From the Independent:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...3-9634134.html
Quote:
The number of books being given as gifts has fallen by nine million in a year, delivering a new financial blow to the publishing industry as UK consumers turn away from hard copies in favour of digital reads.
The trend was revealed in Nielsen Book’s UK Books & Consumers Annual Review for 2013, which identified a four per cent year-on-year decrease in the UK book market between 2012 and 2013 both in terms of volume and value.
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Quote:
Jo Henry, director of the research, said that the decline in giving books as gifts would be of particular concern to publishers.
“In view of the importance of the gift market to the book industry,” she said, more work was needed to examine the causes of “the apparent decrease in the value that consumers are placing on books as gifts”. Similar patterns have been identified in the United States. Gifts accounted for 22 per cent of book sales in 2013, down from 24 per cent in 2012.
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The reason, of course, is ebooks.
More at the source.
Considering the seasonality of the book business, a shift of spending from pbooks to gift cards--with their potential to defer purchases--is not a good thing for publishers or bookstores.