Is "Go Digital or Go Obsolete" the future mantra for publishing houses?

Let's talk paper. Even though the odds of overhauling paper due to environmental concerns remain low, it is still a costlier option in print publishing. Price of paper has increased threefold compared to a few years ago making it difficult to breakeven in business.

Some publishing houses like Pendulum Books from Bangladesh have invested in a "POD" print-on-demand machine which enabled small scale printing as per demand in the market.

Let's talk about eBooks. The rise of amazon.com and e-readers forced the demise of many traditional book retailers and disrupted the business model of book publishers. The eBooks segment worldwide is projected to grow by 2.01% (2023-2027) resulting in a market volume of US$15.39bn in 2027

The first attempt at publishing a eBook after a paperback was probably made by Peter James with his novel "Host". He published his thriller Host on two floppy disks in 1993 which was subject a lot of negative criticism but today it is displayed at the Science Museum in London.

Owing to omnichannel streams of publishing, sale of hardcover books is reported to have fallen by 10% in the past 3 years. However, book readership has increased by 30% from the previous year, as people are seeking new stories to capture their attention and test their beliefs.

Let's talk about audiobooks. Audiobooks are in the midst of a boom, with Deloitte predicting that the global market will grow by 25 per cent in 2020 to US$3.5 billion (£2.6 billion).

And finally, let's talk about business. The business model of book publishing before the digital revolution consisted of three steps: discovering content, mass-printing the content in the traditional book format, and finally selling the printed books to distributors.

Amazon has completely dissolved the the entry barrier of access to distributors. In order to remain competitive, famous publishers like Harper Collins, Penguin random house need to invest in omnichannel forms of publishing along with additional content assistance features.

The second alternative is to completely transform the business model and a stellar example of this is RELX group- created by merging Reed International, a British trade book and magazine publisher, and Elsevier, a Netherlands-based scientific publisher.

Since then, RELX has been transformed from a print-based publisher into an information-based analytics group, employing more than 9,000 technologists.

As for the future of books, all formats will continue to be in demand even though technology continues to disrupt their industry