Kindle and the Rise of E-Books

In a late February talk in Washington, HarperCollins chief executive Brian Murray declared that Amazon.com seeks to put publishers out of business. “No-one,” he said, “has yet discovered how to compete with Amazon.” He regards Amazon as more powerful than Walmart.

Amazon’s Kindle that was unveiled in 2007, said Murray, triggered the explosive growth of ebooks, which now comprise 20% of all books sold in the United States. At Harper Collins, number two of the big-five publishers, the percentage is an even higher 50% of sales. Three quarters of all ebooks in the United States are in the Kindle format. “Everyone,” said Murray, “underestimated the speed at which ebooks would be accepted.”

The digital shift, said Murray, is pervasive, impacting every facet of the journey from author to reader. It means that anyone can be published. “For authors,” said Murray, “there are more opportunities now than ever before.” However, printers and retailers are collapsing.  Forty-two percent of book sales are online.

Significantly, publishers are coping. After several years of slow or no growth HarperCollins is publishing more books than ever, some 3,500 last year or 15 titles each day. The transformation of retailing has cut down on returns and thus boosted profits. In the pre-Amazon days 50% of books went unsold and came back to the publishers. Books—both printed and digital—comprise a $25 billion industry.

Murray’s message was that unlike music the publishing industry is figuring out how to compete and survive.  He pays tribute to Amazon, saying it is amazing that anywhere in the world a reader can order a book and have it delivered to his Kindle in seconds.

In his biography of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (The Everything Store—Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon), Brad Stone says it was the success of Apple’s iPod that led to the Kindle. Released by Steve Jobs in 2003 along with the iTunes music store, they had the effect of destroying the traditional music business.  Realizing that, Bezos launched Lab 126, a secret mission to reinvent the clunky ebook readers, which had been around in primitive form since the late 1990s.  Bezos, argues Stone, understood that he had to destroy the old way of running Amazon in order to control the ebook business, just as Apple had reshaped music.  In effect, the iPod made the Kindle.

Up Against the Wind in Cape Town

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA The 65-mile Argus bicycle tour has been an annual fixture in Cape Town since 1978. A charity event run in part by the local Rotary Club, the Argus has evolved into the world’s biggest timed bicycle race.

This year’s event on March 9th drew 35,000 cyclists, 90% of whom were South African. This year’s winners completed the scenic circuit winding around Table Mountain between the Atlantic and Indian oceans in less than 2 hours and 51 minutes. Riders battled the stiffest winds in five years that made climbing perilous with a risk of being blown over.

 Despite adversity 90% of entrants—only a fraction of which are professionals—finished the race, with most getting around the course in under 6 hours. About 20% of the riders were black, and somewhat over 30% women. The oldest riders were in their 80s and the youngest not yet teenagers.

Tour director David Bellairs said the 30 mph gusts actually made the race safer. “The wind slowed people down,” he said, “it almost seemed to reduce the number of crashes.” The three medical helicopters constantly overhead took only 59 riders to hospital, most of them with fractures.

Craig Leithwhite

Noting the growing popularity of cycling, Johannesburg rider Craig Leithwhite says, “cycling is the new golf.” People, he says, want to be fit and test themselves. Most riders train many months for the Argus and come back year after year. The Argus is big business for Cape Town, South Africa’s most prosperous city. Alan Winde of the Western Cape Tourist authority says the bike race brings $50 million into the local economy.

As it has exploded in popularity, cycling has become expensive. The cheapest bikes on display in the exhibit hall where riders checked in for race numbers and electronic chips cost $2,500.

Duncan Bell and wife

The one-day event over, riders already are turning their attention to next year’s race. Businessman Duncan Bell, 69, finishing his 20th Argus, is hopeful that in 2015 he’ll improve on this year’s time of 4 hour 20 minutes. #