Publishing 2020

The article examines historical and recent trends in the consumer publishing industry in order to make predictions about the structure of that industry in 2020. The author anticipates the demise of the largest players in the industry, in both the publishing and retail sectors. Their decline he attributes to a focus on supply chain management and a lack of attention to innovation on the demand-side of the book business. In this respect he pays particular attention to studies of supply–demand matching in the DVD business.