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http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2009/05/12/f-espresso-book-machine...
LETTER FROM LONDON
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Will the Espresso book machine revolutionize the publishing industry?
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 | 12:07 PM ET Comments12Recommend54
By Mike Doherty, CBC News
The Espresso book machine prints a book at the Blackwell bookstore in central London. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images) Ever since William Caxton brought a printing press to Westminster in 1476, London has been a paradise for bibliophiles. But today, if you walk up Charing Cross Road, long famed for its bookshops, you'll see a discouraging picture. A sign plastered on one empty shop window commemorates Shipley Books as "A mecca for art lovers" that "closed its doors … on Christmas Eve 2008." The crime bookshop Murder One is described, on its abandoned storefront, as having "thrived for 21 years before being forced to close due to internet competition" earlier this year. Online retailers such as Amazon, with their global reach and massive warehouses, are taking business away from traditional bookshops. Meanwhile, the rise of the e-book is said to be an ever-looming threat to the physical book itself. What would Caxton do?
'Even if you work in the book trade, you don't get to see books being made, so it's fascinating to watch.'
—A manager at Blackwell, on the Espresso book machine
Farther up Charing Cross Road, you'll find the likely answer. In the flagship store of the 130-year-old book chain Blackwell stands an apparatus that looks like a glorified photocopier grafted to a miniature car factory. Called the Espresso Book Machine, it can print and bind books in a matter of minutes, and it might help secure the future of the bookshop – and even the printed book. The EBM is manufactured by New York's On Demand Books, which delivered its first model to the World Bank's InfoShop in Washington, D.C., in April 2006. The model owned by Blackwell is version 2.0: it's smaller,
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2009/05/12/f-espresso-book-machine...
LETTER FROM LONDON
Fit to print
Will the Espresso book machine revolutionize the publishing industry?
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 | 12:07 PM ET Comments12Recommend54
By Mike Doherty, CBC News
The Espresso book machine prints a book at the Blackwell bookstore in central London. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images) Ever since William Caxton brought a printing press to Westminster in 1476, London has been a paradise for bibliophiles. But today, if you walk up Charing Cross Road, long famed for its bookshops, you'll see a discouraging picture. A sign plastered on one empty shop window commemorates Shipley Books as "A mecca for art lovers" that "closed its doors … on Christmas Eve 2008." The crime bookshop Murder One is described, on its abandoned storefront, as having "thrived for 21 years before being forced to close due to internet competition" earlier this year. Online retailers such as Amazon, with their global reach and massive warehouses, are taking business away from traditional bookshops. Meanwhile, the rise of the e-book is said to be an ever-looming threat to the physical book itself. What would Caxton do?
'Even if you work in the book trade, you don't get to see books being made, so it's fascinating to watch.'
—A manager at Blackwell, on the Espresso book machine
Farther up Charing Cross Road, you'll find the likely answer. In the flagship store of the 130-year-old book chain Blackwell stands an apparatus that looks like a glorified photocopier grafted to a miniature car factory. Called the Espresso Book Machine, it can print and bind books in a matter of minutes, and it might help secure the future of the bookshop – and even the printed book. The EBM is manufactured by New York's On Demand Books, which delivered its first model to the World Bank's InfoShop in Washington, D.C., in April 2006. The model owned by Blackwell is version 2.0: it's smaller,