Australia - Digital Economy - Book Industry - E-books

Synopsis

In essence the book industry has a golden future. More books are read than ever before and new (international) book markets open up every year. Writers have existed – and have been in demand – for 5,000 years and they are not going to die out any time soon. Nor will there be any decrease in demand for more content.

However, new technologies are delivering the same product in a different format and/or different ways, for a fraction of the cost. Traditional cost structures are dictated by analogue business models. Digital technologies don’t have those high costs and they therefore can deliver the product significantly cheaper. As the traditional industry has been slow to adapt to this situation, we have seen others entering the market. These are enormously destructive developments for the traditional industry, and linear solutions are not the answer.

Under a government funded initiative the Australian book industry was brought together to develop a plan for the transformation of the industry. Their final report was delivered in late 2013.

This BuddeComm Report explores some of the issues surrounding the transformation of the book industry and an overview of the key findings of the review of the Australian book industry and action points for its future.