Trends of Digital Publishing: A Case Study of Taiwan’s Tourist Press

Abstract

When Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s iPad in 2010, it opened the door to new opportunities in the digital publishing industry. However, five years have passed, and only a small amount of publishers have made the move to digital publishing. In addition to lack of funds, most publishers have limited knowledge of digital publishing and mistakenly think that digital publishing will have a negative impact on traditional paper book publishing business. This paper identifies new opportunities for digital publishing by analyzing data from the 2012 Survey of Taiwan Book Publishing Industry. Statistics shows that tourism-related books are in great demand, with a reading rate of 60.3 and 23% of new writers mainly focus on writing tourism-related books when they first start their careers. Studies from Europe and America show that digital publishing has much potential, but has yet to deliver substantial sales growth. Nonetheless, digital publishing has begun to impact publishers’ business strategies. In Taiwan, the majority of publishers think that the traditional publishing industry is in decline. Yet, more than half of traditional publishers are concerned about having the resources, including adequate funds, to make the transition to digital publishing. This paper focuses on a well-known tourism publisher, T Publisher, a company with more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. This paper used a case study approach and expert interview, fully evaluating T Publisher’s digital publishing strategies from 2014 to 2015 and interviewing two experienced experts in the publishing industry. Finally, this paper presents a number of recommendations, which can hopefully serve as a reference for publishers who would like to enter the digital publishing industry.