Report finds new media a key threat to the UK book market

A new report warns it is ‘extremely dangerous’ to see ebooks as the key disruptive force in the UK publishing industry, describing the growth of mobile consumption, which reduces the amount of time people spend reading, as ‘a slower, more complicated and insidious disruption’, reports the Bookseller. Citing a 6% drop in value of the book trade in the year to April 2015, which followed a 12% drop in the year to April 2014, the report by research and advisory firm Enders Analysis said the statistics are ‘not encouraging for an industry which for decades has tended to grow slowly but steadily, with trivial slowdowns in economic downturns’. The report found book subscriptions services have not taken off, and are responsible for a very small reduction in book buying, and that the most ‘significant and concerning effect’ is reduced demand for books in the face of new media, with some book categories ‘being replaced by other digital media altogether’. The report concluded it was ‘optimistic about the resilience of book reading and book buying as a whole’, but said: ‘It’s impossible to overstate how important it was for the industry to innovate in the next two to three years’. The report can be purchased here.

Category: International news