There are some who have embraced it and some who firmly refuse to use it, but what does digital publishing really mean for the future of publishing?
The term can refer to anything from online newspapers to blogs to eBooks and you’d have difficulty avoiding it entirely as it is everywhere, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that this is the end for traditional publishing. There are good and bad aspects to both forms, from a business point of view and from that of the consumer.
One thing that is universally acknowledged is that the internet has made life a lot easier for all of us. Whether you want to use a dictionary, research a company or simply find out the news, it is all right there, at your fingertips. And yet there is a definite tone of derision when the issue is tackled, suggesting that the content is of lower quality and therefore not worthy of the business it steals from traditional publishing. Due to the universal access of the internet, this naturally means that there is some writing out there that plays fast and loose with the rules of grammar, but informative and talented writing is still out there; it is just a little harder to find. And at the end of the day, you are not paying for most of the content you find online, so you can’t expect the same quality.
Many among us are still waiting to see whether the eReader will turn out to be just a fad, or if this is really the end for the ‘physical’ book and when those popular bookstores are disappearing from our high street, it makes you wonder if Amazon is winning.
While eBooks are widening the market for both readers and writers alike, the current influx of self-published authors does mean that the competition is steep. On the one hand, eBooks are generally much cheaper than printed novels, but who among us is willing to take our precious tablets or eReaders into the bath for a refreshing evening of reading or lend our Kindle to a neighbour because you can’t yet share an eBook?
In terms of advertising, the public is gradually becoming immune to the carefully placed ads that are directed specifically at them as individuals and have trained their eyes to only see what they need to on a webpage. Whereas, a well-designed leaflet through the letterbox is much harder to ignore and it is becoming a novelty to actually read a physical product.
At the end of the day, there are still people out there who prefer to open an actual paper, peruse the glossy pages of a magazine or read through a dog-eared copy of Harry Potter and I doubt that will ever change. If nothing else, the strain of constantly reading from a backlit screen is sure to deter us from a life of digital publishing.
REMEMBER: There are more media choices than ever before.
600 Television Channels, 400 Radio Stations, 9,000 Magazines & Newspapers, 100 Million Websites. But Still Only 1 LETTERBOX
So with Leaflet Distribution you get a Front Page Advert on every doormat!
