In the Reuters feed of the New York Times this morning:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/...se-ebooks.html
Quote:
VIENNA (Reuters) - Bertelsmann's Random House, the world's biggest book publisher, expects electronic books to contribute more than 10 percent of its U.S. revenue next year, its head was quoted as saying on Sunday.
Chief Executive Markus Dohle told German magazine Der Spiegel that e-book revenue had already jumped to 8 percent in the United States and had turned into a new growth driver for the publisher of Dan Brown, John Grisham and Stieg Larsson.
"We're at 8 percent in the United States currently, it rose by leaps and bounds," Dohle told Der Spiegel. "I could well imagine that we get beyond 10 percent next year," he said.
"This is a major opportunity for us. It helps us record new growth."
|
Dohle noted he expects e-books to overtake paper in five years, not one year (although Amazon's view was for Amazon sales mix, not the industry).
Random House was the sole major hold-out choosing not to participate in the price fixing deal with Apple that five other major houses cooked up. Dohle stated: "The question is if publishers know how to find the right retail price... This hasn't been our job in the past."