Speaking of Dinosaurs….
For the past years publishers have been looking the other way when it came to eBooks. Before Amazon introduced the Kindle it was easy for these dinos to duck the popularity of ebooks. There were all kinds of excuses; people want to hold a book, noone wants to read on a computer, there’s no way the digital experience can match the feel of paper in your hands.
Amazon introduced the Kindle almost 3 years ago and eBooks took off. Big time. Last quarter, Amazon sold more books on the Kindle than it did as hardbacks. They expect to sell more Kindle books than paperbacks in the next 9-12 months.
Now that’s a major market shift, one that many of us saw coming even before the Kindle hit the streets. Yet the publishing Dinos kept right on proclaiming that the Kindle wouldn’t take off, people will still buy books, most people won’t want the digital experience…Uh, Oops.
It’s pretty obvious that many traditional publishers are stuck in their tarpit and sinking quickly.
Yet this is the perfect environment for innovators to win bigtime. The opportunities found in digital media and distribution are limitless – and different from our past. Old business models, old legends, old ways don’t work anymore. I’m eager to see who capture the opportunity to soar.
As Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
Don’t be a dinosaur. Adapt!
