The digital publishing and traditional bookselling industry normally take a really long time to report their sales and research data to the public. These companies and organizational bodies have just presented their findings and today we are going to take a look at the most relevant data.
Bookstores
Bookstore sales inched up 1.5% in November over November 2015, according to preliminary estimates released Friday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. November’s sales were $805 million, up from $793 million a year ago.
The increase followed a decline in sales in October which a number of booksellers had attributed to distractions caused by the presidential election and many booksellers and publishers were hoping for a post-election sales bump. While not a huge increase, the 1.5% rise in bookstore sales got the trend heading in the right direction.
Magazines
The Magazine Publishers Association has recorded the largest increase in print and digital audience since the Magazine Media 360° Brand Audience Report began over two years ago. The print and digital audience, which is measured and reported by GfK MRI, grew 5.5% compared to the previous year.
According to the MPA’s November 2016 report, total audience — across print, Web, mobile Web and video — has reached 1.9 billion, up 9.2% compared to the same month a year ago. This is the second-highest percentage gain from the report in 2016.
Newspapers
According to a recent study, 81% of monthly newspaper readers engage with a print product. Some 51% read print exclusively. The remaining 49% reads a newspaper on at least one digital platform, with 30% reading both digital and print. A paltry 5% gets their news from a website or Facebook.
Digital newspaper paper readers are 49% more likely than the general adult population to be a college graduate and 43% more likely to have household incomes over $100,000.
Most digital newspaper readers are millennials, at 32% of the population. Print newspaper readers tend to be part of the baby-boomer generation, at 37% of the population.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
