By Chad Post

In our lead story today, Octavio Kulesz writes about the Argentinean book market and the reasons why digitization has been slow to reach this market. “Let’s first think of the typical family business, run by a senior publisher who is helped by his sons and even by his grandsons. Who will be able to talk the old man into getting rid of the warehouse, hiring programmers, buying software licenses and so on?”

Kulesz also points out that there is a growing and loud group of consumers in Argentina who are demanding online content. If these consumers can’t find the content they want from legitimate sources online, they download pirated versions instead.

With an established industry run by traditional thinking, like many publishing houses in Argentina, what will it take to get the book industry digitized? Will the Argentine e-book market be developed mostly by entrepreneurs with new business models, or by established companies with a lot of backlist content? And who will drive digitization in other book markets around the world?

Let us know what you think in the comments!