Children’s/YA Books Often Bypassing Intended Audience in Digital World

STAMFORD, Conn. - Oct. 23, 2013 - PRLog -- Simba Information, a media and market research firm behind The Amazon Kindle Report 2013, The iPad and Its Owner  and other intelligence tools, has released the eighth edition of Children’s Publishing Market Forecast, which has increased its coverage of activity in the children’s/YA book market to educational apps to be used by children.

Since the core of Children’s Publishing Market Forecast 2014 is based on a series of nationally representative surveys of 2,000 adults, this report provides exclusive trend information on the children’s/YA book market including details on the influence of digital products. The report also addresses the extent different groups of adults are warming up—and in some cases, not warming up—to tablets for children and whether or not tablets will be effective learning tools in the classroom.

The report also shows that while the access children have to digital books has soared in recent years, the percentage of children who read books for leisure hasn’t had a proportional increase. Part of the issue, according to the report, is the fact that a large number of adults are buying digital books to read for themselves.  According to the data, about 42.4% of e-book users bought at least one children’s/YA digital title to read for themselves in the twelve-month period prior to the summer of 2012; by June 2013, the number had climbed to 54.8%.

“Digital success in children’s and young adult products doesn’t mean more kids are reading them, and this is why the industry needs to drop the arrogant and dangerous assumption that boosting the availability of their content will magically bring more kids to their content,” said Michael Norris, senior analyst of Simba Information’s Consumer Media & Technology group, commenting on the findings. "Whether the content is print or digital children need more encouragement than ever from parents, librarians, booksellers and teachers to read books for leisure. Furthermore, children still need the freedom to choose what they read, and we again urge ordinarily well-meaning parents not to get in the way of their child’s individual path for book discovery.”

Children’s Publishing Market Forecast 2014 also shows an exclusive, multi-year category analysis of more than a dozen key segments of the industry, a detailed demographic overview of children’s book buyers, estimates on the market size of the industry through 2015, a proprietary review of children’s e-book adoption trends, where print and digital consumption overlap, and much more.

Additional information on the report can be found at simbainformation.com or by calling 888-29-SIMBA.

About Simba Information

Simba Information is widely recognized as the leading authority for market intelligence in the media and publishing industry. Simba's extensive information network delivers top quality, independent perspective on the people, events and alliances shaping the media and information industry. Simba publishes newsletters and research reports that provide key decision-makers at more than 15,000 client companies around the globe with timely news, analysis, exclusive statistics and proprietary industry forecasts. For more information, please visit simbainformation.com