Should newspapers & book publishers convert to elec publishing over paper publishing as their primary product?

Answer 1

As long as we have canaries in the house ( and no doubt that will be a long time! ) we will continue buying the newspaper. I find it uncomfortable to take a computer to bed with me to read a bit before going to sleep, and only an e-book in the bathroom???? And when I study, I can't write notes in the margins of the computer monitor.
No, they shouldn't change quickly.

Answer 2

It's the way it's going. Should they? No--reading the newspaper or holding a book is a part of the experience. While it is turning into the electronic age, it is going to take a few decades to wipe out print.

It's going to take a generational change--notice that kids today don't know what it's like to be without the internet. It's the same with print. It's going to a slow phase out, but eventually it will happen. Today there are just too many people who depend on reading their newspaper over breakfast, not over the computer.

Also, it's not about cutting down tress/saving the environment/etc. Newspapers/book publishers use a renewable section of trees that they grow and use. Also, recycling is becoming more and more popular.

Answer 3

I'm going to say no to this idea of publishers switching primarily over to electronic versions even though I do think that publishers could significantly increase the value of their product by making available electronic versions of the text once you've purchased it. It would make it easier to search through the book for specific material. Imagine if you could search through your entire library for that quote you read years ago that you found especially inspiring or insightful. I'd really appreciate an electronic version that allowed me to take notes on the text I'm reading and stores those notes so they could be searched as well later.
But back to the main point. The reason I think publishers should stick with traditional paper copies is because I believe reading something in print does have a greater impact on your ability to remember it and digest it. I think this is a byproduct of the mass of information that we have available to us today, which our brains struggle to cope with. When your brain is able to associate information with a physical object, I've found that information has greater staying power. Even little things like the picture on the cover, the texture of the book and its pages, the shape of the font used by the publisher, help to create a unique placeholder in the brain for the message of the book. I'm sure this sounds a bit wacky, but I work on computers all day as an IT systems administrator, and I notice a world of difference when I just take the time to actually print an item out and read it.

Part of the problem with electronic versions is the way computers are designed to give you access to a wealth of information instantly, along with all kinds of options for manipulating that information. All the extra visual information on a computer screen, in a web page or even if in a PDF viewer, presents an extra layer of information that in a a myriad of small ways competes with the main text. The best way to focus is to be able to have a physical object (ie a book) and take it somewhere quiet where you can give it your full attention. Perhaps there will be some electronic form of the book someday, but right now there is nothing that can offer the same quality of intense information transfer that a book can. And I consider myself to be one of the most technically oriented people that I know. The more time I spend reading on computers the more clear the advantages of print on paper become to me.

P.S.
For some reason I thought your question initially was geared toward textbooks, of which I have a lot of opinions on separately. I'd like to see some free "open-source" textbooks come on the scene to offer some competition to the existing textbook industry like wikipedia has done for encyclopedias. Read this article to learn about some folks who are trying to do just that ( http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5884291.html ).

Also here are a few articles that lay out some of the problems that exist with textbook industry in its current form. I hope these are an added bonus to your question even though they are a little off topic.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/051107ta_talk_surowiecki
http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=art_1195&issue=nov_04
http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2006/08/richard-feynman-on-textbook-review.html

Answer 4

As soon as they figure out a way to make sure they don't lose advertising revenue they will go that way. It will save them the cost of printing and distributing which are big factors in making their profit.