Ikea’s latest marketing strategy is to spoof the technology of e-books by touting the inherent technology of the “book-book.” The video, which currently has over 7 million views on YouTube, highlights the advantages of the print book over an e-book – high-resolution photos, no lag time, and eternal battery life, to name a few. A clever marketing maneuver for Ikea, but for me as a consumer it also seems to say to digital “Can’t we all just get along?” Why is the emergence of digital reading formats being described as a battle, with print always the loser and digital the victor? Why is it that one must prevail over the other?
The old technology, i.e. the book-book, still works, and in some cases has options that e-books don’t: you can easily share, donate, or re-sell them; you don’t need to plug in to read them; and they don’t break if you drop them. Why does the book-book have to die a terrible death because of new technology? Think about it like this: electronic mail has not killed snail mail. What it has done is cause the United States Postal Service (USPS) to re-evaluate its revenue streams. You can’t e-mail that sweater you knitted and you can’t get proof of delivery for those very important legal documents either. But because of USPS’ re-evaluation, the consumer can buy stamps and schedule pickups online as well as get information for brick and mortar services that weren't readily available online before e-mail came along.
This re-evaluation is how I see the publishing industry adjusting to the latest technology rather than throwing its hands up and becoming extinct. Many publishers have already begun the mass digitization of their past and current titles so that they can be enjoyed using e-reader technology, while also generating additional revenue. In a very non-scientific study (a search of Amazon offerings) it is quite obvious that print media is neither dead, nor dying. Of past, present and future titles available, Amazon offers 25.7 million titles in paperback, 10.4 million titles in hardcover, and a mere 2.8 million in digital format. For those of you who prefer scientific studies, a Pew Research Center study shows that only 28% of over 1000 adult readers polled use e-readers. It would appear that print is not even slightly ill, let alone in its final death throes. Publishing companies are simply adapting in the same way any business must adapt to survive.
In addition to keen business acumen, businesses also need customers to survive. We used to just be called readers, but now we are the end-user, and we are still the driving force behind the economics of supply and demand in the publishing business. We still want our printed books, newspapers and magazines, but we also want the option of purchasing these items digitally to allow us to create the reading experiences we choose. I know of many people, myself included, who use a tablet or e-reader while on travel, but then prefer to sit in their favorite chair at home and pick up a book, newspaper or magazine with their bare hands.
Not only do we still get to keep our beloved print items, we now get to choose another format to suit our reading needs. For me, and I’m pretty sure I’m as average as they come, I purchase my favorite author’s new book in both print and digital. I’ve been collecting the print versions of their books and want to maintain my physical library of their work, while also being able to read it digitally on any device available to me. Print and digital formats should be viewed as complementary to each other rather than adversarial. So in the battle of print vs digital, the clear winner is the end-user.