Art & Commerce

Book Making Consumer spending on books was virtually flat in 1996-by far the industry’s worst performance in at least a dozen years. The long-term trends that propelled the business at an average annual growth rate close to 6 percent collided with a massive shift in the way books are sold. The result: last year’s stall. But the growth drivers are still in place: First, the sustained economic expansion has caused an increase in consumers’ disposable income; second, the fastest-growing slice of the population is the 40-plussers, a segment virtually shunned by Hollywood and TV programmers, driving them to books; finally, the arrival of “new” media has spawned book categories about new media, not to mention selling opportunities such as amazon.com,