Markus dohle biography of george

Dohle: Yes. I grew up with printed paper, but I have to admit that I'm surprised at how quickly the digital business is growing, especially in the United States. Nevertheless, the printed book will still dominate for a long time to come. Dohle: It's around 8 percent in the US right now, which represents a huge increase. I can imagine that we'll end up above 10 percent next year.

Analysts estimate that in 10 years' time only a quarter of all books will go to readers in printed form. Do you think that's realistic? Dohle: I don't agree with that prognosis. I think it's too aggressive, too much hype. The market share for electronic books, even in the United States, will more likely be between 25 and 50 percent by But this development still represents a huge opportunity for us.

It creates new growth. I meet people in America who say: I started reading again because of my e-reader -- and so did my children. But Random House, the biggest one, is still not part of the effort in the US. Why are you hesitating? Dohle: In the English-language market, unlike Germany, there is no such thing as a fixed book price agreement.

The bookseller sets the retail price. In Apple's iBookstore, it's up to the publishers to set prices for the reader. Apple stays out of it and gets a commission. We have to examine this very closely to determine whether we are willing to make this drastic change to our business model. Dohle: In markets where there are no fixed book price agreements, it means that the publishers are entering into a pricing competition that was previously conducted by the booksellers.

The question, however, is whether publishers have the ability to find the right retail price in markus dohle biography of george to reach as many readers as possible. This wasn't our business until now. Dohle: That's right, it's also a question of the distribution of risk. Until now, we have sold content, developed and marketed talent and calculated our prices accordingly.

In the United States, the book trade has structured retail prices in keeping with individual market conditions. It needs to be determined whether publishers really can, and should, do both things in the future. Dohle: The digital shift is more likely to take five to seven years, so days in the iBookstore are not going to determine whether something is a success or a failure.

Of course we want to have a presence in every digital bookstore. And you mustn't forget that our readers in the United States can also read our books on the iPad, using many different apps, even if we're not part of the iBookstore there. I don't think that we'll miss out on too much in the long run. In fact, we believe that we have to proceed in a very thought-out way, in order to find a sensible business model that will hold up in the coming years.

Dohle: There's a lot going on, which is why it's far from clear as to which vendors and reading devices will prevail in the market in the long term. Dohle: Naturally, we have interesting content, which is why we are self-confident and can negotiate as equals. We don't want to destroy our business model, which has to last for the coming years, with a couple of wrong steps.

But we essentially have the same interests. A few years ago, Steve Jobs said that he didn't believe in the future of the book. Apple makes money in a lot of ways, and Jobs probably couldn't care less whether the book survives. But you do. Dohle: The digital world of books is undoubtedly more important to us than to Apple. In Germany, however, our books are already in the iBookstore, because there is a fixed book price agreement here, which we expressly support, and because it is easier to reach deals on this basis.

In other words, there is no fundamental problem between Apple and us. Is the book turning into a bargain-basement item? Archived from the original on 14 April Retrieved 2 November Manager Magazin in German. Archived from the original on 11 May The New York Times. ISSN Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in German. Archived from the original on 2 September The Wall Street Journal.

Archived from the original on 21 January Financial Times. ProQuest Archived from the original on 24 November PublishNews in Brazilian Portuguese. If you have an active subscription and need to set up or change your password, please click here.

Markus dohle biography of george

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