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We’re deep into the age of digital publishing. Do the needs of yesterday still stand today?

In 2012, a survey from the Pew Research Centre and The Economist found that 60% of Americans under the age of 40 preferred to read conventional print-like versions of newspapers and lifestyle magazines on their tablets rather than interactive ones.

Issuu recently launched "Clip", a feature that lets users grab snippets from any Issuu published magazine, add a comment and share the Clip via social networks. While some think this is making leaps and bounds for the company and their users, it made me consider the implications for digital publishing, ownership and free content.

On the one hand, you could argue that if features like Clip became popular and eventually rolled out to paid or membership publications, it could affect sales. Why would readers pay for a digital edition or a subscription when they can find the best bits on pinterest and twitter?

At The London Book Fair this week I had the feeling that the world is entering a digital publishing downturn.

At last week's Publishing and Media Expo in London  I was involved in a panel debate discussing whether clever apps had finally consigned the PDF to the dustbin for digital publishing.

Brett Lewis, Group Creative Director of IPC Media argued that the PDF still had its place and that many IPC magazine readers were still happy to get their publications in print-replica format. He backed-up his claim with stats from the iTunes stores showing that, although clever apps dominated the digital magazines best-seller lists, some 'page-turners' were still near the top.