Johannesburg – The nascent move towards e-learning is pushing publishers in the country’s R2-billion-a-year-plus academic textbook market to adapt to new ways of doing business – and causing misery among book retailers. Michael Goodman, group content manager at educational publishers Via Afrika, says although it is still early days publishers are already gearing themselves to adapt to the changes. Sales of e-textbooks amounted to only R277 000 in 2012, and continue to grow. His company has accepted the inevitability of change and is adapting accordingly. When the move towards digital started at some schools three years ago, his company sold only 1 000 copies of e-textbooks. This year, the number shot up to 65 000 copies. “Any publisher who is still doing only paper textbooks in South Africa is misguided. Education is changing. Digital is the way things are going.” Although the demand is growing, the number of e-textbooks sold is still minuscule in comparison with the millions of physical textbooks sold. However, there’s a definite shift towards digital. “The action by the Gauteng education MEC is a clear indicator,” he said.
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