Culture Politick

Congratulations West End, for a £500m-mark –topping; record-breaking; recession-defying 2009!

The Society of London Theatre has announced that the total receipts for 2009 added up to £504,765,690; marking the seventh record-breaking year in a row. What’s more, while in previous years it has been musicals that have driven increases in box office takings, in 2009 the rise was almost entirely accounted for by the performance of drama at the box office. Led by the success of shows such as War Horse, Waiting for Godot and Calendar Girls, plays were 26% up on 2008 levels, while opera, dance and entertainments were up 7%. Musicals were 2% down over the year. More in The Stage HERE and the FT HERE.

So, after much, much speculation and hype, the iPad was finally presented, in all its ‘truly magical and revolutionary’ glory, by Steve Jobs yesterday. The innovation of chief interest to us has to be its e-reading capabilities and the co-launch of the iBookstore; a new way to buy books and newspapers. The New York Times was among the companies called to the stage to promote a dedicated iPad app yesterday, saying it would offer a more newspaper-like experience than anything that has been created for a smartphone and that ‘We’re pioneering the next version of digital journalism.’ Latest consideration of the saleability of digital journalism can be found in MediaGuardian HERE.

With millions of people now used to downloading apps, music and movies from its online stores, Apple now has the chance to dominate the digital books market as it has with music. John Makinson, chairman and CEO of the Penguin Group, represented publishers’ excitement (Simon & Schuster; Rupert Murdoch’s Harper Collins; and Macmillan were among those immediately committing to sell books for the iPad) thus:

‘[The iPad] represents an important step in the development of a digital audience for books. Penguin already maintains a close partnership with several digital platforms and channels, and is delighted to extend our approach with Apple. The iPad and iBookstore will, we believe, appeal to existing Penguin customers and also attract millions of new readers.’

Notably, not everyone agrees with this. A Cowen & Co analyst concluded ‘This is not an e-reader – this is a device that can be used to read books… This doesn’t change the game. At the same time, Apple is a formidable competitor and our view is that over time, Apple and Amazon will emerge as the two largest players in e-books.’ Further responses in the Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE and Telegraph HERE.