Most book buyers are women, but could E bring in new male readers? And help newspaper book review sections, too?

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By David Rothman

Women are probably the biggest book-buyers. But could e-books help the industry find new male readers? And might newspaper book review sections get closer to E? Remember, if you buy an e-book advertised online, you get immediate gratification.

Besides, the same reader gizmos used for enjoyment of e-books can work for newspapers—with possible help from services such as Feedbooks, so that even e-machines without wireless and display the news.

The wireless-equipped  iPhone and iPod Touch are naturals for certain e-book fans, news junkies and mixes of the two. Both AP and the New York Times have promising apps for e-reading on those two machines. Check out the iPhone App Store. Other goodies are on the way—the image to the right is a screenshot of FBReader for Android phones.

Women, E and the demise of the LA book section

Such thoughts occur to me in the wake of Booksquare’s observation that a "No girls allowed" sign might as well have appeared on the LA Times Book review, now shutting down. Point well made. That’s not the only mistake. Suppose the Book Review had aggressively gone after e-bookers and promoted the medium. By itself, such measures wouldn’t have saved the Review but would have helped. (An aside: You can hear an MP3 of Booksquare‘s Kassier Krozser on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.)

Here at the TeleBlog, we welcome male and female readers alike, and in fact I’d like more of the later. But realistically, at least three-fifths of TeleBlog community membders are now men, with SF probably being the most popular single genre. In the opposite direction, DearAuthor‘s readership is mostly female, given the focus on romance books.

Image: CC-licensed photo from Adan Garcia.

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