Sales Plummet After Social Distancing Lifted... "Cultural Consumption Hit Hard by Economic Downturn"
[Asia Economy Reporter Seo Mideum] With the lifting of COVID-19 social distancing measures, the publishing industry is suffering from a 'sales cold wave.' Although there are differences among publishers, the situation is serious enough that sales have plummeted by 50% to 70%.
According to the publishing industry on the 1st, the majority of publishers experienced a decline in sales in the second quarter. While there are some differences depending on the size of the publisher and marketing capabilities, most showed a downward trend compared to the same period last year.
Publisher A, considered one of the top 10 domestic publishers, was reluctant to disclose exact figures but stated, “The drop in sales compared to the same period was significant.”
A publishing industry official explained, “The sales decline is not a problem of just one or two publishers. We are somewhat better off than others because we have new works by famous overseas authors, but the downward trend is the same,” adding, “Overall, as the reading population continues to decrease and people engage more in outdoor activities due to eased quarantine measures, I think that is the reason.”
The publishing industry diagnoses that the situation is even more severe for local bookstores. The problem is that the cold wave in the publishing industry is expected to continue.
Publisher B, which mainly publishes humanities and social science books, saw its second-quarter sales cut in half. A publishing official said, “There may be some publishers doing well, but they are very few. Overall, the downward trend is clear,” and analyzed, “Cultural consumption is directly hit by the economic recession. The recession is leading to a contraction in the book market.”
A representative from Publisher C said, “Sales were so low that sometimes we wondered if there was an error in the bookstore SCM (Sales Copy Management) system,” describing the reality.
Publisher D, which handles children’s and youth books, was in a serious situation. Sales dropped by 70%. An official said, “The lifting of social distancing and economic recession may have some impact, but it doesn’t seem to be the fundamental problem. No matter how much we analyze, we don’t know any special reason,” lamenting.
The situation is not much different for large bookstores. One major domestic bookstore saw a decline in second-quarter performance. Another large bookstore recorded a slight increase, but the industry analyzes that this was the result of active sales activities after entering the wholesale market recently. It is not that the market pie has grown, but rather competition over the same pie.
Han Kiho, director of the Korea Publishing Marketing Research Institute, said, “The previous government injected quite a bit of money into the (publishing) market right after taking office. The volume of institutional supplies (schools, public institutions, etc.) was also considerable. But this year, that has decreased,” adding, “Although support funds were provided to small business owners, it seems that money did not flow into bookstores.”
He diagnosed, “In the past, during the peak summer vacation season, publishers released epic novels one by one. Many people spent their vacations reading epic novels. But the summer market has long disappeared,” and added, “Another reason is that many readers have shifted to web novels.”
In fact, a representative of a genre novel specialist publisher said, “While sales of single-volume books have decreased significantly, web novel sales have maintained their usual level,” and added, “It seems that the web novel subscription model has firmly established itself.”
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