On the other side lingers the publishing industry, which has seemingly been killed off and resurrected numerous times within the last few decades. With the advent of new technology the face of publishing is changing as well. Analysts have predicted the death of print many times throughout history without their tragic musings coming into fruition. There is no doubt that the publishing industry is changing, but whether for the better of worse is the question. Magazines have been losing revenue steadily but paperback novels have remained constant. Case and point, with the release of Dan Brown’s new thriller, The Lost Symbol, publisher Doubleday managed to sell over a million copies in hardcover and e-book versions in the United States, Britain and Canada within the span of a single day.
With the highly anticipated release of Apple’s new iPad and Amazon’s number one selling product the Kindle, literature seems to be moving the way of the music industry into the digital realm. Now thousands of novels, books and other literary resources can be kept in a single touch-sensitive piece of technology. According to Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly, publishing trends and figures can be misleading, “174.5 million people paid to subscribe to magazines in 1970; that number has steadily and consistently risen over the years, to 324.8 million as of 2008”. The bottom line is that media is changing and publishing companies will have to adapt and embrace new technology.
