The sooner the coffin lid of the Dohle Doctrine is firmly nailed down, the better for all.
It seems like only nine weeks since former PRH CEO Markus Dohle was in Sharjah explaining how well book sales were doing, and how no-one gave a flying fig about digital, stuck at 20% forever and ever.
Dohle’s blinkered view of the publishing world through the cocoon of being CEO of the world’s largest trade publisher, dictating consumer trends by the simple expedient of pricing ebooks higher than their hardcover versions and removing all PRH titles from unlimited subscription services while claiming no-one cares about subscription, still lives on thanks to uncritical reporting by journalists infatuated by Dohle’s personal charm over his publishing chops.
But ne’er a day goes by now without new reportage knocking more nails in the coffin of the Dohle fantasy world.
Take the latest report from Germany, Dohle’s homeland, where the German publishing body Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels tells us book sales are falling – down 1.9% – and digital subscription is up 154.9%.
This on top of a report last month telling how German literacy rates in school were below the European average.
That report of course just weeks after Dohle had smugly told a global audience at Sharjah how “Literacy rates are going through the roof.”
The sooner the coffin lid of the Dohle Doctrine is firmly nailed down, the better for all.
