Book Publishing in 2010 Essay

The digital books business eliminated the physical books in the store. Barnes & Noble offered a wide range digital platforms to its customers. The digital system was comparable with Window 8 personal computer and tablets. It also worked well with Apple’s product such as iPad, iPhone and other products like Android smartphones and tablets. The firm continued to stay in a competitive advantage position in the marketplace, even though it had to compete with many powerhouses in the same industry such as Waldenbooks and Crown Books. And yet, Barnes & Noble remains on the top of the leading U.S bookstore chains.

In order to determine whether the Five Forces are still applicable, this part will analyse Industry in general concerning structural changes due to Digitalization. Because of Digitalization, another two forces significantly affect the competition which are Globalization and Deregulation. The impact of Globalization on the Industry structure is the customers gain benefit as comparing global prices become much easier and faster in from the Globalization process (Dalken, 2014).

From 1870 to 1899 the indexed value for the cost of living index steadily decreased due to industrialization (Doc A). During this time period, factories utilized techniques such as mass production and interchangeable parts which reduced the necessity of skilled workers. These techniques helped lower the cost of labor which in turn reduced the cost of most products for Americans and the cost of living. Also during this time period, various monopolies began to emerge and with these new monopolies the cost for goods such as food, fuel, and lighting began to go down. Although these monopolies were beneficial to the average consumer, many businesses closed down because they could not compete with the lower prices.

To assess the industry structure and profitability, a Five Forces analysis will be conducted on the department store-retail industry.

Three key challenges facing the Canadian book publishing industry are the concentration in retail market, the competition for multinationals, and the cost of adapting to new technologies and entering the export market. Policy source 14, Summative Evaluation of the Book Publishing Industry Development Industry Program discusses these challenges.

Porters five forces will help us in analyse the industry amazon.com is in. Five Forces which will be analysed will be

Before Waverlys were published in the United States, publishing in America was mainly just newspapers, almanacs, and pamphlets and relied on Britain to send them anything fiction. However, as tariffs rose publishers decided that they would make more money by importing one copy of a British book and then reprinting in the United States. This shift in publishing changed the game of the publishing world. Publishers didn’t have one job anymore; they were now wholesalers and distributors for the books they published by themselves. Now they didn’t just have a local market, they had a national market.

As demand for technology increases, many companies have begun to transfer every day items and tasks to an electronic version of the same program. A specific type of product that has been altered to be more compatible with growing technological demand is books. Before technology was popular, books were available as paperback and hardback copies only. However, as consumer demand for technology increases, tablets are becoming an asset to a person’s work materials. To accommodate for this shift in consumer wants, eBooks are created; these make up for the technological improvement and produce a cheaper alternative to actual books. The possibility of an eBook monopoly is steadily increasing and is already high

In this case, the traditional bookseller’s niche is overlapped the Big box retailers’. Because of the limited resources: only certain amount of people demand for popular books, they have to compete for the market of popular books. However, scale difference generates selection pressures. Obviously traditional booksellers have smaller scale and less purchasing power to compete with “Big box” retailers. When the electronic books came out, traditional booksellers struggle more. Although all booksellers were affected, “Big box”

2-B&N and the book publishers are changing their business models to deal with the Internet and e-book technology by B&N developing its own e-readable devised called Nook. In order to meet demand and supply, they started to be actively in control of its supply chain by developing,

Furthermore, Barnes & Noble had the power to position their own books in areas of the store with the highest traffic. Electronic publishing was also one of the most salient threats to Random House’s business. Several authors started to self-publish their own manuscripts online avoiding the whole process of bypassing the publishers, distributors and retailers. The emergence of ebooks benefitted both the author and the final consumer. Self-publishing implied a more rapid process for publications and allowed customers to pay lower prices.

The book market is in fact growing ‘with the exception of weak fortnights in both March and April, sales figures for the overall book market have shown sustained growth in 2005. ...

Government has introduced some policies to protect the publishing industry. According to National Book Policy which adopted in 1985, it proposed that the book industry should be recognized as an essential industry and, therefore, support must be given for its development. Moreover, the Government policy towards local printing and publishing industry was meant to give ‘protection’ to the industry.

The seller of digital textbooks will also be saving money over producing hard copies. 32% of the cost allocated to paper, printing and editorial can be completely eliminated along with 22.4% of costs related to bookstore operations and personnel. Bookstores as we know them could become obsolete or transformed into stores that sell tablets, e-readers and software packages on campus. Publishers or sellers will now be able to tap into a more global market with electronic textbooks as the information can be translated into many languages quickly.

The second option involves entering the book production business. But, its potential is unlimited. Here we are dealing with huge market consisting significant figures of 50,000 new titles and 1,500,000 repeat titles a year. Moreover, the market for on demand and short run books is extended beyond the life cycle of normal book. This makes market interesting in terms of extent it can expand to.