Bookshops need help to turn the page

MANY LONG-ESTABLISHED BOOKSHOPS have closed and that trend is continuing today, despite their efforts to survive by offering a caf�� or children's activities as well. Guangming Daily comments:

There are three main reasons for this trend. First, increasingly more people have been giving up reading. Second, quite a high percentage of those who continue reading have changed from reading paper books to e-books; Third, of the limited number of people who continue reading paper books, quite a high percentage buy them online, instead of from bricks-and-mortar bookstores.

Bookstores have tried to survive by resorting to offering leisure activities and opening coffeehouses inside the bookstores. However, as several media surveys show, these measures are hardly helping.