Jillian Jiun Tzu Liew S3247379

Globalization and Business IT (ISYS 2394)

Assessment One: Business Research Proposal

Executive Summary
The proposed title for this business research report will be discussing the trend of e-
books, electronic publishing and reading in a digital age in the context of how this will
affect the future of the publishing business in Australia. This research will maintain a
fixed focus surrounding e-books, digitized reading, e-reader devices and the publishing
sector in Australia for this particular purpose.

The trend of electronic publishing and reading e-books in Australia particularly has been
moving forwards in a relatively slower pace as compared to the United States. Despite
this we have seen a rise in e-books devices as evidenced by the popularity of the
Amazon’s Kindle, Borders’ Kobo, Apple’s iPad, Sony’s Reader and various other
electronic reading devices readily available in the market. (Fowler & Baca 2010)

The aim of this report will be to explore the various avenues that this e-book trend can
take in the future. This is highly important to note in regards to how this might affect the
brick-and-mortar publishing houses, online publishers, newspaper and magazine
publishers, the public’s preferences for digital and traditional paper mediums. The report
will investigate into the reasons behind the sudden surge of the e-books and digitized
reading trends in Australia as well.

1
Jillian Jiun Tzu Liew S3247379

Introduction
Title
The title of my business research proposal report is “What is the future and trends of e-
books and electronic publishing in Australia?”

Topic Area
The topic area will discuss the trends and movements of e-books being readily available
and gaining popularity in Australia. Even though the concept of e-books and digitized
reading has been around for more than ten years now, it has only recently gained more
exposure and recognition in part because of Web 2.0. (Kosciejew 2010) With greater
technological advancements and Internet connectivity sophistication, this has enabled the
public to get better access to e-books, e-reader devices and allowed for self-publishers
and online publishing to thrive. (Ryan 2008) The issue of distribution by the publishing
companies to readers has been a complicated and challenging matter that needs further
research and examination into. As this topic area on e-books and electronic publishing is
relatively fresh and at its infant stage, there will be ongoing and ever-changing research
and discussions surrounding it at this point in time. The Australian government will play
an important role in either impinging or protecting its electronic publishing industry.
(Steger 2010) This issue will definitely be investigated into and the federal government’s
actions dissected to understand its implications for the future.

Research Questions
This proposed business research report will attempt to answer several key questions
regarding the trend and future of e-books and e-readers in the Australian public. The
questions to be answered may include, be modified but not limited to the following:
• What are the favoured e-reader devices in Australia?
• Who are the target audiences that will actually use e-readers?
• How will writers and journalists be impacted by the e-books trend?
• Will e-books eventually replace the traditional paperback books?
• How will the movement towards digital books affect the publishing industries?

2
Jillian Jiun Tzu Liew S3247379

The questions raised need to be addressed in a timely and orderly fashion that will
carefully make sense of what the future of the e-books and digitized reading will have on
publishing industries.

Research Objectives
The objectives of this paper will be to investigate into what the future has in store for e-
books, e-reader devices, the public’s readership trends and the electronic publishing
industry in Australia. There are particularly strong concerns and opinions about its impact
on the Australian readership population, the number of books actually being read and
bought online or downloaded from. (Young 2010) The research will also include
discussions about how this e-books trend will affect publishing companies in Australia
specifically the traditional brick-and-mortar companies and the development of the online
and electronic publishing industry. (Tian & Martin 2009)

The business research report will first analyze the current market for e-books, e-reader
devices and the popularity to the extent that the public actually participates in the digital
book industries. There are of course concerns about Digital Rights Management (DRM)
tools to manage piracy of books, copyright issues and legalities that the music and movie
industries have been battling with for many years of late. (Young 2010)

There will be a further in-depth analysis about the ramifications of the e-books and digital
reading trends will impact on the mature publishing companies and the electronic or
online publishers, which are still at its infant stage. (Ryan 2008) There have been
initiatives taken by Google to attempt to digitize all of the world’s texts and store them in
one repository such as in Google Books. (Darnton 2009) The report will study into the
ramifications of the digitizing process, its feasibility, effects on publishing industries and
the readership population. The main reason and credit to the digitizing movement of
books has been about the narrowing of the gap between reader and writer with the rise of
more refined technologies, and the recent prominence of social media and networking
sites. (Simons 2010)

3
Jillian Jiun Tzu Liew S3247379

Methodology
Data Collection
The report will be written based on various sources that will include primary and
secondary sources such as newspaper articles, magazines, journals, websites, videos,
lecture notes and interviews.

The secondary sources will be recently dated as this topic area and title being discussed is
still relatively new. This means that there will be fewer sources to refer to in already
published books and there will be more dependency on journals, newspapers, websites
and magazines articles. This does not make the validity of these sources any lesser as
they will be verified and of good quality information.

The primary source of the data collection will be an email interview with Laki Sideris, an
academic who is an expert in the field of electronic publishing. He is currently holding a
position as a lecturer at RMIT University teaching ‘Electronic Publishing’ which is
highly relevant and pertinent to this report’s topic area. In addition to a teaching position,
Laki is also involved in the RMIT Publishing department that will contribute invaluably
to the research.

The questions that will be presented for the interview will include but not limited to
issues about e-books, the future of writing and journalism, electronic publishing
industry’s prospects and the trend of which way the public will favour different reading
platforms. The questions need to be framed appropriately to get the most insightful and
objective answers about the future of electronic publishing in Australia in the current
environment. The interview will not contain any leading questions that may attempt to
get lopsided or biased answers.

4
Jillian Jiun Tzu Liew S3247379

Data Analysis
The data analysis will be conducted in an objective manner that allows for the best
discussion and investigation into this research as possible. The research conducted will
collate the data and present it in a suitable and concise report. There will be a
methodological scrutiny into the secondary sources where the articles will need to be
referenced comprehensively and accurately. The analysis of the secondary data will be
more in-depth than the primary data because of the need to verify the quality of the
secondary sources.

The main and only primary source of this report, which is the interview, will have to be
scrutinized intently to get the most out of the results. All of the answers may not be used
in its entirety but be analyzed to ensure that the most succinct points be extracted from
the interview for use in the report.

All the data collected from primary and secondary sources will be evaluated in a strategic
fashion to ensure timeliness, verifiability, objectivity and quality to produce a valuable
business research report.

5
Jillian Jiun Tzu Liew S3247379

Significance of Research
The main significance of this research aims to achieve will be to investigate the
implications of digitized reading, e-books and e-reader devices that will have on the
publishing industries, writers, journalism and the future of reading.

With the various views and opinions of how e-books and digital reading will affect the
reading public and publishing industries, it can be difficult to decipher the complex
effects of what will happen in the future. The implications can range from the print screen
gaining even more momentum where digitized reading will prosper to perhaps moving on
to audio and mobile books. (Wheeler Centre 2010)

There are also other studies done that showed that the trend of digitized reading has
actually increased the number of people reading more and buying books, whether online
or from an actual book shelf. (Baca & Fowler 2010) Besides the effect of what this has on
the population of readers increasing and more books being bought, there are also issues
being raised in regards to other forms of texts like magazines, newspapers and websites
that are made up of mainly blog posts. (Azhar 2008)

The impact that the trend of e-reading and digitized books will have on the publishing
companies has gained both critics and advocates with varying opinions and concerns.
(Wheeler Centre 2010) This has attracted a lot of attention in particular with the
publishing companies in Australia where the e-books and e-reader devices trend has seen
a surge in popularity in recent years. (Tian & Martin 2009) From the initial research,
there is an outlook of a convergence of technology in print media and online participation
that has contributed to this phenomenon. (Simons 2010) These barriers that are breaking
down is significant in portraying the innovativeness and creativity that knows no bounds
that digitized reading and electronic publishing can achieve.

6
Jillian Jiun Tzu Liew S3247379

Conclusion
The phenomenon and incredible pace at which digitized reading and e-books have been
progressing in recent years have been momentous for the publishing companies and the
public as well. There will be advocates and critics about this event but nonetheless, e-
books and e-reading will be around for the future as we move onwards in a digital age of
social networking and where the majority of all mediums are going to be in text forms.
(Wheeler Centre 2010)

The purpose of this report will be to gauge the temperate and expectations of what
Australia’s future may be in regards to the e-books trend moving forward in the right
direction. (Kosciejew 2010) This may be towards an increase number of books being
digitized into text mediums for the Internet, volumes of books transcribed into texts for
online libraries and the convergence of social media networking sites with e-books in the
future.

In whatever the case may be, my hope is that with the completion of this report, there will
be greater exposure and clarity about the electronic publishing industry in Australia
specifically because of its current stage at infancy but still rapidly gaining growth.

7
Jillian Jiun Tzu Liew S3247379

References
1. Azhar, A 2008, ‘Do online-only mags stack up?’, B&T Weekly, 14 March, p. 12,
(News).
2. Darnton, R 2009, Google and the New Digital Future, The New York Review of
Books, viewed 24 August 2010,
<http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/dec/17/google-and-the-new-digital-
future/>.
3. Fowler, G & Baca, M 2010, ‘The ABCs of E-Reading’, The Wall Street Journal, 25
August, (Gadgets & Games).
4. Kosciejew, M 2010, ‘Crossing the Digital Rubicon: From Print Books to E-Books
and Beyond’, Feliciter, vol. 56, issue 3, pp. 119-120.
5. Ryan, P 2008, ‘The future of news’, Australian Anthill, April, issue 27, p. 75.
6. Simons, M 2010, ‘Reading in an age of change’, Overland, March, issue 198, pp. 11-
16.
7. Steger, J 2010, ‘Focus on book industry’, The Age, 16 February, p. 6, viewed 24
August 2010, ProQuest Database.
8. Tian, X & Martin, B 2009, ‘Business Models in Digital Publishing: Some Insights
from Australia’, Publishing Research Quarterly, April, vol. 25, pp. 73-88.
9. Wheeler Centre 2010, Meanland: Reading in a time of change, 3 March,
<http://wheelercentre.com/videos/video/meanland-reading-in-a-time-of-change/>.
10. Young, S 2010, ‘It’s not the reader’, Meanjin, July, vol. 69, no. 2.