At first blush this may not seem to be a business issue, but then again... From the AP.
The publishing industry enjoyed a strong year in 2005, with increases in both revenues and the number of books sold. But projections for long-term growth remains limited because people increasingly don't read, according to a study released Friday.
"...people increasingly don't read". I'm thinking that may have a significant impact on businesses, and how they do business.
In actual dollars, net revenue increased 5.9 percent to just under $34.6 billion. But the study group expects a slow market for the rest of the decade, citing an emerging generation that doesn't read as much as the previous one.
Now, I understand that this seems to indicate that people don't read books as much they used to, but that still concerns me. These days, much reading is done online. If you're like me, online reading is really more like skimming. You're moving from one source to another as quickly as possible. Articles are written shorter, with the goal of maximizing information in the fewest words possible.
"The average amount of time and money spend by the general population on books has been declining and we don't see anything that's going to change that," said Bob Wharton, also a senior researcher at the Institute for Public Research, based in Bergenfield, N.J.
Much of the difference that I see is mainly in the decrease in attention span. We have very little patience in our fast-paced society (how many of us get irritated when web pages don't load fast enough!). Reading books that require an extended focus of attention disciplines us in ways that benefit us in other activities. Including our work.
The less we do that, the more we'll suffer, I fear. Am I Chicken Little?
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