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Episode details

World Service,04 Nov 2019,26 mins

Has the traditional book triumphed over the e-reader?

World Business Report

Available for over a year

When e-readers came out, many predicted the demise of the book, but paper has fought back. Joel Rickett is non-fiction publisher at Ebury, and reminds us how the debate played out a decade ago, and discusses the ways publishers have tried to make paper books stand out against electronic ones. And James Daunt runs book chains Waterstones in the UK, and Barnes and Noble in the US, and tells us why his businesses are selling fewer e-readers than in the past. Also in the programme, Michael O'Leary, chief executive of low-cost airline Ryanair explains how the grounding of Boeing's 737 Max aeroplanes has affected the company. Plus, as Steve Easterbrook, chief executive of McDonald's, is sacked for dating a colleague, we ask whether bosses should have any say over personal relationships, with employment lawyer Rebecca Thornley-Gibson of DMH Stallard in London. (Picture: An Amazon Kindle e-reader. Picture credit: Getty Images.)

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