After years of sales growth, major publishers reported a fall in their e-book sales for the first time in 2016, introducing new doubts about the potential of e-books for the publishing industry. A Penguin executive even admitted recently that the hype over e-books may have driven unwise investment, with the company losing too much confidence in “the power of the word on the page.”
Yet despite the increasing realization that digital and print can easily coexist in the market, the question of whether the e-book will “kill” the print book continues to surface. It doesn’t matter if the intention is to predict or dismiss this possibility; the potential disappearance of the book does not cease to stimulate our imagination.
Why is this idea so powerful? Why do we continue to frame the encounter between e-books and print books in terms of a struggle, even if all evidence points to their peaceful coexistence?
The answers to these questions go beyond e-books and tell us much more about the mixture of excitement and fear we feel about innovation and change. The idea of one medium “killing” another has often followed the unveiling of new technologies.
It’s All Happened Before
Even before the advent of digital technologies, critics have predicted the demise of existing media. After television was invented, many claimed radio would die. But radio ended up surviving by finding new uses; people started listening in cars, during train rides, and on factory floors.
![A family huddles around the television in the late 1950s. (National Archives and Records Administration/Evert F. Baumgardner [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F01%2F03%2FFamily_watching_television_1958-580x539.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
