Less Place for Print: The Growth of Audio in Consumer Publishing

In the growth of the digital world, continuous questions are fuelled of what consumer publishing will become. Will it be digital only? Will there be any place for print?

Consistently more people are becoming acceptable of the growth of the digital age and the impact it has on the publishing industry. The works of J. D. Salinger was once thought to only ever be published in print format due the negative attributions the author attains with technology. Now, his books such as the famous Catcher in the Rye are to be published in eBook format, nearly 10 years after his death.

Mobile usage plays a huge part in the change of reading habits. Apparently, the use of our smartphones has become so reliant that it is generally unhealthy. We’ve accepted that. But can we find anyone with a compelling view of what to do next? Do we actually want to change? We are naturally trying to work that out ourselves. The main purpose of this addictive use is the easy access to multiple platforms — this is where the publishing industry needed to think. ‘Reading’ habits, or simply the way we consume content is continuing to change. The development of successful smartphone apps isn’t something that top UK consumer publishers have tried. Can you say you have downloaded and kept an app from a publisher? Probably not.

So creative ideas in order to have a standing in the digital age have gone elsewhere. Over the last two years Podcasts have become increasingly popular. Ofcom stated in 2018 that nearly 6 million adults tune in to podcasts each week. The number of podcast listeners on a weekly basis has almost doubled in five years — from 3.2m (7% of adults aged 15+) in 2013 to 5.9m (11%) in 2018. As of September 2019, Penguin Random House UK announced their youth culture podcast series This is Spoke will be launched for a second season with two new presenters. The collaboration includes entertainment powerhouse Fremantle, and music company BMG. Guests of the podcast series feature includes writers, poets and musicians. This renewal brings together digital broadcasting and publishing — a strategic move from Penguin to keep the industry in the digital loop, and a step away from print publishing. This poses an important question: do we celebrate this, or do we criticise it?

Looking at new releases, over 20,000 people rushed out to buy a copy of David Cameron’s memoir in its first week on sale, placing it second on the latest book charts to Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. Historically, this places the text behind Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair for the title of fastest-selling political memoir by a former prime minister. What’s interesting, though, is that the sales have seen the audio version become more popular than the print edition — this is a major point. The narrator obviously has something to do with it — as it is narrated by David Cameron himself. But what does all this technological growth mean for print publishing? This is the fear that has embarked on traditional book readers and many alike since the beginning of the digital age.

The growth of audio has highlighted the ways in which people are currently consuming content, and how it is being produced in other sources besides print. Publishers may fear they are losing their ‘traditional book readers.’ Just because the ways in which readers are consuming content is going in a different direction, it doesn’t mean that print publishing is completely under threat. We can celebrate the growth of audio. And we can assume that there is still room for print…but how much?

BBC News. (2019). JD Salinger novels are finally going digital. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49330560 [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].

Flood, A. (2019). David Cameron’s memoir fails to top Tony Blair’s in first week sales. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/24/david-cameron-memoir-margaret-atwood-dystopia-for-the-record [Accessed 27 Sep. 2019].

Ofcom. (2018). Podcast listening booms in the UK. [online] Available at: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2018/uk-podcast-listening-booms [Accessed 1 Oct. 2019].

Penguin. (2018). Penguin launches new youth culture podcast, This is Spoke. [online] Available at: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/company/news/2018/october/penguin-launches-new-youth-culture-podcast--this-is-spoke.html [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].

Penguin. (2019). This is Spoke: Youth culture podcast launches for second season with two new presenters. [online] Available at: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/company/news/2019/sept/this-is-spoke--youth-culture-podcast-launches-second-season.html [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].