Let’s start with newspapers and their epic struggles.
Newspaper Ads tumble to 1963 levels in 2009, Newsosaur thinks 2010 could be worse
First we have Ryan Chittum at Columbia Journalism Review who points out that New York Times’ coverage of last year’s 27% drop in newspaper ad revenue wrongly compares 2009 to 1986.
In 2009 newspapers took in $27.6 billion. Ryan adds -
The newspaper industry did indeed take in $27 billion in 1986. But adjusting that for inflation gets you $52.9 billion in real dollars.That means, according to these calculations I made last summer (when I estimated 2009 would hit 1965 levels), that the last time newspapers ads were lower was in 1963.
So newspapers had their worst advertising revenue year since 1963. No wonder they are proselytizing themselves at the feet of the iPad and attacking eReader companies that don’t let them run ads.
Next we have Newsosaur point out that 2010 could actually be worse for newspapers.
Newsosaur (Alan D. Mutter) adds that 2010 is seeing continued falls -
After advertising plummeted by a historic 27.2% in 2009 to $27.6 billion, sales continued to fall at mid-teen levels in the first part of 2010, according to anecdotal reports from publishers in diversified markets in various regions of the country.
There’s a very interesting chart and lots of information on what happened in 2009.
Quick Note: There have been some changes made to how newspaper circulation numbers are counted (the changes apply starting 2010) so newspapers are trying to hide the extent of their downfall. However, money is money and it’ll be hard to hide what advertising revenues are.
Publishers scared of Amazon
Teleread has two good posts. The first is part of a series called ‘Things Publishers Fear’ and it claims the #1 fear Publishers have is Amazon. My money would have been on making customers happy. However, let’s go with Amazon for now.
They have a long list of reasons why Amazon is scary -
Amazon controls a large portion of the online consumer connection to books.
They have exceptional efficiencies in terms of distribution and sales (both in terms of ebooks and print books).
They have a powerful presence in Print on Demand and Self Publishing.
Notice how they don’t talk about customers even a single time. It’s as if everyone is forgetting who actually pays money for books and why Amazon is doing well – Amazon focuses on customers and customer satisfaction.
Forget ‘control’ and ‘presence’ and ‘efficiencies’. Amazon’s main strengths are – They are always making things better for readers, they are advancing the state of books, they are reducing prices, and they are earning the trust of customers.
The post ends with this -
from their perspective, publishers’ fears of amazon are rational and justified.
Amazon threatens to disintermediate the publishing industry using the talent the industry has nurtured and the content the industry has edited, developed, marketed and grown.
That hardly seems fair does it?
There’s not much to say when a post ends on such a melodramatic note. The Publishing Industry did everything right and then they were cheated out of their fair (or unfair) share of power and profit. Awwwwwww.
Guess who won’t be shedding any tears for Publishers? Customers – the same customers that Publishers take for granted and mistreat.
Ingram gets left out of Agency Model
TeleRead’s second post is about book wholesaler Ingram being confused about what happens with the 70% cut Publishers get on eBooks and how Ingram fits in.
Perhaps Ingram should open their eyes and read the writing on the wall. With eBooks the ‘wholesaler’ role is literally up in the air.
There’s a reason Publishers are ready to introduce the Agency Model in less than 10 days but haven’t gotten around to telling you what share you get.
Carol points out that speedreading apps make sense for the Kindle
Thanks to Carol for commenting and writing about an excellent article by Mike the Mad Biologist who makes a rather sane observation -
Even those of us who read really fast max out at around 600 words per minute. [Edit: The average is around 200 wpm]
But what if there were a way for technology to help you read faster?
If Kindle let me read faster, I would be very interested.
He’s basically saying that the Kindle could employ Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (or for that matter another speed reading method) and help people read faster.
The Kindle App Store rule prohibiting reading applications means that a Speed Reading app isn’t really possible. It’s certainly something worth considering. What would be really good is if Amazon added auto-scrolling and RSVP and speed reading features in to the default reading software so that ALL books could be read faster.
Why don’t Publishers proactively do things instead of reacting out of fear?
TeleRead list Amazon and Google as Publishers’ two main fears. That’s rather strange.
Why focus on companies and threats before focusing on customers? Why be ‘scared’ when you could be taking action?
A lot of Publishers’ moves like limiting text to speech, limiting lending of ebooks, and raising prices are reactive moves carried out for the wrong reasons.
Here are some of the things Publishers should do instead of being scared -
- List the 5 things that would most help customers. Without factoring in their own self-interest. Implement at least 3 of them.
- List 5 really easy to do things that would help customers. Again, leave out self-interest. Do all of them.
- Figure out why the people who pay money for books consider Publishers to be enemies. Figure out how to change this.
- Figure out why Publishers have zero branding while authors and stores have loads of branding.
- List 10 things Publishers could do to bring books into the 21st century. Do some of them.
- List 5 things Publishers are doing that could lead to the death of books. Cut out some of them.
- Look at all the forms of content that are dying and figure out which channels and which companies played a part in that happening. Does Amazon appear on that list even once?
Amazon and Apple are both offering Publishers a win-win situation and passage into the 21st century. It’s time Publishers seized the opportunity.
Filed under: publishing Tagged: | future of newspapers, future of publishing
