Future of the printed word
By Pramod DE SILVA
We
have an endearing relationship with paper virtually from birth to death.
From our birth certificate to our higher education, everything is in
black and white, etched in ink on paper. In fact, the process of
printing is intimately linked with the very advancement of our
collective civilisation.
Gutenberg opened a whole new world with his printing press and since
then, we have not turned back. For more than 500 years, the knowledge we
gained from scientific advancements as well as our expressions of
creativity have been available in the form of books. Newspapers are
slightly younger, but they have not been second to books in terms of
dissemination of information and knowledge.
Yet, there are signs that this centuries-old affair with paper could
be coming to an end sooner than we thought. Two news items that caught
my attention last week are indicative of this trend. Just last week,
Amazon Inc announced that its Kindle electronic book reader, now
available worldwide including Sri Lanka, has overtaken conventional
hardcover books in terms of the number of titles sold.
This is nothing short of astonishing, considering that Amazon has
been selling hardback books for over 15 years, whereas Kindle books have
been offered for just 33 months so far. The other significant
development is that James Patterson has become the first author to sell
more books electronically (Kindle included) than physically (paper
books).
In case you did not know, the Amazon Kindle is a so-called ‘E-Book’
(electronic book) reader that can hold nearly 1,500 books and newspapers
in a lightweight device with a black and white paper-like screen - there
is no way you are going to lug around 1,500 physical books. The books
and newspapers that you order are delivered instantly over the air
through wireless networks of the respective country or through the
computer if you don’t have access to a cellular account.
There is also a handy text-to-speech feature if you are visually
impaired or simply too lazy to read. Over 620,000 books and magazines
are already available for purchase with more titles added daily.
While the Kindle is the most popular device of its kind, there are
several competitors such as the Barnes and Noble Nook, Kogan e-Reader,
Sony e-Reader and of course, the Apple iPad. The latter is perhaps the
most significant development, because it is actually a tablet computer
with a full-colour screen that can double as an e-book reader.
Some magazines and newspapers do look really stunning on the iPad,
with interactive content, videos, audio files and web links, none of
which can be made available on a print edition. Moreover, several
smartphones including Apple’s iPhone and the Samsung Wave S can also
function as e-readers.
There
is no doubt that Amazon and others are working on colour displays.
Moreover, electronic ‘paper’ which is as thin as a newspaper and
flexible, is already becoming a reality. Very soon, those surreal scenes
from the Tom Cruise movie ‘Minority Report’ in which people are depicted
reading electronic newspapers could become true.
In a way, none of these could have been possible without the
Internet, which has revolutionised the way we access information. For
example, just a few minutes ago, I accessed the Buenos Aires Herald on
my PC. Before the Internet or rather the World Wide Web came into
existence, getting a paper copy of the same newspaper would have taken
at least around three or four days or even more.
Likewise, someone in Buenos Aires can get the Sunday Observer at the
click of a button. Internet users can access virtually any newspaper or
magazine published anywhere in the world instantly. The only limitation
is the speed of your Internet connection and in some cases, the balance
in your credit card. More on that later, though.
Is the Internet and by extension, the e-readers, becoming a threat to
the traditional printed newspaper or magazine ? This is a question that
most industry watchers are still trying to answer. Ours is a world
saturated with electronically-transmitted information.
There are many 24-hour satellite news channels to choose from. The
Web has countless newspapers, magazines, blogs and other informative
sites. The traditional newspaper risks losing its place and importance
in this mire of information and knowledge.
One worrying factor is the steady rate of closure of newspapers and
magazines around the world thanks partly to rise of the Internet and
partly to the decline of advertising and circulation. Many other
newspapers have reduced the number of days of publication and/or reduced
the size and number of pages. A large number of broadsheets has become
tabloids. Some have given up print editions altogether and migrated to
the Web. In case you thought only regional titles have been affected,
even world famous newspapers such as the New York Times and their
publishers are facing many difficulties, financial and otherwise.
Another alarming trend is that the younger generation seems to be
moving away from the traditional print newspapers, exposed as they are
to a barrage of information via the Internet, mobiles, TV and other
electronic platforms. Considering that they are the future readers of
newspapers, the situation is indeed bleak.
Publishers are scurrying to resolve this impasse by trying to woo
paying readers to their online editions which definitely are more
versatile and interactive than the print editions. Yet, this comes with
its own problems. Barely a few weeks after the Times of London began
charging to allow access its online editions, readership has dropped
more than 90 per cent. The online advertisers will not be impressed.
Some
others such as the Wall Street Journal have been more successful behind
a paywall, especially with more youth-oriented iPad editions (US$ 18 per
month). It already has 65,000 subscribers. But these are still ongoing
experiments and it is too early to predict what will eventually happen.
It is likely that most newspapers will opt for a model that combines
both approaches - print and online subscriptions and sales in a manner
that maximizes revenue, readership and advertising. The WSJ iPad model,
if successful in the long term, could be adopted by other newspapers
around the world.
But magazines face even more treacherous waters ahead, with
subscriptions and advertising falling at an alarming rate. Some
magazines have made a smooth transition to the Internet on the Zinio and
similar platforms with interactive content. Some magazines including
Time and Viv have already hit the iPad, but pricing remains a problem.
Time sells a single iPad copy at US$ 5, whereas a subscriber in the US
pays only around US$ 20 for the whole year for the print edition.
“While iPad magazines are exciting to look at, there’s one big
question hanging over everyone’s head: can the iPad save the flailing
magazine industry? For companies such as Zinio, the hope is to encourage
advertisers to buy across multiple magazines based on categories,
instead of just sticking with the most popular print titles. Kia
recently did just this and placed their TV ad in 45 copies of Zinio’s
digital mags. This cross-platform digital buy was the equivalent of one
print buy in a physical magazine. But this makes us wonder: will this be
enough income for digital publishers to thrive?
It’s too soon to tell, but in the meantime, we’re about to discover a
whole new way of reading,” said one commentator on the journalism blog
Read Write Web. His analysis sums up the hopes and fears of the magazine
industry in particular and the print industry in general.
It is clear that both newspapers and magazines will have to migrate
to mobile reading devices such as the Kindle and the iPad to survive
through an appropriate revenue model. The rest of the industry will wait
till the ‘tablet pioneers’ reap dividends, if any, before taking the
plunge.
Where does that leave books, the epitome of the printed word ? As for
me, I own an iPod Touch and have read only a single book on it. I still
like the smell of the pages and the rustling sound they make when being
turned.
I like to admire the artwork on the covers, despite the age old adage
- ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. I like to curl up with a good book
on a lazy afternoon. They need no wireless networks or batteries to
work. And when you finish one book, you can give it to someone else to
read. None of this is possible with a Kindle or even an iPad. They can
never be ‘real’ books in the true sense of the word.
Yet, that does not take away their ‘vow’ factor or the ease of
calling up virtually any book you want at the touch of a button. It is a
fine marriage of technology and convenience. It is just not very
personal. But one thing is sure - they are on the march. Books - and the
printed word - will survive, but the question is, in what form?
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