Leonard S. Riggio and wife
Leonard S. Riggio, the founder and chairman of Barnes & Noble, thinks that Steven P. Jobs is wrong, at least when it comes to the reading habits of Americans.
In January, Mr. Jobs, the chairman of Apple, declared that a new electronic book reader introduced by Amazon.com was unlikely to be a commercial success because of a fundamental problem. “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is,” Mr. Jobs said. “People don’t read anymore.”
In a telephone interview last week, Mr. Riggio — who has based a long and profitable career on the proposition that people love to read — said that Mr. Jobs’s perception “is off by a lot.”
While Mr. Riggio said he could not comment on Amazon’s device, the Kindle, he said that at Barnes & Noble, “our business in general is fairly sound.” And while the book industry as a whole is “fairly flattish” now, Mr. Riggio said, “it has had periods of flattish growth in the past.”
“I’m still very optimistic,” he added.
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