经济学人下载:逐渐消失的印刷品

The transformation of the book industry
出版业的转型

Disappearing ink
逐渐消失的印刷品

Readers have never had it so good. But publishers need to adapt better to the digital world
读者们体验着从未有过的快感，而出版商们则需要更好地适应数字时代

Sep 10th 2011 | from the print edition

DURING the next few weeks publishers will release a crush of books, pile them onto delivery lorries and fight to get them on the display tables at the front of bookshops in the run-up to Christmas. It is an impressive display of competitive commercial activity. It is also increasingly pointless.

在接下来的几周内，出版商们会发行一大批书，将它们堆在发货车上，然后竭尽全力赶在圣诞节购物狂潮来临之前将这些书摆在各个书店靠前的展台上。这种竞争激烈的商业活动给人以深刻的印象，然而这种做法也正逐渐失去它的意义。

More quickly than almost anyone predicted, e-books are emerging as a serious alternative to the paper kind. Amazon, comfortably the biggest e-book retailer, has lowered the price of its Kindle e-readers to the point where people do not fear to take them to the beach. In America, the most advanced market, about one-fifth of the largest publishers’ sales are of e-books. Newly released blockbusters may sell as many digital copies as paper ones. The proportion is growing quickly, not least because many bookshops are closing.

电子书正迅速地成为传统纸质书籍的替代品，比所有人预想的还要快。稳坐最大的电子书销售市场宝座的亚马逊公司将其Kindle阅读器的价格降到了人们将它带到沙滩上玩坏也不心疼的地步。在美国这个最发达的市场，那些最大的出版商约五分之一的销售额来自于电子书。新出版畅销书的电子版同纸质书一样卖得火热。电子书所占的比例在迅速地扩大，尤其是在如今许多书店都面临倒闭的时候。

For readers, this is splendid. Just as Amazon collapsed distance by bringing a huge range of books to out-of-the-way places, it is now collapsing time, by enabling readers to download books instantly. Moreover, anybody can now publish a book, through Amazon and a number of other services. Huge choice and low prices are helping books hold their own on digital devices, even against “Angry Birds”.

对于读者来说，这无疑是美妙的。正如亚马逊通过将大量的书送到偏远地区，缩小了人与书籍的空间距离一样，它也使人们能够迅速地从网上下载到电子书，从而缩短了时间。另外，人们现在也可以通过亚马逊和一些其它的服务出版自己的书。海量的选择和低廉的价格使电子书阅读器在电子设备的应用程序里具有很强的竞争力，它甚至能够与像“愤怒的小鸟”这样的游戏匹敌。