Digitalization of Society and Socio-political Issues 1

11Scientific Publishing: Coexistence Between New Entrants and Traditional Players

Our research is carried out in the context of the digitalization of publishing. In fact, publishing, as a sector of the cultural industries, has long been affected by a phenomenon of “generalized digitalization”. For Christian Robin (2016), in the past 40 years, all of the phases of publishing, from writing to selling books, have gradually been digitalized. Digitalization also affects the organization of activity in the sector – with the introduction of information technology in management, for example.

From this perspective, at least since the beginning of the 2010s, the production of so-called “digital” books has been developing. Behind this generic term is a multitude of forms and formats – such as PDF files, EPUBs, HTML documents, “enriched” books (i.e. multimedia files) as well as printed or digital works linked to “companion sites”. These heterogeneous productions are not yet stabilized, either in terms of form or in terms of economic models. Their development is attracting the interest of “new entrants” who are investing in the sector.

These new players with very variable dimensions come from various sectors, for example IT. They are often linked to cultural industries or network industries (Miège 2017). Their investment in publishing raises the question of a possible redefinition of the sector and its borders. These “new entrants” are not the only ones to take a position on digital publishing. ...