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Sunday, 25 July 2010

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Future of the printed word

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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