The latest Communications Industry Forecast report developed by the private investment firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson forecasts minimal growth for consumer book spending in 2011, with total expenditures inching up 0.1%, to $22.47 billion. The growth will be led by a 102.8% gain in spending on e-books that will offset a 4.9% decline in spending on new print books. Spending on used print books is predicted to rise 5.0%.
The consumer book segment will be hampered in 2011 by the sluggish national economy and competition from other forms of media, the report says. In 2010, the consumer book market represented 8.3% of the entertainment and leisure market, down from 10.3% in 2005, and report sees the consumer book segment’s share falling by just under another 2 percentage points by 2015.
