Do you think Barnes & Nobles would survive another year?

With the whole publishing industry changing so rapidly, there's no way to know who will survive and who won't. Barnes and Noble could restructure, become strictly online or... The trend is to ebooks and ereaders, but I don't think print books will ever cease to exist. Some books already in existence may not ever be available as ebooks, and there will always be people who prefer print. I have a fairly decent personal library, but very little room, so I've weeded out classics which are public domain and can be dowloaded for free. There's lot's more room on my hard drive than on my shelves. My own reading habits are going through a lot of changes, to the point where I will buy an ereader when the prices come down some more. I have a lot of ebooks, but I hate being tied to my computer to read them. There may be more changes that we can't even see or predict right now. Everything's in flux.

I think it is very likely that Barnes & Noble will survive another year. Its stock, now selling for $15 and change a share, is down significantly from its high of around $24 a share in April, but the stock's price is up from its low of $12.27 last month. It has excellent revenue at $104.28 a share and shows a profit for the year. Its debt load is low, about 40% of its equity, so I don't think it has to worry about its credit rating any time soon. This is a pretty good financial position to be in during this rocky economy and going up against a competitor with a runaway bestselling product in the Kindle. Its own ebook reader, the Nook, is a good response to the Kindle, and unlike the Kindle its ebook reader uses a non-proprietary format so you can buy your ebooks from more vendors. You can even read eBooks from your public library on it because it uses the ePub format which the public library system uses. It has its own online stores which sell both eBooks and traditional books at prices competitive with Amazon, and if Barnes and Noble needs to strengthen its financial position it can sell some of its "brick and mortar" stores. I think Barnes & Noble and Amazon with be competing with each other far into the future.

If Barnes and Noble goes under, then I might die. I hate eBooks with a fiery passion and I like getting books online about as much. Barnes and Noble is my favorite bookstore! They might survive, as they're one of the only large chain bookstores left, but I hesitate to say that without any doubt. I know I'll always want to get my books at Barnes and Noble.

I think it won't survive because of the economy and the competition. A lot of people are trying to find good deals now over the internet which result the physical bookstore to go down. Regards.