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The book trade must take care to ensure readers don't become "an endangered species" say leading publishing figures, in wake of reports shining a light on the UK's dire literacy rates among teens.
Tim Godfray, chief executive of the Booksellers Association, told the Westminster Media Forum at the Royal Over-Seas League in London on World Book Day yesterday (3rd March) that he was "dismayed" by some of the UK's low literacy rates revealed by the OECD last month. Its report revealed English teenagers aged between 16-19 were the worst of 23 developed nations for literacy.
Godfray also called it "deeply depressing" that England had 9m people of working age with low literacy or numeracy skills, adding: "And our public libraries are closing."
He expressed hopes that the BBC's year-long "Get Reading" initiative would encourage more young people to "get into books", and commended Quick Reads for making books more accessible to people who don't read often.
Profile m.d. Andrew Franklin recently added his calls for the natioan to improve literacy levels, calling the situation "a national disgrace" as part of his key note speech at Publishing Scotland last Friday (26th February).
Chief executive for the Society of Authors, Nicola Solomon, cautioned: "What we need is readers. We need to ensure they are not an endangered species. We need to read to our children. We need to encourge other people to read. We need to support libraries - the cuts have been disastrous. We need to speak out at every opportunity. We need to fight for [Public Lending Right], and particularly PLR on e-books. And we need to fight for school libraries."
She added: "It's absolutely extraordinary that while prison libraries are compulsory by statute that school libraries are not. And many schools still don't have a library."
The Westminster Media Forum provided a platform for publishing figures to assess a wide range of key issues in book publishing, from monetising content to sector skills and new avenues for growth, including digital.
Michael Tamblyn, c.e.o of Kobo, said the "real fight" for publishers was "not trying to find the next great book" but "competing with everything else" for a share of consumers' discretionary time. In terms of "second screen behaviour", the smartphone has become the primary as opposed to the secondary screen, even while watching television, he said.
"More important than sheer reach or penetration, [smartphones are] taking up more of our time," agreed Douglas McCabe, c.e.o. of research subscription service Enders Analysis. He called the smartphone already "the most universal of all devices", something that will only become "more stark" in the next few years, citing statistics that users visit their smartphones more than 100 times a day. He placed an estimate that soon three quarters of all time spent online will be on a mobile device, of which 86% of time online is through apps, and half of that time on games and Facebook.
"Apps are the most concentrated winner-takes-all marketplace we have ever seen," he said, in light of research showing consumers only use a choice five apps with "real intensity," however.
Tamblyn revealed Kobo was relishing in an avid senior readership, with 50% of Kobo's demographic of "active customers" aged 55 and over. This portion of the market is most influenced by traditional discovery sources, such as critics' reviews, more than any other age bracket, with younger customers relied far more on online sources like Goodreads and social neworks, he said.
George Walkley, head of digital for Hachette, echoed Tamblyn's sentiments on the potential of apps, saying that while e-book sales were tailing off, apps were taking off. He said: "Everything is changing and the direction of change is clear: e-book sales have levelled off but app sales are continuing to increase."
The curbing of e-book sales shown at the end of 2015 was taken as a sign by Godfray that "e-books are not going to destroy the printed word".
But the lack of data on independent publishers' and self-publishing sales may mean we don't have the full story, according to Gareth Cuddy, c.e.o. and founder of Vearsa. He questionned whether the trade's "hugely untracked shadow industry" was growing at the expense of the mainstream.
Spain is the fastest growing e-book market in the world, albeit from a low base, he said, with the most common problem for UK publishers being that they are pricing themselves out of export markets.
"The market is getting more complex for publishers but getting more opportunistic as well," he said. "I do believe we're in a bit of a lull and there is more [e-book] growth to come".