Along with the Financial Times, The Telegraph, and The Guardian, just about every UK-based newspaper that covers the publishing industry ran the sort of ‘E-Books Will Save Us!’ story yesterday that seems forehead-slappingly obvious at first glance … and yet is nevertheless rather comforting to read—especially considering that the good news has been officially confirmed with real figures.
Here’s the deal: Bloomsbury Publishing, it seems, has just reported “a [two percent] overall decline in [print] title sales” for the last four months of 2012. However, due to the fact that the company’s e-book sales jumped 58 percent year-on-year in the same period, Bloomsbury’s year-on-year operating profits were significantly up in Q4. According to an item published on The Bookseller, “Bloomsbury reported that e-book sales retained ‘good momentum,’ particularly in the UK.”
The boosted operating profits weren’t entirely the result of e-books sales, though; a lower rate of returns and an increase in online sales apparently helped Bloomsbury’s bottom line as well.
According to chief executive Nigel Newton, “We are making good progress on many fronts during the transition of the market towards more digital sales. E-book sales are showing strong momentum … “
I think this has a lot to do with the adoption curve in the UK, with Kobo readers available in practically every WH Smiths and Amazon finally making sure that just about every device and product type is available for a UK audience as well. The market has grown large enough at last and the media, woke up to the fact.