Young see threat to bookshops
16.06.08 Alison Flood writing in The Bookseller:

Only half of young people aged 18-24 years old think people will still be using bookshops in 20 years' time. That was one of the statistics revealed at The Bookseller's Reading The Future conference on Thursday, which presented new consumer research into the reading and buying habits of 1,000 adults across the country.
Delegates heard from William Higham of agency Next Big Thing, which conducted the research. Higham reported that 56% of 18-24s think people will still be using bookshops in 20 years' time. Looking deeper into 18-24 year olds' reading habits, he found that 28% were favourable towards the idea of e-readers, compared to 9% of 65+ year olds, and 40% liked the idea of downloadable chapters of books, compared to 7% of 65+ year olds.
Speaking at a panel session after the research was presented, Transworld publisher Bill Scott-Kerr said the statistics about younger readers all pointed "to where we as publishers are going in the future". He added: "We all know the book is a great piece of technology - you can't drop e-books in the bath. But we as an industry are in a lot of trouble; we don't know where we are going."
Read the full report at The Bookseller online.