The New York Times announced last week that it will rank the best selling e-books on a separate list, beginning in early 2011.

“To give the fullest and most accurate possible snapshot of what books are being read at a given moment you have to include as many different formats as possible, and e-books have really grown, there’s no question about it,” said Sam Tanenhaus, editor of the Book Review. The new listings, he added, give readers “the fullest picture we can give them about how a book is doing week to week.”

This announcement makes so much sense that it's almost strange it took so long for the Times to begin doing this.

E-books and digital media certainly are the way of the future, but I don't think they're going to push aside traditional print media anytime soon. Books, at least, will continue to be printed on paper for a long, long time. But the popularity of e-readers will increase, and the industry should definitely take into account the titles that are purchased through download versus through traditional means. I'm looking forward to seeing the difference in where titles rank on the best seller and e-best seller lists.


-- Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com