by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer
I saw this post in my Google News feed a week or so ago, and put it aside to consider. CNBC reported on the UK’s Booksellers’ Association’s latest study, cementing the trend we’ve talked about before at Westchester – that the gap between print and ebook sales for most publishers continues to widen following the peak and collapse of ebook sales several years ago. Those numbers aren’t anything any of my colleagues and customers in most markets are arguing with, but the Booksellers’ Association’s analysis went several layers deeper than the usual headlines reported as soundbites on 24-hour news networks.
In publishing, we’ve talked about how ‘sticky’ print books can be for kids, versus in the Fire or iPad world where kids are likely to move on to apps or interactives rather than read a one-to-one digital adaptation of a print book. When given a print book, many educators and publishers have noticed that kids are more likely to prefer it over the digital edition. At the same time, in the classroom children are engaging with and benefiting from the work of EdTech companies that are developing apps and platforms to help with adaptive learning and added support for students who learn in different ways.
The Booksellers’ Association study goes layers deeper than the usual trade vs. cookbook vs. children’s book argument that most analysis seems to focus on. It’s well worth the brief read, talking about the buying habits and reading habits of millennials and more, providing some surprising results.
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