Imagine for one second that it was ebook sales that had precipitously dropped 20% in the past week and was down almost 8% so far this year.
Yes, this post was first written on April 1, but no, this is not an April 1st joke, just a brief study in the juggling act that is industry reportage on print and digital publishing news.
Publishers Weekly (PW) reports that US print sales dropped almost 20% this past week.
Imagine for one second that it was ebook sales that had precipitously dropped 20% in the past week and was down almost 8% so far this year.
The industry pundits would be reeling out the “experts” and “spokesmen” patiently waiting for their next opportunity to explain how screen fatigue, the desperate desire to visit a bookstore, the sheer pleasure of holding a book in one’s hand, and how readers hanker for the feel and smell of the printed book were driving digital publishing into oblivion.
But this is print, and the panic days of the early 2010s when much of the industry really did fear for the future of the print format, are behind us.
But make no mistake, print sales are falling.
Last week PW reported print sales down -12.8%.
The previous week? Try -8.3%.
The week before that? How does -16.2% grab you?
We have to head back to mid February to see PW run anything about print sales rising, and that only by +4.3%.
But no, the sky is not falling, readers are not losing interest in print and print fatigue is as much a figment of the industry’s imagination as screen fatigue.
There are many reasons to be concerned about the direction the industry is heading, but “falling” print sales is not one of them – at least not at this time.
This post first appeared in the TNPS newsletter The View From The Beach on LinkedIn Pulse.
I own/operate a screen printing shop, and our sales have dropped off a cliff beginning in March of this year.
Holy cow, are you this out of touch with the industry?! “Print fatigue??!” I’ve never heard such nonsense in my life. The reason print sales are plummeting is obvious — a combination of skyrocketing prices on cost of living, gas, etc and the market instability caused by Russia invading Ukraine has forced consumers to tighten their purse strings. The dive bomb in print sales coincides with both factors – Russia’s invasion, and the uptick in inflation — both occurred in late February/early March.
Unfortunately for us printers, printed media is for the most part a “luxury expense.” That is, people don’t NEED printed items to survive. They will only invest money in printed media if they have the money to spare, and at present, THEY DON’T.
A 20% drop IS problematic, especially when you consider current economic projections are that inflation is only going to get worse in the coming months. Our sales plummeted -33% in March from February, then another -3% in April. In May, sales took another blow at a staggering -48.2%. This is clearly indicative of something larger than “print fatigue, and while you may not think it’s not cause for concern, I most certainly do. We’re only halfway through the year and if this trend continues I’ll be forced to close my doors by end-of-year.
LOL! If you re-read the OP you will realise th “print fatigue” is a satire on the industry’s love affair with “screen fatigue”.