Business Management - Industry Trends

Amazon announced this year that, for the first time, its digital books had outsold paper books. This trend of going digital does not hold true for all books. While many popular consumer books have successfully made the switch into the new format, textbooks are still widely read on paper.

Textbooks are gaining, though, as publishers take advantage of the popularity of tablets like the Kindle and iPad, expanding their catalogues and offering products like rental digital books that expire after a semester or two.

The potential for digital growth is leading publishers to experiment with products that stretch the boundaries of traditional

MPA’s “The Magazine Mobile Reader” study found that the majority of respondents (90 percent), since acquiring a tablet/eReader, said they are consuming just as much, if not more, magazine content—66 percent plan to consume more digital magazines and 63 percent want even more magazine content in digital form.

Sales of bookazines are up nearly 20 percent this year, according to industry consortium MagNet. “These results seem to contradict what the industry press has long decided, that digital is killing print,” MagNet, which reports on retail sales of magazines, wrote recently in its client newsletter. “Even in these tough economic times, consumers are willing to purchase high quality publications that provide subject matter that appeals to them, even at higher cover prices.”

MagNet defines a “book-a-zine” as “an issue that was not part of a title's normal frequency schedule and has a cover price between $9.95 - $19.99.” It calculates

Recently, as a guest of IDEAlliance, I attended the back-to-back seminars “Beyond Print: The Keys to Tablet Publishing” and “The Creative Workflow: How to Achieve the Best Color Result.” Both events provided fertile soil for planting, growing and harvesting the future of media convergence.

What separates Rich Real Estate Agents from Poor Real Estate Agents? The rich real estate agent spends $5,000-$10,000 per year on marketing, while the poor real estate agent spends only $500-$1,000 per year. Over 60 percent of respondents use direct mail to market their business.

“Going Mobile: How Publishers are Maturing and Monetizing Their Offerings” provides a unique glimpse into the evolution of the mobile market from the perspective of print publishers that are hoping to capitalize on new platforms.

Offering full, digital copies of magazines on tablets for free to existing print subscribers is a critical misstep, basically destroying the economic model for publishing, according to John Loughlin, executive vice president and general manager of Hearst Magazines. “We are at a critical juncture for magazine publishers to reassert value of content, and that value needs to be paid for,” argued Loughlin, while speaking during a panel discussion about the future of publishing at the Open Mobile Summit on Thursday.

Time Inc.’s senior vice president for consumer marketing, Nate Simmons, posited that the concept is similar to Time Warner’s TV Everywhere

The Onion’s print distribution is growing through franchising, and local publishers get to reap the ad revenue. The career of Frank Mauran, owner of small Gaspee Publishing in Providence, RI, is a parable of publishing’s hard times. In the 1990s, he started up the Printing Equipment Guide, a biweekly publication for the publishing trade. “It’s been a hard slog,” Mauran said. “It’s a trade publication for what’s a shrinking industry.”

Today, when the first issue hits the streets, Gaspee Publishing becomes the newest local franchisee of The Onion. Here’s the deal: Mauran’s company assumes all costs of printing and distributing

Lulu.com intrdocued a new pricing feature for eBooks that enables authors to sell their digital content with a price tag of $0.00. Many authors, like best-selling author Cory Doctorow, are finding that free eBooks often lead to increased overall sales.

Total printing-writing paper shipments decreased 8 percent in September compared to September 2010, according to the American Forest & Paper Association’s “September 2011 Printing-Writing Paper Report.” U.S. purchases (shipments + imports – exports) decreased 7 percent in September, and total printing-writing paper inventory levels decreased 2 percent compared to August 2011.