MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - "The book publishing industry has entered a period of long-term decline"

jbcohen · 05-03-2011, 08:09 AM

I have some questions that are related but slightly off topic, I think I can safely ask some here. EWeek is an excepted IT news source not a book publishing industry news site - what is an excepted book publishing site? Perhaps Publisher's Weekly.

Now for on topic issue. What has happened here is called a paradigm shift and it has occured many times in the past and occurs any time there is a significant advancement in technology or industry practices. The last paradigm shift in the book publishing industry ocurred when "big box" stores began to repalce smaller mal book stores back in the 1990s. Before that the paradigm shift came when book stores began to migrate from the neighborhoods to the malls.

Each time there is a paradigm shift, as we are seeing now there are some concepts that go along with it: Past Sucesses Guaranty Nothing (just becuase one company has been sucessfull at the "big box" stores and/or has established significant resources to bring products to market means nothing after the paradigm shift). We can expect to stores that do not recgonize the shift in technology and move agressively to capitolize on it to go out of business. Hence we have seen the decline in Borders Books, although the company is still very much in business. Since Barns and Nobles has agressively moved to the electronic book market with the Nook an Nook Color we can expect the company to fare a bit better but it has the liability that it still clings to the past. Amazon stands to gain most from the paradigm shift, since the company initiated the shift. We can expect many of the book publishers that don't agressively take to the new technology to be out of buisiness in a few years.

Technology will shift again in a few years beyond the electronic book reader. By 2020 or 2025 the maket will have shifted to still more advanced methods then what exists today. When the shift occurs Amazon will be at risk of going out of business at that point becuase remember Past Sucesses Guaranty Nothing. What will the technology be? Who knows.

05-03-2011, 08:09 AM	#4
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,032 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Where am I? Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition and a Samsung S24 Ultra	I have some questions that are related but slightly off topic, I think I can safely ask some here. EWeek is an excepted IT news source not a book publishing industry news site - what is an excepted book publishing site? Perhaps Publisher's Weekly. Now for on topic issue. What has happened here is called a paradigm shift and it has occured many times in the past and occurs any time there is a significant advancement in technology or industry practices. The last paradigm shift in the book publishing industry ocurred when "big box" stores began to repalce smaller mal book stores back in the 1990s. Before that the paradigm shift came when book stores began to migrate from the neighborhoods to the malls. Each time there is a paradigm shift, as we are seeing now there are some concepts that go along with it: Past Sucesses Guaranty Nothing (just becuase one company has been sucessfull at the "big box" stores and/or has established significant resources to bring products to market means nothing after the paradigm shift). We can expect to stores that do not recgonize the shift in technology and move agressively to capitolize on it to go out of business. Hence we have seen the decline in Borders Books, although the company is still very much in business. Since Barns and Nobles has agressively moved to the electronic book market with the Nook an Nook Color we can expect the company to fare a bit better but it has the liability that it still clings to the past. Amazon stands to gain most from the paradigm shift, since the company initiated the shift. We can expect many of the book publishers that don't agressively take to the new technology to be out of buisiness in a few years. Technology will shift again in a few years beyond the electronic book reader. By 2020 or 2025 the maket will have shifted to still more advanced methods then what exists today. When the shift occurs Amazon will be at risk of going out of business at that point becuase remember Past Sucesses Guaranty Nothing. What will the technology be? Who knows.