Will books be worth the paper they are written on in five years time? No-one knows, but what is certain is that many more of them will not be written on paper at all.

And, according to George Lossius, chief executive of Publishing Technology, based at the Oxford Business Park, many of us will be reading them on our telephones, as well as on such devices as Kindles and iPads.

He said: “The number of people using book readers will be in the millions, but the number using telephones will be in the billions.”

True, he admitted that no-one would be likely to read War and Peace on their telephone, but he said many people, particularly in places like Africa, where Internet connections are sometimes tricky or non-existent, readers are already able to access parts of books, or particular quotations.

He added: “This will be particularly important for say, doctors, wanting information on diseases such as AIDS.”

The world of publishing is evolving so fast, that many people are frightened of the way ahead. But Mr Lossius is upbeat.

He said: “There really is a bright future for the publishing industry, if it embraces it and has the right infrastructure.”

And his company is now a leader in how that infrastructure is developing, constantly inventing and putting in place the technology behind your computer, reader or even telephone, that allows you to access information from online books and journals.

Publishing Technology, which employs 100 people at its Oxford headquarters and another 70 in the United States, plus six in Bath and three in Brazil, was formed in 2007 with the merger of pioneering firms in the field: Ingenta, VISTA and Publishers’ Communications Group.

Now the AIM listed company has a turnover of more than £15.3m, has over 450 publisher customers worldwide — 20 in Oxford alone —and is constantly looking for more suitably qualified staff.

Mr Lossius said: “We are a truly international company servicing eight out of ten of the world’s largest publishers.

“We are proud to be a part of Oxford’s long and prestigious tradition of world-leading publishing and are privileged to be one of the up-and-coming technology companies driving growth in the region.”

He added: “This has been the best year yet for Publishing Technology and the company is in a great position to continue to grow throughout 2011.”

And so onward and upward, into the brave new digital world and, of course, it is good to hear of someone doing well in hard times. But what exactly is the expanding company’s product?

Mr Lossius said: “Whatever technology is used, physical, print-on-demand, or digital, our job is to make sure it works.”

The company offers two basic software options. Ingentaconnect allows a publisher to join a community online and Pub2Web offers a client their own exclusive publishing site.

The company works closely with large organisations including Blackwells in Oxford — for which it manages 4,500 monographs (or reference books to the non-jargon speaker), and Elsevier in Kidlington, for which it has a sub-management contract worldwide.

Speaking of jargon, this industry seems to be inventing a whole new spoken language, as well as an on-screen digital one. Mr Lossius baffled me with talk of ‘granularity’. What could he mean?

He said: “I mean the business of selling portions of a publishing product, allowing users to go in on any part they want, rather than the whole of it.”

In addition to Ingentaconnect and Pub2Web, the firm also offers its Advance software that helps publishers with editorial, distribution, and paying writers’ rights and royalties, etc.

In short, its software offers what is called front and back office services, spanning the whole business of getting information out of someone’s head and onto a screen, accessible to anyone else anywhere in the world.

Mr Lossius added: “We are now involved in all types of publishing, except newspapers and magazines.”

In the field of putting books and journals online, academic publishing has led the way when it comes to breaking a certain perceived reluctance about paying for information online.

Mr Lossius said: “Academics understand that someone has to pay for the business of getting information online — and are willing to pay for what they want.

“The point is that digital publishing is no longer peripheral, and it is time everyone involved realised and got their act together.”

Mr Lossius has been involved with publishing IT for the past 15 years. After working briefly for Unilever he moved to Publishing Technology’s predecessor, Vista, in Watford, where he implemented online systems before moving to France to set up Vista’s operations there.

After an 18-month break running a sports magazine he returned to Vista and became chief executive six months before the merger.

Just like the continual merging of publishers of physical books in recent years, Mr Lossius reckons ‘merging will continue ad infinitum’ in the digital world, too.

And Mr Lossius is totally at home in this international world. He was born in Argentina, the son of a Norwegian father and an English mother. He spent his childhood in Holland, Belgium and Switzerland. He said he reads English very slowly — and believes that is a help in his business.