In “Barnes &
Noble Cuts Back Simon & Schuster Titles,” a recent Wall Street Journal article, Jeffrey A.
Trachtenberg covered ongoing tensions between the bookstore chain and the
publishing giant. Included within
the piece were some interesting statistics:
“The disagreement comes as readers
increasingly embrace e-books. At Simon & Schuster, for example,
digital-book sales grew 24% in the fourth quarter, even as total publishing
revenue fell 6%. Digital books represented 24% of total publishing revenue that
quarter, up from 18% a year earlier.”
While hard copy editions will not go
the way of the dinosaur, it seems increasingly obvious that the market share of
digital books will continue to increase!
