Antimulticulture
2005-02-21 17:27:45 UTC
Chilling mystery: Why don't Mexicans read books?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0216/p01s04-woam.html
By Ken Bensinger
February 16, 2005
MEXICO CITY - Cristina Woolrich looks across the crowded cafe to the small
bookshop she runs, and sighs. "We have the best poetry section in town and
we're going to get rid of it," she says. "We're going to have to eliminate
almost everything if we want to survive."
For the past decade, The Pegaso bookstore, a cozy shrine to the printed
word, has offered browsers free coffee, overstuffed leather sofas, and a
wide-ranging literary selection. But now it's scaling back, ditching poetry
and history, and keeping the few things that still sell - some novels and
glossy art books. Pegaso, like many other Mexican bookstores, is on the
verge of succumbing to a complicated crisis that threatens Mexico's book
industry - one Ms. Woolrich says boils down to this: "Mexicans aren't
reading."
Competitive pressures in a country where 3,000 copies sold makes a
bestseller have pushed 4 out of every 10 bookstores in Mexico out of
business over the past 10 years, according to the Mexican Booksellers
Association.
Meanwhile, from 2001 to 2004, roughly 10 percent of all publishers have shut
down. And despite myriad efforts to encourage reading and thus increase book
buying, the crisis shows no sign of abating.
Now, the desperate publishing industry has taken matters into its own hands.
In the past month, a consortium of publishers, distributors, and bookstores
has started a system of fixed prices. It's a radical - and possibly
illegal - measure they hope will resuscitate the industry and transform
Mexico into a nation of book lovers.
"The fundamental problem is that there are few readers," says Jose Angel
Quintanilla, president of the National Chamber of the Mexican Publishing
Industry, which is holding meetings between publishers and booksellers to
establish price controls. By boosting the number of bookstores and titles
published, they aim to lower prices and increase reading. "There's no single
thing that can instill this culture in Mexico. But a fixed price can help."
Despite having three times the population of Argentina, Mexico produces
about 2,000 fewer titles each year. There are roughly 500 bookstores in
Mexico, which translates into one for every 200,000 Mexicans, compared to a
ratio of one to 35,000 in the US and one to 12,000 in Spain, according to
the Mexican Booksellers Association. A recent UNESCO study revealed that
Mexicans read on average just over two books per year, while Swedes finish
that many every month.
The Mexican government has made great strides, reducing illiteracy to less
than 8 percent, compared with around 20 percent two decades ago, placing it
leagues ahead of Central American countries and even beyond Latin America's
other economic powerhouse, Brazil. Yet it has had little success encouraging
active reading.
Reading-stimulation programs have mostly failed. An experimental library in
the Mexico City subway last year was shuttered after most of the books were
stolen.
"Mexico simply has never had a culture favorable to reading," says Elsa
Ramirez, a library-studies researcher at the National Autonomous University
of Mexico.
Which is why, says Ramon Cifuentes, director of book distributor Colofon,
the publishing industry must do something.
In the past five years, large bookstores have pushed for lower wholesale
prices - in some cases demanding discounts of more than 60 percent - in
return for bigger orders. With that purchasing leverage, big bookstores can
undercut prices at small stores, driving them out of business. Publishers,
meanwhile, artificially inflate wholesale prices to make up for the deep
discounts the big stores demand. The result is a shrinking pool of
bookstores offering fewer titles at a higher price.
Moreover, price variations among bookstores can be huge. The new novel by
Chilean-born author Roberto Bolaño, "2666," sells for 650 pesos ($58) at Un
Lugar de la Mancha, an independent shop; at Gandhi, one of the largest
chains, it can be had for 455 pesos ($40). But even that 43 percent savings
is deceiving: In Argentina, with its larger concentration of readers, that
same book can be had for the equivalent of $23.
Price fixing, say proponents, would help reduce wholesale prices across the
board. Currently, bestsellers are relatively cheap, but prices for less
popular books are sky high.
It's a system that's been successfully employed in a dozen countries in
Europe, notably France and Spain, both of which suffered from bookstore
closures before installing fixed prices. In both cases, the publishing
industries enjoyed huge growth.
"Fixed prices are the only thing that prevents small bookstores and
publishers from disappearing. Without them, there would be no variety, no
specialization," Alfonso Otero, director of Fuentetaja, a bookstore in
Madrid, says by phone.
But, some argue, the European countries already had a public predisposed to
reading. "For the majority of Mexicans, bookstores are a completely alien
place," says Jesus Anaya, editorial director at publishing house Grupo
Planeta. Although more titles and lower prices would certainly appeal to
current readers, he doubts they'll create new ones. "I'm not sure that
waving a magic wand of fixed prices can bring this cadaver to life."
Moreover, there is a serious question about the legality of industry-imposed
fixed prices. Like the US, Mexico has antitrust laws to prevent price
manipulation that hurt the consumer. Critics say it's anticompetitive.
One frequently cited case is El Sotano, one of Mexico's largest bookstore
chains, which has so far refused to stop asking for big wholesale discounts.
As a result, several publishers say they've stopped selling to El Sotano,
which declined to comment on the situation.
In response to the legal questions, the publishing industry has written a
fixed-price bill they hope to present to the Mexican Congress before April.
Currently, editors and booksellers are making their case to key congressmen
and senators.
Congressman Jose Antonio Cabello, secretary of the Culture Committee,
supports the bill, but says it'll have to pass the competition and economy
committees before coming to a vote. "We'll have to push very hard for this
to have a chance," he says, adding that just one dissenting voice from the
publishing industry or a consumer group could skunk the bill. And it could
be years before a vote occurs.
Mexico's Federal Competition Commission, meanwhile, could halt industry
efforts to establish fixed prices at any time.
Still, many in the industry see no other option. "This isn't just an
economic question. It's really a question of culture," says Henoc de
Santiago, president of the Mexican Booksellers Association, which argues
that the industry's woes are severe enough to threaten its long-term
survival.
"If we don't give books a certain degree of protection, bookstores will
continue to disappear, prices will continue to rise. Without fixed prices,
there may not be any more books to read."
--
Jim
http://www.antimulticulture.0catch.com
Union Against Multi-Culty
"Abolish Multiculturalism and String Up The Traitors!"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0216/p01s04-woam.html
By Ken Bensinger
February 16, 2005
MEXICO CITY - Cristina Woolrich looks across the crowded cafe to the small
bookshop she runs, and sighs. "We have the best poetry section in town and
we're going to get rid of it," she says. "We're going to have to eliminate
almost everything if we want to survive."
For the past decade, The Pegaso bookstore, a cozy shrine to the printed
word, has offered browsers free coffee, overstuffed leather sofas, and a
wide-ranging literary selection. But now it's scaling back, ditching poetry
and history, and keeping the few things that still sell - some novels and
glossy art books. Pegaso, like many other Mexican bookstores, is on the
verge of succumbing to a complicated crisis that threatens Mexico's book
industry - one Ms. Woolrich says boils down to this: "Mexicans aren't
reading."
Competitive pressures in a country where 3,000 copies sold makes a
bestseller have pushed 4 out of every 10 bookstores in Mexico out of
business over the past 10 years, according to the Mexican Booksellers
Association.
Meanwhile, from 2001 to 2004, roughly 10 percent of all publishers have shut
down. And despite myriad efforts to encourage reading and thus increase book
buying, the crisis shows no sign of abating.
Now, the desperate publishing industry has taken matters into its own hands.
In the past month, a consortium of publishers, distributors, and bookstores
has started a system of fixed prices. It's a radical - and possibly
illegal - measure they hope will resuscitate the industry and transform
Mexico into a nation of book lovers.
"The fundamental problem is that there are few readers," says Jose Angel
Quintanilla, president of the National Chamber of the Mexican Publishing
Industry, which is holding meetings between publishers and booksellers to
establish price controls. By boosting the number of bookstores and titles
published, they aim to lower prices and increase reading. "There's no single
thing that can instill this culture in Mexico. But a fixed price can help."
Despite having three times the population of Argentina, Mexico produces
about 2,000 fewer titles each year. There are roughly 500 bookstores in
Mexico, which translates into one for every 200,000 Mexicans, compared to a
ratio of one to 35,000 in the US and one to 12,000 in Spain, according to
the Mexican Booksellers Association. A recent UNESCO study revealed that
Mexicans read on average just over two books per year, while Swedes finish
that many every month.
The Mexican government has made great strides, reducing illiteracy to less
than 8 percent, compared with around 20 percent two decades ago, placing it
leagues ahead of Central American countries and even beyond Latin America's
other economic powerhouse, Brazil. Yet it has had little success encouraging
active reading.
Reading-stimulation programs have mostly failed. An experimental library in
the Mexico City subway last year was shuttered after most of the books were
stolen.
"Mexico simply has never had a culture favorable to reading," says Elsa
Ramirez, a library-studies researcher at the National Autonomous University
of Mexico.
Which is why, says Ramon Cifuentes, director of book distributor Colofon,
the publishing industry must do something.
In the past five years, large bookstores have pushed for lower wholesale
prices - in some cases demanding discounts of more than 60 percent - in
return for bigger orders. With that purchasing leverage, big bookstores can
undercut prices at small stores, driving them out of business. Publishers,
meanwhile, artificially inflate wholesale prices to make up for the deep
discounts the big stores demand. The result is a shrinking pool of
bookstores offering fewer titles at a higher price.
Moreover, price variations among bookstores can be huge. The new novel by
Chilean-born author Roberto Bolaño, "2666," sells for 650 pesos ($58) at Un
Lugar de la Mancha, an independent shop; at Gandhi, one of the largest
chains, it can be had for 455 pesos ($40). But even that 43 percent savings
is deceiving: In Argentina, with its larger concentration of readers, that
same book can be had for the equivalent of $23.
Price fixing, say proponents, would help reduce wholesale prices across the
board. Currently, bestsellers are relatively cheap, but prices for less
popular books are sky high.
It's a system that's been successfully employed in a dozen countries in
Europe, notably France and Spain, both of which suffered from bookstore
closures before installing fixed prices. In both cases, the publishing
industries enjoyed huge growth.
"Fixed prices are the only thing that prevents small bookstores and
publishers from disappearing. Without them, there would be no variety, no
specialization," Alfonso Otero, director of Fuentetaja, a bookstore in
Madrid, says by phone.
But, some argue, the European countries already had a public predisposed to
reading. "For the majority of Mexicans, bookstores are a completely alien
place," says Jesus Anaya, editorial director at publishing house Grupo
Planeta. Although more titles and lower prices would certainly appeal to
current readers, he doubts they'll create new ones. "I'm not sure that
waving a magic wand of fixed prices can bring this cadaver to life."
Moreover, there is a serious question about the legality of industry-imposed
fixed prices. Like the US, Mexico has antitrust laws to prevent price
manipulation that hurt the consumer. Critics say it's anticompetitive.
One frequently cited case is El Sotano, one of Mexico's largest bookstore
chains, which has so far refused to stop asking for big wholesale discounts.
As a result, several publishers say they've stopped selling to El Sotano,
which declined to comment on the situation.
In response to the legal questions, the publishing industry has written a
fixed-price bill they hope to present to the Mexican Congress before April.
Currently, editors and booksellers are making their case to key congressmen
and senators.
Congressman Jose Antonio Cabello, secretary of the Culture Committee,
supports the bill, but says it'll have to pass the competition and economy
committees before coming to a vote. "We'll have to push very hard for this
to have a chance," he says, adding that just one dissenting voice from the
publishing industry or a consumer group could skunk the bill. And it could
be years before a vote occurs.
Mexico's Federal Competition Commission, meanwhile, could halt industry
efforts to establish fixed prices at any time.
Still, many in the industry see no other option. "This isn't just an
economic question. It's really a question of culture," says Henoc de
Santiago, president of the Mexican Booksellers Association, which argues
that the industry's woes are severe enough to threaten its long-term
survival.
"If we don't give books a certain degree of protection, bookstores will
continue to disappear, prices will continue to rise. Without fixed prices,
there may not be any more books to read."
--
Jim
http://www.antimulticulture.0catch.com
Union Against Multi-Culty
"Abolish Multiculturalism and String Up The Traitors!"