The Computer: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Ince Darrel

Author:Ince, Darrel [Ince, Darrel]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011-11-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

The disruptive computer

Borders UK

This morning, as I started writing the first draft of the first chapter of this book, I heard that Borders UK, one of my favourite bookshops, was in financial trouble – four days later, they went into administration. The reason quoted in the BBC news was that the company was finding it very difficult to compete with online retailers such as Amazon. It is much more expensive to run a chain of bookstores, some of which are situated in prime shopping locations, than a warehouse, a web site, and a call centre. Just as a comparison I looked at the price of a book that I bought recently. In a city-centre shop, I would pick it up at £34, while it was currently advertised on the Amazon web site at £20.13.

While the employees of Borders are able to use computers to help them in answering customer queries and ordering out-of-stock items, in the end they have threatened their jobs. I did think that bookstores had something of a future, since they offered browsing facilities, until I saw that a number of booksellers, via a system known as Google preview, allow visitors to their web site to browse the table of contents of a book and many of the pages within the book. For the book trade, the computer is disruptiveTH-CENTURY BRITAIN • s, I shall.

My favourite record shop in Milton Keynes was Virgin Records which, after a management buyout, renamed itself Zavvi. Shortly thereafter, the Zavvi chain folded. One of the reasons quoted was the availability of cheaper music downloads from sites such as iTunes. Again, the staff at Zavvi found the computer useful in carrying out their jobs, but, in the end, it killed off their trade. For the music trade, the computer is disruptive.

I can read the national newspapers from my computer; occasionally I do, but most of the time I access the BBC news site, a site that has won a number of awards for its design, implementation, and content. The increasing availability of news on the Internet has had a dramatic effect on newspaper sales. Newspapers across the Western world have been coping with a slide in advertising revenue, declining circulation, and a movement of readers to free news online. According to the USA Audit Bureau of Circulations, the average daily circulation for 379 daily American newspapers was down 10.62% in the April to September 2009 period, compared with the same period in 2008. The computer has helped the reporters who file copy for their newspapers: word processors are a fantastic piece of software. However, the computer has led to major layoffs and staff reductions in many newspapers. For the newspaper industry, the computer is disruptive.

Another disruption associated with newspapers is the reduction in the amount of space devoted to reviews – for example, book reviews – and the fact that review staff, both permanent and freelance, are often the first to feel the chill winds of redundancy. Book reviewers and film

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