Print Stays Strong as E-Book Revolution Marches On

The rumors of prints death have been widely exaggerated. The Association of
American Publishers crowed about the BookStats survey after it was published
Tuesday . The survey was called the deepest, most comprehensive statistical
survey ever conducted of the modern U.S. publishing industry, covering every
sector of the book business from 2008 through 2010. Given the press discussions
surrounding publishing during the past three years the rise of e-readers like
Amazon s (NASDAQ: AMZN ) Kindle, the closure of chains like Borders (PINK: BGPIQ
), not to mention the quagmire of contract disputes and digital store openings
that make up the fledgling e-book industry its shocking just how well
publishers are doing. CBS s (NYSE: CBS ) Simon & Schuster, News Corp. s (NASDAQ:
NWS ) Harper Collins, the Bertelsmann and Houghton Mifflin empires, and the many
privately owned publishing houses operating in the U.S. have much to celebrate.
How much? Net sales revenue has grown almost 6% since 2008, totaling just under
$28 billion by the end of 2010. That revenue isnt a result of higher prices,
either. More books are selling, with individual sales growing more than 4% over
the same period. This growth also comes from almost every different market
segment. Trade market from old-fashioned consumer-targeted books like The Girl
With the Dragon Tattoo to fad diet books like The Atkins Diet sales revenue is
up around 6% on its own. Professional and scholarly publishing grew by more than
6% and almost 5%, respectively. Most impressive, though, is higher education
publishing. Even across the worst of the recession and the lumbering recovery,
college textbooks are booming, with revenue coming to $4.5 billion, more than
23% growth since 2008. Its good news all around. For shareholders in publicly
traded companies with sizable publishing subsidiaries like the aforementioned
News Corp. and CBS, as well as others like Time Warner (NYSE: TWX ), this means
print isnt dragging business down. For investors still affixed to book retailers
like Amazon, this also is great news. Its also promising even for Barnes & Noble
(NYSE: BKS ). Even if strong book sales wont completely rehabilitate the
companys bleeding retail business, they should at least make the company more
attractive as an acquisition ( to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ), perhaps?), especially
given its reach as a chain of university bookstores. What of the publishing
industrys digital future, though? Have e-books begun their reign on American
readers? Not just yet. E-book revenue totaled just $878 million in 2010, a mere
fraction of other publishing segments. Its the rate at which e-book sales are
growing that is most promising. That revenue figure represents nearly 1,300%
growth since 2008. Individual e-book sales totaled 114 million last year, growth
of more than 1,000% since 2008. E-books now represent about 6% of the overall
trade market. Should investors be pouring money into Amazon because the Kindle
store is going to be raking in billions soon? No, since its going to take years
for e-books to equal print in revenue, and thats if the current rate of market
growth stays steady. They should, however, take comfort in the fact that people
are still reading. The sky is not falling at least not in publishing. As of
this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks
named here. Follow him on Twitter at