club thought it would discourage fans from attending the game - - i.e. that they could 'experience the game without buying a ticket.' Wrong. Radio increased ticket sales among teams who broadcast games, the Brooklyn Dodgers being among them, via introducing the game to a whole category of fans who had not experienced the game before. Radio promoted the game of baseball. In other words, radio, the new medium, augmented the old medium, in this case live entertainment / sports.
Moreover, that's the pattern, at least initially, with Kindle. What publishers are finding is that readers who use Kindle and other electronic reading devices, if they really like the topic or book, will often then go out and buy the printed book. Hence, mobile reading devices may very well open up new markets to book publishers via sales to people who have never heard of the book titles or subjects before.
Again, we're early in the digital age, and electronic books will result in the attrition of some printed book sales, but one gets the sense that printed books, which have been around for more than a half-millenia, are not going away any time soon.
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Financial Editor Joseph Lazzaro is based in New York.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-29-2008 @ 4:01PM
BHarrison said...
You can't conveniently carry around an electronic book as conveniently as a REAL book which requires no battery power, and isn't somewhat bulky.
The demise of our newspapers and magazines is a great tragedy that will be felt throughout our society. It's similar to reading a book. And advertising simply is not the same on-line as it is in the printed media . . . you can always go back and find those ads in the printed media. On-line, the ads easily disappear; and one has to subscribe to many of the sites to get the ads without doing 'searches" . . . will impulse buying become greatly dimenished?
If we lose our printed media, will things become rather chaotic . . . helter skelter. Our printed media provide a reliable advertising market for society. What will people who are not computer literate or who don't have home PCs . . . errr . . . lap top PCs or notebooks do?
Who wants to scroll through endless websites to find the sales at Macy's or wherever? It would be a truly "different world" without the printed news papers and magazines.
12-29-2008 @ 4:57PM
Kate said...
With so much news online, it's cheaper and easier to scour the Internet for up to the minute news around the world. Newspapers are participating online, which is where I read most my news updates. I stopped my subscripion to the local newspaper 10 years ago, when I realized the paper offered little news in comparison to the broad information available online. As far as books go, I'm online all day at work, so the last thing I want to to do is sit at my computer (or lap top) and read a book. No thank you. I'll purchase my hard copy and read it at my discretion in my comfy reading chair. I love technology, but nothing replaces look, feel and enjoyment you receive from reading a real book!