Annual digital report August 2013 – July 2014

Following two very successful Digital Sector Meetings in the Western Cape, with 24 members attending the meeting in October 2013 at OUP, and 19 members representing 12 companies attending the meeting on 5 March 2014 at Pearson, all Digital Booksellers were invited to the 2014 South African Book Fair (SABF) which took place from 13 to 15 June 2014 at the CTICC. Coinciding with the Book Fair in Cape Town was this year’s Footnote Summit – Africa’s largest Digital Publishing Conference. The conference had a strong focus on education, looking at e-learning and the accessibility of e-books in schools. Digital Publishing solutions provider, Snapplify, announced at the event that they will be providing all South African schools with a free e-book store.

The keynote speaker at the event this year was Michael Bhaskar, Digital Publishing Director at Profile Books and Serpent’s Tail and the author of a book exploring the past, present and future of publishing, The Content Machine. Some of the other speakers included Malcolm Seegers, newly appointed Chairperson of PASA’s e-Publishing Forum, from Macmillan Education, and Ben Williams, Head of Books and e-Commerce at Times Media Group. (For a summarty of the talks, see page 12).

At a meeting of the National Learning and Teaching Support Materials Consultative Forum held on 25 March 2014, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) requested publishers to provide them with a presentation on digital content and e-books. It is clear we have a changing terrain, trends and implications for digital content and e-books as well as teachers’ perspectives and challenges facing booksellers in this area.

The results of Via Afrika’s Snapshot of e-Learning in South African Schools (June 2014) provided us with an interesting glimpse of the status quo of e-Learning in South African schools:

Training
In 2013 the DBE released statistics that revealed out of South Africa’s 413 067 teachers, only 132 884 had been trained in basic computer skills and Information & Communications Technology (ICT) equipment by 2011

Technical Support
It is clear that every school will require its own qualified technical support person to maintain the e-Learning potential of the school

And, gave us a heartwarming perspective of e-books in the bigger picture.

E-Books in all Publishing sectors
Turnover for all Publishing Sectors- 2010: R1,25m; 2011: 1,7m; 2012: 7m

E-Books versus total Educational Publishing
Turnover for e-books in 2012 – R277 000, versus turnover for Eductional publishing in South Africa – more than R2bn

On the Amazon front
Amazon reported a loss of $126m (R1,4bn) on 24 July 2014 for the second quarter, and warned that sales could slow down in the third quarter, with a forecasted growth of only 15%, a significant drop from previous quarters. The loss came despite a 23% jump in second quarter sales to $ 19,3bn.

In South Africa there is a growth of digital books in education, general and academic markets. A few purely digital schools have opened and more are opening. University libraries already spend up to 70% of their funds on digital books and journals. General book sales are being impacted by the internet too.

At the SABA National Digital Sector Meetings in Durban some of the most prominent members and sectors in e-books and e-trade in South Africa were involved, and included Ulandy Gribble of On the Dot, Melvyn Kaabwe of Van Schaik Bookstore, Ben Williams of Sunday Times, and Alan Vesty of CUP (all regular contributors to Bookmark magazine).

In conclusion, booksellers must be ready to adapt. It is hard to predict with confidence exactly how much e-books will change the book trade in South Africa. We believe if booksellers are prepared to come to terms with the changing landscape and adapt accordingly they will survive.

by Hentie Gericke,
SA Booksellers, Digital Chairperson