Looking Beyond Now in Publishing: The Print vs. Digital Debate – What Should Be the Focus Content or Platform?

Introduction

Publishing has become one important phenomenon in the world. This is because the world is surviving on information which books provide. There are many individuals, groups and organizations involved in the business of providing different information through books and other printed materials. Publishing is an interesting course that touches all facets of information processing, storage and dissemination especially literacy, formal and informal education. It is therefore significant to all librarianship exercises.

It could be difficult to cultivate a generally accepted definition for publishing; several scholars have developed generic concepts and terms for the process of producing literary works. Oso and Biobaku (2008) explain that publishing is a generic term used to describe the process of producing literacy and information materials for utility. Also, Nyeko (1999) opines that; publishing is “the process of producing for dissemination, books, films, computer programmes, records, newspapers, periodicals, discs, bulletins, magazines and other literacy materials.” It is only when a manuscript has been transformed into a book and then distributed to its intended market place, that the process of publishing is complete. Lee (1979) defined publishing using its characteristics. According to him, there are three crucial components of book publishing. They are: book editing, book design, and book production. Contextually, we can conclude that book publishing is that process that seeks to capture social and intellectual activity and storing same for the information, education and entertainment of the society.

Okwilagwe (2001) quoted Chandler Grannis (1967) who define publishing as:

The demise of print has been famously predicted for years. In the early 1990s, Stakeholders of a major professional publisher announced that “print is dead.” To this credit, it was publicly recanted that statement several years later. Despite the incredible advances in digital technology and new opportunities for selling e-products, print sales have remained the bread and butter of almost all publishers. Print, however, is not the solid foundation it used to be. In recent years, most sectors have seen an overall decline in print sales, and though we are likely to see some variations over time, the overall downward trend does not seem likely to be reversed.

In the past, publishers have been known to be too casual about the preservation of files. In many cases, publishers paid almost no attention to archival storage, instead depending on third-party typesetters and printers to maintain our intellectual property. Even now, some smaller and midsize publishers are guilty of such dangerous practices.

The Print Vs. Digital Debate

Nowadays, consumers are exposed to digital media at least as much as print. The growing prevalence of smart phones and tablets, and the wireless networks that connect them, mean that more and more folks will view media on a digital device. Of course, this also means more and more consumers will view advertisements on digital devices as well.