Book Fair attendants polled

[zerospinboson]

The Industry leaders, or at least those attending the Frankfurt Book Fair (or its online poll), have been kind enough to answer a number of questions in order to show us how on top of their game they are.
Some of the answers they give are pretty interesting, others are pretty scary.
Summarizing, it seems safe to conclude that 1. they still mostly don't care, and 2. they don't think e-reading is the same as (or even comparable to) paper-reading.
A selection: [my comments in blue]

• 80 per cent of those polled embrace the radical change in the media industry associated with digitisation as an opportunity, rather than as a crisis [it's nice that they at least realize they don't have a choice]
• The third biggest challenge for the media industry is illegal dissemination of protected content through piracy (322 responses)
• the strengthened position of authors through their ability to engage in direct marketing in a Web 2.0 world (142 responses) - and the consequential weakened position of publishers and book retailers - are not perceived as considerable challenges for the industry. [Sorry, Steve, Moejoe, others: you're just not big enough ]
• The idea that digital content will generate more sales than the traditional book business is also gradually becoming more of a reality. Around 50 per cent of industry experts now see the year 2018 as the turning point: In a comparable survey taken one year ago, 40 per cent saw this date as a “changing of the guard”. [don't be hasty now, young Hobbits ]

This is fairly interesting, though:
In 2008, 27 per cent were of the opinion that digital would never overtake print - today that number is only 22 per cent. Sell, but at what price? The decisive question is which payment model will prevail in the digital world. The favourites from the list provided are clear.
The ranking:

1. Flatrate, a subscription model that allows access to all of a provider’s online content, favoured primarily in continental Europe. (25 per cent)
2. Micropayment, or payment for individual snippets of content, particularly favoured in Great Britain and the USA. (23 per cent)
3. Trailing somewhat behind is the premium model, or a special subscription for selected online content - a variation on the flatrate model. (16 per cent)

Content financed by ads, freemium offers (in which nearly everything is free and only selected online content is subject to a fee), and the strategy of offering online content free of charge to promote physical products requiring payment, play less of a role.
58 per cent of those polled also believe that Digital Rights Management (DRM) will still play a role in digital content in five years. The best way to make revenue off of digital content continues to be the e-book, which represents an already printed book with a price guideline. However, the industry is still completely divided about appropriate e-book pricing. All of the established models have their supporters, with no model claiming an overwhelming majority.The price for an e-book should be

• more expensive than the printed book: 4 per cent
• as expensive as the printed book: 15 per cent
• 10 per cent cheaper than the printed book: 11 per cent
• 20 per cent cheaper: 17 per cent
• 30 per cent cheaper: 14 per cent
• more than 30 per cent cheaper: 16 per cent
• a standard price as with Amazon ($9.99): 15 per cent
• other price model: 6 per cent

You'd wonder what's going wrong in the management if this is indeed what they feel are reasonable prices, because I don't see these prices anywhere. It sounds really nice, though :P.
The accompanying commentary and the tremendous range of opinions it represents demonstrates just how contested this question really is. It is still completely unclear whether or not E-Books will be used merely as a “second book” for a quick glimpse, or whether portions will, in fact, ultimately be sold as mobile content for a price many times higher than the printed work. [Ugh.]
Also enlightening is the fact that only 35 per cent of those polled count themselves among e-book readers and only 22 per cent use e-readers. The majority of those polled, however, indicate that they never read e-books (65 per cent). [I guess they never heard the "know thine enemy" adage. This does make you wonder how serious they are, really.]

Of the 840 industry experts who participated in the survey, 55 per cent are men and 45 per cent women.