Various sessions on “Publishing Industry in the Age of AI” with a focus on challenges like advertising and visibility will be held at the 36th International Book Fair. The session, held in the Publishing Technologies Hall and attended by Yasin Namakchian, a culture and art journalist, addressed the issue of the book’s fading in the media.
According to Ideaagency, in an interview with Sadegh Attarzadeh, Namakchian explained the media’s lack of attention to books: “Many media outlets work based on the needs of the audience and promote all kinds of work over what the audience likes, and books come last. Generally, they prefer the cinema and music sectors over books.”
He stated: “With the growth of publications in the last decade, unfortunately, journalists who are strangers to books and do not have a deep understanding of this field have entered this field. We do not have many statistics on book criticism, while in the political and economic fields we are faced with a wide range of critics and activists. Despite the fact that the culture and arts sector is a thriving field, books have remained unknown in these years.”
Referring to the history of the media industry and its similarities to the book world, this cultural journalist said: “Presses used to do printing in the past, and after a while they realized that it was no longer economically viable and entered the digital space. The same thing that happened in the newspaper industry has also happened in publishing, and a wide range of publishers have become inactive.”
He added: “Publishers don’t understand the issue of advertising and don’t know how to market books. If a book was published in the 1960s, it would have been seen quickly, but thousands of different book titles are published every year. To launch a book, we need advertising to present the product to the audience. Unfortunately, many publishers don’t pay attention to the importance of advertising.”
Stating that private theater has been able to distance itself from the traditional and dependent space, he said: “With the growth of the private sector, theater does not use rent and is a money-maker on its own. When it is set to stand on its own feet, it supports itself with advertising. For example, it performs for a year and continues to operate with a full hall. However, this has not happened in the field of books and has been rarely seen.”
Namakchian stated: “Book monetization should not necessarily be done through traditional advertising such as billboards, but alternative methods can be used for it. The publishing industry must be able to advertise to be seen, otherwise it will face failure.”
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