According to CNN, US Representative, Jesse Jackson, Jr. with iPad™ in hand, gave a speech on the floor of the House indicating that this new device [referring to the iPad™ he had recently purchased, "...is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs...".
(source) He went on to clarify by suggesting the closing of bookstores and the failure of national chains such as Borders – which declared bankruptcy this winter
(source) – are directly related to the emergence of eBook technology. With all due deference to the honorable Representative of the people of Illinois who is correct that paper books and newspapers may well be headed for the permanent recycling bin in the sky, every new technology that's ever arisen has put people out of work and created an entire new industry in which for them to find jobs. This one is no different.
First up, though, let us have some 'fun' discussing a very hot topic, and that is, does this spell the end of paper books? Certainly, is does not spell the end of books in general. Moving from paper to electronic form does not mean the end of books. In fact, it means the next and most powerful way to distribute books since the invention of the printing press, which, sadly put a lot of monks out of business. Once all of the world's books are available in eBook form for download, it means everyone in the world has access to every book and with all kinds of powerful new tools no one ever talks about.† In any case, paper books are on the way out. They have to be for the sheer economics of it. How much does it cost to print 100,000 copies of a book and distribute it them to 10,000 bookstores? Too much. It cost a book publisher a fraction of that to load the book into amazon.com or the iBook™ store and moments later currency can start flowing as people populate their book readers with the book in seconds. From an environmental standpoint, there also is no comparison between these two forms of delivering books. No more trees will have to give up their lives so that we may read – of course solar powered book readers would up the ante further! No more diesel fuel burned to transport the heavy boxes all around, and no more trips to the bookstore to buy the books – this is the sad part (remember all the Harry Potter parties?). Even with the pros for environmentalists, it will be the sheer economic that will drive the change, the same with magazines and newspapers. We are indeed, sitting on the precipice of the bold, new information age we've been promised for decades, that the iPad™ and its rivals will help, at last, fulfill. Textbooks, flight charts, maps, and the whole shebang are moving to the eReaders. Gone will be the heavy backpacks for college kids as they will be able to carry an entire library in the palm of their hands. Imagine the empowerment. For those purists who see this as sad, you are correct, it is sad to a degree. Just like it was sad when we went from vinyl to tapes to CDs to downloads. But, it doesn't have to be as sad, it takes innovation on the part of the people who currently own bookstores. It requires them to spend time immediately re-conceiving their business and what it's all about in the new age. What do people like most about going to the book stores? Is it the hanging around, is it the reading for free, is it the coffee, is it the book clubs / groups, is the smell of a fresh paperback? What do they need to do to keep this going? How about partnering with the eBook companies and readers to have exclusive rights to times and places for downloads of new books – see the Harry Potter parties don't have to die out. Because Border and Barnes & Noble were complacent, they did not map out a survival strategy. Were I CEO of either, I would have locked all the book publishing companies up 2 years ago into 50-year contracts to get exclusive first month distribution rights. So people who wanted books would have to come to my store to download a book. I would have been working on ways to populate the eReaders in my store with passages of books for people to browse and read in-store before deciding what to buy. I would be working on technology to allow for an author to sign a person's eBook version of the book so book signings and talks by authors at my store are still relevant. I would not have just been praying this wasn't going to happen or that it would go away or prove to be a fad. I would also be installing a print-on-demand book printing machine in each of my stores, because no matter how much people like eBooks, there are always going to be people who prefer a printed copy – maybe they don't want to risk dropping their new iPad™ or Kindle™ into the ocean off the deck of a cruise ship. The machines for on-demand book-printing are expensive, but they would give people who came to the bookstores an alternative. There are always ways to innovate and save a business or transform its relevancy if you have creative and talented people at the helm who pay attention to trends in the world and have the foresight to act before it is too late.
As part two of this brief treatise on change and job loss, let's address Rep. Jackson's contention that these technologies are killing jobs. Indeed, when people started by Henry Ford's Model T, the horse and buggy industry nationwide was ransacked. Hundred and hundreds of people were put out of a job. And yet, look at all the jobs a mass-produced automobile spawned: gas station attendants, mechanics, car salespeople, paved road builders, , auto-part manufacturers, tow truck operators, seat cover makers, fuzzy dice and bobble head dog makers, and that's just a 10-second brainstorm, Likewise, in the scheme of things, the iPad™ has already created thousands of jobs via those who work to develop apps if nothing else. Plus, Mr. Jackson seems to forget that while the printing presses for books, magazine, and newspapers may come to a screeching halt, the eReaders could stave the newspaper business giving them a new way to deliver their content to people all over the world at a fraction of the cost of printing and distributing. The possibility to customize and geo-target as well as track advertising makes this an even better and more economical model for their customers – the advertisers. C.I.P. – if I buy the Sunday
Chicago Tribune today, it's full of ads from Chicago which may or may not be relevant to a person in Colorado. However, when I surf the eVersion on line, Google® and other advertising services can populate it with Colorado-based ads, or even ads from businesses in my home town. This way, the
Trib can make more money and keep many more people employed!
On balance, sure, any new technology causes job losses, but with creativity and planning fewer may be lost and the ancillary industries spun out of the new technology will more than take up the slack.
___________† Powerful new tools of eReaders
click on a word you don't know, and get the definition displayed
put in as many electronic book marks as you want and then find them easily
change the font to one you like better, oh and the size to make it easier for you to read
links within books will eventually take you to primary source materials
animation and video tools are on the horizon as are human voice readers to read the books to you, no more abridged tapes and CDs
highlighting passages and margin notes, too are soon to follow