The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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Publishing is increasingly fragile

06.06.08

Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, destination for nearly four-fifths of online book buyers, appears harmless. But to some in the publishing industry, he looms like a recurring nightmare, is how the Economist begins a piece on the US publishing industry.

"From the outside, book publishing looks like an impregnable edifice: 411,000 new titles were published in America last year, and more than 3 billion books sold there. . . In fact, the existing order is fragile."

One of threats is the e-book. An economic slowdown may play to the new technologies' strengths, the piece says. And concludes: "Publishing has only two indispensable participants: authors and readers. As with music, any technology that brings these two groups closer makes the whole industry more efficient—but hurts those who benefit from the distance between them."

Economist

US publishing Jeff Bezos digitisation