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BtoB (@btobmagazine) says paper use by the magazine, newspaper, book, and other publishing sectors will fall by 12% to 21% by 2015 compared with 2010 levels, according to a report released by RISI, which provides information to the paper industry.

The report, The Impact of Media Tablets on Publication Paper Markets, projects that tablet device sales will reach 195 million units by 2015 and contribute to the decline in paper usage.

“Significant demand impacts could come as soon as 2012,” says John Maine, RISI's VP-world graphic paper.

Reporter Anita Wadhwani says in The Tennessean (@tennessean), “In the past 12-18 months, the religious publishing category has seen its sales jump faster than those of almost every other category of books. The book publishing industry overall has remained relatively healthy during the recession, with a nearly 6% annual growth rate from 2008 to 2010, according to the Association of American Publishers.”

“It’s a great time to be a Christian publisher,” said Byron Williamson, a 20-plus-year veteran of the Nashville Christian publishing industry who has published best-sellers by Newt Gingrich and Max Lucado and launched Worthy Publishing (@WorthyPub) last year.

Independent Christian retail stores, although feeling some pressures from big chains such as Walmart selling religious products, remain a “pretty vibrant” outlet for sales, with 1,500 stores currently selling 30% of all Christian retail products, including music and books, said Greg Bays, senior vice president of sales and marketing for EMI CMG Distribution, a division of EMI Christian Group, a recording company that is now teaming up with Worthy Publishing to distribute books.

The recession may actually have benefited the religious publishing industry, publishers say.

Read this in full.

Do you agree with this rosy outlook? Comment below.

Tablet ownership is skewing beyond the market of young men, according to NielsenWire (@NielsenWire).

Back in Q3 2010, for example, 62% of tablet owners were under the age of 34 and only 10% were over the age of 55. By Q2 2011, only 46% of tablet owners were under the age of 34 and the percentage of those over 55 had increased to 19%.

Ereader ownership is changing too. Sixty-one percent of all eReader owners are now female, compared to 46% in Q3 2010. As Econsultancy (@Econsultancy) says, tablets are from Mars and ereaders are from Venus.

(Smartphone owners are now evenly split between male and female and tablets remain primarily male.)

Read this in full.

In a new Pew Research Center (@pewinternet) report, 49% of college presidents use a tablet computer at least occasionally and 42% use an e-reader. 

How will the fact that tablets and ereaders are becoming more mainstream impact your publishing plans?

Warc (@WarcEditors) reports on a new Cisco (@Cisco_Mobility) study that says US families are engaging in an increasingly diverse range of digital activities, and are using more wireless devices than ever before.

·         The most popular digital pastimes among the respondents are browsing the Web and accessing email, logging a total uptake of 92%.

·         Regularly downloading music and video score 67%; consumers are turning to user-generated content platforms like YouTube, video-on-demand services, and properties such as iTunes.

·         Two-thirds of respondents often use a tablet or smartphone via their wireless network at home.

·         Devices connected to in-home WiFi: game consoles (66%), smartphones (41%), and wireless printers (36%).

·         62% of adults use the Internet in this way on a daily basis; 71% do so between 5-7 days a week.

·         Based on parents’ estimates, 46% of children log on to the Web in the same fashion every day, and 54% participate in this activity at least 5 days per week.

Consumers are now embracing a wireless connected lifestyle for the entire family.

Read this in full.

Twitter Infographic by Touch (@touchagency).

An article in SplatF (@splatf) by Dan Frommer (@fromedome) displays the new “red vs. blue” map published by Jumptap (@Jumptap), a mobile ad network, which highlights the dominant smartphone platform in each state. In particular, it seems that the South and West are Google Android country, while the North and Midwest favor Apple’s iPhone. And New York is still BlackBerry-dominated.

Something to consider when creating mobile apps.

This article in The New York Times (@nytimes) says, “The publishing industry has expanded in the past three years as Americans increasingly turned to ebooks and juvenile and adult fiction, according to a new survey of thousands of publishers, retailers, and distributors that challenges the doom and gloom that tends to dominate discussions of the industry’s health.”

BookStats, a comprehensive survey conducted by two major trade groups that was released early Tuesday, reveals that in 2010 publishers generated net revenue of $27.9 billion, a 5.6% increase over 2008. Publishers sold 2.57 billion books in all formats in 2010, a 4.1% increase since 2008.

The Association of American Publishers (@AmericanPublish) and the Book Industry Study Group (@BISG) collaborated on the report and collected data from 1,963 publishers, including the six largest trade publishers. The survey encompassed five major categories of books: trade, K-12 school, higher education, professional, and scholarly.

“The printed word is alive and well whether it takes a paper delivery or digital delivery,” says Tina Jordan, vice president of the Association of American Publishers.

Read the story in full.

Also see coverage by Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly), “Industry Sales Rose 3.1% in 2010; Trade Ebook Sales the Big Winner.”

Follow all the news about publishing by using SomersaultNOW, our free online dashboard of articles and RSS feeds from more than 300 media sources.

This chart by AdAge (@adage) shows that the generation coming up after the millennials – the iGen – is quickly consuming content digitally. Technology isn't skipping this generation, it's being handed down from mother to child. The data come from an annual survey by Parenting Group, the publisher of Parenting, Babytalk, and Parenting.com (@parenting), and the BlogHer (@BlogHer) network.

The generational breakdown is striking. Across the board, younger moms are passing technology along to their kids at an early age. This might not seem too surprising, given the Gen-Y embrace of technology. But when you consider that many of the youngest Gen-X moms are still having their first kids, whereas many millennials are putting off having kids, the adoption rates of technology start to blur.

Digging deeper into the data we see that the percent of moms who haven't let their children use a smartphone corresponds roughly to the percent of moms who don't have a smartphone themselves. We suspect that moms who haven't let their 2-year-olds use a smartphone likely got a smartphone when their kids were already older than that. Crazy, eh? Looking at stats for more-established technologies would seem to confirm that. The Gen-Xers and Boomer moms -- who are more likely to have older kids -- do show a higher overall rate of having passed the laptop or non-smartphone to their children of all ages.

The sweet spots for majority-usage looks like this: Mobile phone, age 11; smartphones, age 16; laptop/PC, age 4; digital camera, age 5.

Overall, the study finds that nearly three-quarters of moms with Internet access can't go a day without it. One in four report letting their kids use a mobile phone by age 2. We wonder when the ability to hit the home button, swipe to unlock and find an app will become a recognized developmental milestone -- maybe somewhere between walking and multi-word sentences.

Read this in full.

See the complete survey results in a PowerPoint presentation by BlogHer.

Also read our previous blogposts, "Motherhood Sends Moms to Smartphones" and "CyberTots: Pre-teens Drive iPad Purchases, Join Social Networks."

How does this information influence your publishing strategy for the next 12 months? The next 5 years?

The American Magazine Study, conducted by Affinity Research, reports that, along with 84% of US adults owning at least one computer, distinct generational skews exist in the profiles of eReader, tablet PC, and smartphone owners. It says, “These findings are important for companies marketing mobile devices to Millennials, Gen-Xers, and Baby Boomers, as well as those creating content and advertising targeted at these unique generational segments.”

Boomers are the most likely buyers of eReaders

·         More than 8.2 million Boomers currently own an eReader, while more than 10 million plan to purchase the device in the next six months.

·         More than 9 out of 10 Boomers (92%) use the device at home, 13% at work, and 36% power up their eReaders while on the go.

·         Similar to the national trend, female Boomers are 11% more likely to own an eReader than their male counterparts.

Gen-Xers are the most likely buyers of Tablet PCs

·         More than 9% of Gen-Xers currently own a tablet PC, while 24% - or almost 21 million - have plans to purchase the device.

·         56% of Gen-X tablet owners actively share their devices with others.

·         Gen-Xers with a household income of $100,000 or more are 63% more likely to own a tablet PC than their generational peers.

Millennials are the most likely buyers of Smartphones

·         54% - or more than 25 million Millennials - currently own a smartphone, and 18% plan to purchase one within the next six months.

·         63% of Millennials use their smartphones at work, while 95% report that they are the sole users of the device.

·         Millennials who have graduated college are 23% more likely to own a smartphone than others in their generation.

Read the news release.

Read the study in full.

What does this study mean for your publishing strategy? Let Somersault help.

A new Ipsos MORI (@IpsosMORI) poll finds that 7 in 10 people say they have a religion/faith, but there’s a marked difference between Christians and Muslims when it comes to the importance they place on their faith. The global survey looked at the views of over 18,000 people across 24 countries, including the UK and US. According to The Christian Post (@ChristianPost):

In Muslim-majority countries, 94% of those with a religion agree that their faith is important in their lives, compared to 66% in Christian-majority countries.

Muslims are far more likely to believe their religion is the only true path to salvation, liberation, or paradise – 61% compared to 19% in Christian-majority countries. In the US, 32% say their faith or religion is the only true path.

Muslims are also more likely to say their faith or religion is a key motivator in giving time and money to people in need – 61% compared to 24% in primarily Christian societies.

Read this in full.
Read the research in full.
See the slide presentation.

How does this research impact your publishing agenda?