With the declining print media industry and with the emergence of new e-readers and most recently the I pad many fear that the print industry is going to end. However, I don’t think so and this is why. Although e readers will be new and exciting devices for people who like to read, the e reader will not put an end to print media. One reason is that most people are cheap and while the Ipad and other e reader devices will grab some of the market share of print media, most people will stay with books and newspapers as a means to save around $600. Our country is in a recession and the last thing most people want to do is to buy an expensive e reader just for reading and then on top of that pay the face value for each book they download. The majority of people rather just purchase a $20 book or even borrow a book from a public library. This leads me into my next point, most people who are interested in reading a book can just go to their public library where they can borrow books for free or for a small fee.
Print media also won’t end is because people like to collect books and put them on shelves for display as a way to show their intellectual status. With e readers, people can’t shelve and collect what they have already read for display. Look at the music industry for example in the 50s, 60s and 70s vinyl records were popular but then with the introduction of cd’s and more recently the ipod the vinyl record industries seemed to die out. However in the past three years there has been a revival and now vinyl records are seen as collector’s items as go for more than quadruple what they were bought for. Books will one day be worth more than they were actually bought for which is also a reason why the print industry won’t die out. Some people are going to realize this and will go out to buy printed books in flocks because they believe print media will die out. However, as a result of the large amount of people buying books the book industry will be provided will a big boost and an increase in sales.