So my main selection for this week’s book news article – on the topic of “the digital turn” in publishing – goes full on scholarly rather than mass market news, with an excellent snapshot of the state of print versus ebook, published in the midst of the pandemic. Written by Perri Smith and published in Publishing Research Quarterly in April 2021, “The Viability of E‐Books and the Survivability of Print” argues some solid reasons for the continued existence, and even dominance, of print formats in book publishing, including privacy concerns with digital formats, a desire for tangible experiences in reading (especially in reaction to an increase in required screentime due to the pandemic and its associated rise in virtual work/school), and a desire to own rather than ‘lease’ books, which ties into concerns about Digital Rights Management (DRM) and right back to questions of privacy and control.

The article also describes a fascinating attempt by Apple in earlier days of the ebook to implement a more traditional publishing model with the ‘Big Six’ publishers within the digital sphere, an unspecified five of whom chose to sign on only to have the United State Department of Justice shut the whole thing down as an attempt to implement a “horizontal price-fixing conspiracy,” which ironically then left Amazon as “a monopolist company that engaged in predatory pricing” as the major force in the market (Smith, p.269).

According to information on the Statistica website, the trend of flat sales of ebooks as described in the article continues in Canada, with even a slight recovery in the already much larger print book segment (although nowhere near to pre-Pandemic levels), while worldwide there is actually a continuing drop in ebook sales (Statistica, 2023).

But even while it appears print books continue to hold sway on the human imagination, and human spending, we cannot discount the impact new digital technologies will continue to have. In that ‘spirit’ I wanted to also share a link to an article in The Atlantic, written in part by ChatGPT, that warns of the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on white collar work, including “work currently done by paralegals, copywriters, digital-content producers, executive assistants, entry-level computer programmers, and, yes, some journalists” (Lowry, 2023, emphasis added).

A brave new world, indeed…

Works Cited

Lowry, A. & ChatGPT. (2023, January 20). How ChatGPT Will Destabilize White Collar Work. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/chatgpt-ai-economy-automation-jobs/672767/

Smith, P. (2021, April 16). The Viability of E‐Books and the Survivability of Print. Publishing Research Quarterly (2021) 37. (pp. 264–277). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-021-09800-1 

Statistica. (2023, January). Advertising & Media Markets Insights: Books: Canada. https://www.statista.com/outlook/amo/media/books/canada?currency=CAD