Richard Charkin, head of Macmillan publishers in the UK, writes a darned good CEO blog. He shares some stats about competition for the book:
On average across the world people spend 6.5 hours a week reading. The most of amount time spent reading is in India (10.7 hours), the least Korea (3.1 hours). UK is very near the bottom at 5.3 hours, Germany and USA a little higher at 5.7 hours.The Chinese listen to radio less than any other nation (2.1 hours a week), Argentina the most (20.8 hours).
On average people now spend more time on the Internet for leisure (not work) than reading - 8.9 vs 6.5 hours. Mexico uses the Intenet for leisure least (6.3 hours) and Taiwan the most (12.6 hours).
Internet use reduces the time people have for reading by around 20%.
40% of Europeans do not read books.
More people use the Internet for leisure than read books in the developed world.
And people wonder why publishers are spending so much time and effort on digital developments…
Wow — these statistics surprised me… thanks for sharing…. It seems the human brain’s been rewiring itself for a new kind of reading… and the blog era has helped to make that happen. Short one-pointers — with links to the good stuff — seem to be replacing the loger prose we used to read… I’d like to see far more user friendly readers for the internet and I think that will change our patterns back to books. Mind you … it’ll be ebooks as indicated by the fine stats you turned out here. Thanks for stirring thoughts about what is and what could be. Great post!
Brain Based Business
Does the time spent on the internet include internet reading? I just read your blog (and about a dozen before it, the NY Times, and parts of the Wall Street Journal) - and I’m just getting started! I would say that more than 75% of my time on the internet is spent reading and participating in conversations - like this one. The rest is spent accomplishing tasks (banking for instance) or shopping (retail, travel, etc.). I applaud publishers spending more time on digital development, but I really get impressed when that digital development takes full advantage of the medium. Thanks for a very interesting post!
i agree with ann. i think people should specify how much blog or website reading is being done instead of books and magazines.
i would think that the internet boom and the blog boom have increased the amount of overall reading, since its taking into the time people used to spend in front of the television.
Manual trackback -
http://rajatgupta.wordpress.com/2006/06/03/are-books-dead/
Manual trackback -
http://managetochange.typepad.com/main/2006/06/the_wiring_of_p.html