Innovation and the publishing industry

Hesmondhalgh states that when an industry is in flux, before it matures ‘there is often more room for manoeuvre for independents’ leading to an increase in entrepreneurialism and a growing emphasis on ‘going it alone’.

The creative industries have seen great change over the past decade, particularly as a result of digitalisation, and small, independent companies have been able to thrive alongside large conglomerates as a result.

This can be observed in the publishing industry, since the new digital landscape within which publishers must now operate, necessitates considerable change to existing business practices. Publishing is an industry in flux, and one where as a result, new innovators have been able to seize opportunities and enjoy success alongside established corporations.

Innovation is key, since as the consumer market changes drastically with the recent uptake in use of digital devices such as the iPad and Kindle, many publishers remain reluctant to embrace new opportunities to develop digital platforms, whereas new innovative entities are able to identify new ways to develop as well as deliver content effectively.

However, it is possible for larger publishers to develop innovation, since, as advocated by Bessant and Tidd, in any business, be it entrepreneurial or an established organisation, successful business opportunities begin with identifying the drive for innovation and recognising an opportunity. This has been difficult for many in a traditional industry such as publishing, however, there are some key players who are keen to innovate and are applying Bessant and Tidd’s model to their long-term business strategy.

One such company is Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, a publisher that declares its commitment to entrepreneurialism and innovation within its digital business strategy and utilises elements of the four Ps of Bessant and Tidd’s innovation model in order to deliver it:

Product

In 2009 Bloomsbury’s Chairman demonstrated their understanding of the changes in publishing products that are taking place, explaining that they capitalised on the opportunities available with their “understanding of the transformational forces at work in the publishing industry” as well as their ability to respond to them by capitalising on the growing “opportunities of new delivery systems” and digitisation.

Process

In 2010, at Bloomsbury’s Investor Day Conference, the Chief Executive, Nigel Newton and Executive Director, Richard Charkin discussed the fact that the current revolutions in digital business had relied upon delivery systems, for example the internet and the Amazon Kindle, however, this had led to demand for content to feed such systems and with the wealth of content and intellectual property owned by Bloomsbury, this was an opportunity that the company was well placed to exploit.

Position

At the same investor day, Newton explained that the digital age had enabled Bloomsbury to focus on innovation, inventing new revenue streams and business opportunities where previously there were none. The company is moving away from reliance solely on the traditional market for profit and loss through publishing a book, and instead towards management contracts and business-to-business projects which were conceived by Bloomsbury themselves.

Paradigm

In 2010, again at the investor day conference Newton and Charkin summarised Bloomsbury’s unique approach to its performance in the digital landscape. They outlined the company’s digital business strategy and plans for the future, stating that Bloomsbury’s style of operation was now entrepreneurial, using the skillset available within the company to move away from reliance solely on the traditional market for profit and loss through publishing a book, and instead towards management contracts and business-to-business projects which were conceived by Bloomsbury themselves. Newton explained that this strategy was based on the management of content, which as a publisher, Bloomsbury specialises in.

As Bessant and Tidd stated when discussing the creation of value, looking to profit from patent and copyright in order to profit, is no longer really the goal or outcome. Looking beyond these towards expertise and the potential for exploiting knowledge and intellectual property is another possibility.

Bloomsbury’s digital success in 2011, with a 564% increase in digital sales and a year-on-year increase in sales of 30% for the end of the year, indicates that Bessant and Tidd's model is one that could be applied across the publishing industry. Perhaps such results will persuade other large publishers that innovation is the way forward.

 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. Interim Management Statement. 16 Jan. 2012. Web. Accessed 30 Jan. 2012. http://www.bloomsbury-ir.co.uk/html/media/press_releases/160112.html

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. Annual Report and Accounts 2009. 30 Mar. 2010. Web. Accessed 30 Jan. 2012. http://www.bloomsbury-ir.co.uk/annual_reports/2009/019.asp

Bressant, J. and Tidd, J. Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2^nd ed., Chichester: Wiley & Sons. 2011. Web. Accessed 30 Jan. 2012. http://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kKvKh7pla8kC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=related:HixYGkNAZ0kJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=EMbHdLzRX9&sig=LNF2Ln8img4VyVVDWFF0MTWwpxo#v=onepage&q&f=false

Hesmondhalgh, David. The Cultural Industries. London: Sage. 2002. Print.

Newton, Nigel and Charkin, Richard. Bloomsbury Investor Day Presentation. 36 Soho Square, London. 2 June 2010. Web. Accessed 30 Jan. 2012. http://www.bloomsbury-ir.co.uk/archives/i_presentations/presentation-020610.pdf

Innovation in the Media Industry

The media industry has been built by entrepreneurs and their innovative ideas.  If we look at the media industry examples of Bessant and Tidd four Ps’ of innovation are evident. Product innovation can be seen in the film industry with the invention of Blue Ray discs. Process innovation can be seen be seen in television industry by the different types of TV’s offered. Position innovation and in turn Paradigm innovation can be seen in the Publishing Industry as by Amazon utilising the internet to sell books, publishing house have had to re-think the manner in which they sell books. However the media industry cannot become complacent, as it is an industry driven by the consumer. Even if the Industry does not innovate they must adhere to Getz and Robinson’s recommendation of retaining customer focus and making improvements to the services they provide; otherwise as highlighted by Kasprzak in his blog someone else will.

Bressant, J. and Tidd, J. (2011) “The Innovation Imperative,” Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2^nd ed.,  Chichester, UK: Wiley & Sons, pp 2-52

Getz, I and Robinson, A.G. (2003) “Innovate or Die: Is that a Fact?” Creativity and Innovation Management 12(3):  130-6.

Kasprzak, D (16 January 2012) “Product Innovation captures the imagination; Process innovation captures the markets”.  Blog: My Flexible Pencil. http://myflexiblepencil.com/2012/01/16/product-innovation-captures-the-imagination-process-innovation-captures-markets/

 “Innovate or Die” Forbes 23 July 2007: http://www.forbes.com/sites/thesba/2011/07/23/innovate-or-die/

Wired Features Podcast with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos by Steven Levy. 6 December 2011. 11:38 pm:  http://castroller.com/Podcasts/WiredFeatures/2717420

Innovation in Publishing

The innovation imperative is vital to every business's survival and growth. “If we don't change what we offer the world (products and services) and how we create and deliver them, we risk being overtaken by others that do.” (Bessant, 4) According to Bessant & Tidd every innovative measure undertaken should follow a model where the opportunity is recognised, resources are found, the idea is implemented and value is created.

In publishing the Book App is a new product that has taken advantage of the opportunity opened by technological change in the form of Apple's touchscreen Ipad device. Increasing digitisation has allowed publishers to create an entirely new storytelling product. Publishers are making impressive use of such opportunites, incorporating audio readings, video performance, interactive notes and original manuscript scans into these apps.

Secondly publishers have had to compile the right resources in the form of people and money. Publishers are training and recruiting new staff and investing large sums in this costly enterprise, (Ustwo's Nursery Rhymes with Story Time costing £60,000 to make). This commitment towards innovation contains a high amount of risk, but one can argue that publishers are prepared for this as they are fundamentally risk takers, carefully studying markets and investing in products with the biggest chance of success.

Publishers are subjecting the process of creating their content to innovation in order to implement their idea. This takes the form of changes to their overall business model and strategic use of their resources. Publisher Faber has formed a radical partnership with creative agency Touch Press in order to create pioneering product The Wasteland. Touch Press's influence has brought a “different and native way of thinking about digital” (Franklin) enabling them to push the medium forward through this partnership perhaps more effectively than through simply training and recruiting individual staff. Faber's business model for app publishing rests on this partnership and the strategy of sharing costs between the two companies.

Publishers should however look to use risk management in their implementation, as the revenue made from apps is still so low (Ustwo's chart-topping app only making £2,000 a day). “By installing a series of “gates” ...it becomes possible to review -and if necessary redirect or even stop something which is going off the rails.” (Bessant, 19). Innovation requires caution, but publishers should not be so quick to assume failure where apps are concerned. As the model states “Innovations diffuse across populations over time,” (Bessant, 19) and the Book App is still in its youth. Publishers must now maximise their chances by initiating innovative app marketing strategies.

Bessant, J. and Tidd, J. (2011) “The Innovation Imperative,” Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2^nd ed., Chichester, UK: Wiley & Sons

Franklin, D, Dredge, Stuart (2011) “Book Publishers Hope for a Sales Boost from apps innovation” The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2011/jun/17/futurebook-apps-conference> Accessed 29^th Jan 2012.

Innovation

Bessant and Tidd outline the 4 Ps of innovation as product, process, position and paradigm innovation. In the media industry, this innovation is becoming ever more important to businesses with the escalation of the digital revolution. However, Getz and Robinson say that the ‘innovate or die’ mantra has caused the media to overlook the “true sources of long-term high performance” (2003:130) such as incremental innovations (process innovation). Innovation is not always inventing a completely new product, but making small changes to what is already there to produce reliable, good-quality products at reasonable prices (Getz and Robinson 2003: 134).

In the context of the publishing industry, Amazon is the company which stands out in terms of innovation. For example, Amazon has recently released a new line of Kindles, including a touchscreen version and the Kindle Fire multimedia tablet (product innovation). This tablet is the strongest competitor to Apple’s iPad tablet. However, Levy says that the philosophy behind the tablets is completely different. Apple is primarily a hardware company, with 91% of revenue coming from sales of products. Amazon, on the other hand is content-focussed (position innovation), with nearly half of its revenue coming from media sales (Levy 2011).

Additionally, Apple’s iPad focuses on downloads of movies, music and books among other things, even from the iCloud. The iPad, therefore, is “tethered to the paradigm of local storage, putting a premium on machines with more memory” (Levy 2011). The Kindle Fire, however, focuses on streaming as users can store for free on the company’s server (paradigm innovation). Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos says that the tablet is “a fully-integrated media service. Hardware is a crucial ingredient but it is only a piece of it” (Levy 2011).

Amazon also differentiates itself from other companies by working with low margins in creating their products (process innovation). Tech companies always have high margins with a smaller customer base; Amazon is the only one that has small margins. They focus and obsess on fixing small defects with products, as the most expensive thing to a business is a mistake.

Getz, I and Robinson, A. G. (2003) ‘Innovate or Die: Is that a fact?’ Creativity and Innovation Management 12(3): 130-6.

Levy, S. (2011) ‘CEO of the Internet’. [Online] Available from: http://castroller.com/podcast/WiredFeatures/2717420 [Accessed 29 January 2011].

Types of Innovation: The 4P's

According to Bressant and Tidd’s 4P’s model, innovation has four main stages or considerations.

1.      Product Innovation.

The most common form of product innovation is that which improves a current product that is already offered to the user. In publishing an obvious example of this would be the digital reader; an innovated version of the traditional book.

2.      Process Innovation.

This form of innovation takes into consideration the way in which products are created and/or delivered to the user. Again, digital publishing would be an excellent example of this, with books being instantly purchased and downloaded with such processes as ‘one-click’ buying on Amazon, which then automatically downloads the title to the user’s Kindle.

3.      Position Innovation.

This involves relocation of the user’s perception about a certain product. For example, when Jane Austen wrote Sense and Sensibility this was just another good book. Now, this text is perceived as not only a good book, but a great classic...essential literary reading, which is how it is now advertised.

4.      Paradigm Innovation.

This relates to the mental models, which define what a certain business is all about. Within the publishing world at the moment, an example of this would be the discussion of; is the publisher still necessary? If it was declared that the publisher is now obsolete, this would be an example of paradigm innovation as the business of publishing would be redefined.

Bressant, J. And Tidd, J. (2011) “The Innovation Imperative,” Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2^nd ed., Chichester, UK: Wiley and Sons, pp. 2 - 52

(2009) “Types of Innovation: The 4P’s <http://www.humanitarianinnovation.org/innovation/types> [Accessed 30^th January 2012)

Process of Innovation

According to Bressant and Tidd, in Innovation and Entrepreneurship the process of innovation must go through four key stages; recognise opportunity, find resources, develop venture and create value. This process is outlining the cycle of innovation from inception to succession; from the moment an opportunity is seized by defining a possible gap in the market or improving an existing market through to its success with the public and consequent position within the media. This process begins with the need for a change, perhaps to keep up with new technologies and race with your competitors to provide the best product or service that is available to the public. This change then needs the resources to help it grow and so you will invest money and time and may invest in knowledgeable staff that have the most up to date skills in this area. A business plan then needs to be drafted that helps the idea to move forward and flourish. Lastly, value in the product or service you are providing needs to be created as there is never a guarantee that the public will respond well to the new change, but always the risk that they may respond badly and so it is imperative for any business to prepare for this.

Considering this, we might ask, why is innovation necessary? It’s simple, without innovation a company will eventually die. Without constant monitoring of the market, competitors, trends, public interest and technology then it becomes impossible to overtake or even match what others are doing. This is supported in an article online by Forbes stating, “Where is AOL? MySpace? Or now Barnes and Noble? These companies were titans of success and innovation. Now, they are left behind. This is because management and their staff failed to recognize the dynamics of a free market, failed to provide their customers what they want.” (2011)

(2011) “Innovate Or Die!” Forbes, [online] 23 July. Available at: <http://www.forbes.com/sites/thesba/2011/07/23/innovate-or-die/> [Accessed 29 January 2012]

Bressant, J. and Tidd, J. (2011) “The Innovation Imperative,” Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2^nd ed., Chichester, UK: Wiley & Sons, pp 2-52, (Note: You can also see the first edition available via Google Books at http://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kKvKh7pla8kC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=related:HixYGkNAZ0kJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=EMbHdLzRX9&sig=LNF2Ln8img4VyVVDWFF0MTWwpxo#v=onepage&q&f=false )

Innovation

For product innovation, magazines, particularly business to business titles are now branching out to create brand extensions. For example many now have industry awards, networking events, and seminars. This has also led to position innovation in that magazine publishers now consider themselves as ‘brands’ rather than a magazine plus extra bits.

Spotify is an example of quite explicit process innovation in that it completely changed the way music was delivered, by drawing on file-sharing developments but adding limitations to keep the music producers happy.

A good example of almost ‘backtracked’ position innovation is the kindle cover in the style of book sleeve. It managed to steer the kindle away from being a high tech gadget to being something you can still curl up with, having it resting in your palm. And essential context move particularly for older consumers.

As Bessant & Tidd point out, the internet and technology are a great catalyst for paradigm innovation and one assumes most organisations today would like to think they are ‘changing the way we do things’, even if some are really still rather stuck. Perhaps the most essential change in mental models today’s technology is its social and interconnected nature. People are desperate to share and connect which has led for example to innovations in ebooks to allow sharing of passages and even temporary lending of books between ebooks.

Overall it seems that digital provides massive potential for position and paradigm innovation. We know now that product innovation will happen insanely fast and effectively – our technology and skill levels make this relatively easy. What is more difficult is knowing what to do with more abstract concepts of what all these potential developments mean in terms of how they could change our culture and day to day lives.

Innovation

Innovation is becoming the fundamental requirement for businesses, including the media, to stay in the game and expand nationally and globally, especially in an ever-changing digital revolution. Its importance is recognised by the Media Innovation Awards (http://www.mediainnovationawards.com/home.aspx). Innovation can be in the forms of the product, the process new products are delivered, the context of the product, and the company’s paradigm.

If a company fails to be innovative, it dies. A most recent example would be the fall of Kodak; a company that, in it’s heyday, was hugely successful and profitable. However, as the focus becomes innovative hardware and a digital focus, the company simply did not keep up in terms of innovation of product or their business model.

Product innovation is the most essential of the four Ps, mostly because it is the change that is focused completely at the customer. Product innovation in the media industry can be either hardware innovation, or content innovation, as highlighted in the Jeff Bezos Podcast (Podcast). Bezos claims the iPad is an example of innovative hardware, and this is the focus of Apple. Whereas Amazon focus on being innovative content providers, and their hardware (including the innovative touchscreen device, the Kindle Fire) is simply a ‘passport’ to the vast Amazon media library. The only innovative feature on the Kindle, in comparison to the iPad, is faster streaming to allow for easier access to the content they provide.

1.     Raghavan, B. “Lessons for companies from Kodak’s demise.” Business Line. 29 Jan 2012. Web. Accessed: 29 Jan 2012.

< http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/b-s-raghavan/article2842779.ece?homepage=true>

Innovation

 The new world of digital publishing brings with it plenty of opportunities for publishers, booksellers and authors to innovate.  For publishers, this might be the production of e-books and apps.  For booksellers, it is more likely to be the production of an e-reader.  For authors, on the other hand, it may be self-publishing or print-on-demand.

For publishers, an e-book is in many ways more risky than a traditional printed book as the production costs are so much higher.  The publisher needs to access the resources needed for the production and distribution of an e-book, and compare these to those of a printed book, to assess whether they can afford the resources and if the risk is worth it.  For booksellers, the risk again is much greater as they are now making and selling their own product, whereas before they have generally sold other people’s products (books!) – now they must create business models for their own products.  It is a similar risk for authors who choose to self-publish as they must pay their own costs.  Obviously, this is a lot cheaper in the digital age, hence the rise of self-publishing.  However, they still take on the risk that they will not make any profit.

Publishing companies may need to take on new staff or invest time and training for current staff in order to properly deal with producing e-books and apps.  Booksellers who choose to produce e-readers will inevitably need to hire new people to do this.  Authors may need to teach themselves some technical skills, although websites like http://www.smashwords.com/ make self-publishing much easier. 

Publishers need to ensure that their e-books are available to buy in as many places as possible.  They will also need to take full advantage of digital marketing.  For booksellers, there is a huge amount of competition regarding tablets and e-readers.  Amazon has perhaps taken one of the biggest leaps of innovation with the Kindle Fire (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2012/01/24/amazon-kindle-fire-review-first-look/).  They describe it as a ‘media service’ and it is innovative because rather than spending huge amounts of money on a tablet that stores huge amounts of data, it has only 8gb of storage – the customer stores all of their date on ‘The Cloud’.  So for booksellers, constant upgrading and innovation is necessary to compete.  Authors may need to pay for advertising of their books, and ensure they have a good web presence.  They will also have to carefully consider how they price their books to ensure optimum sales.

Innovation

According to Bessant and Tidd, we have 4 types of innovation: product, process, position and paradigm innovation. The world of business works most of the time by the rule: do what we do but better than others. If we look at the media industry, companies are trying to innovate in order to survive and grow in the market. The main players like Amazon and Apple have raised the challenge. They use technology as a crucial tool for innovation, hence, they perfectly suit the 4Ps model. They produce new devices (i.e. Kindle Fire) and have a range of new services (i.e. the multimedia iBooks2 app by Apple). They modernise the way of delivering their products constantly in order to open up new markets for new customers, by lowering prices and shifting the way people behave Bezos admitted that for him Kindle is not just a device but a media service (Podcast), for that reason, it has to be customer-focused, placing the customer first and fulfilling his/her needs. With this, cheap products and fast delivery with one click became essential. Amazon and Apple are able to shift the rules of the game and they have already changed the business model. The former operates on the policy of making losses in one field (e.g. on sales of devices) in order to gain profits on the other (broaden the list of end-users.) (Horne 2011: 25). Although changes to this environment do not happen every day, it is happening now and it is influencing the whole industry. Each type of innovation triggers a race between major players in order to establish who is better, faster or who can add more value and at the same time, challenges a traditional market. On the one hand it requires some radical steps i.e. closing of traditional book shops, but on the other, it is a spur for further innovation. Nowadays, nobody can afford to ignore changes either connected with new technology/content or with new customers needs.

Horne, A. “The Future of Publishing: a report on innovation and the future of the book”. 2011. Web. 4 Jan. 2012 <http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/files/extranet/docs/FOA/mediafutures.pdf>

Innovation model

The four Ps of the innovation model overlap because there is the factor of perspective.  The innovation does not exist standalone in a successful business, because to make it profitable it must be inherently customer-focused.     

Looking at the Kindle Fire vs Apple iPad debate, we see how innovation can straddle sectors, depending on perspective.  The iPad undoubtedly conquered the market with the innovation of the first mass-marketable tablet computer. 

Amazon was not the early conqueror of the tablet market, but is looking to compete with similar innovations and capitalise where it has seen Apple’s failings.  Streaming is both a product and process innovation in competition with the iPad’s ‘local storage’, and this change could also offer a paradigm change in the way we consume tablet content.  Offering the Kindle Fire means the manufacturing of a new technology for Amazon (product innovation), but as a content-selling site, the multi-functional tablet also changes the mental perception of what it is a company provides perhaps further than their production of the e-reader (both process and paradigm).   

Positioning is a form of innovation that only comes in a more saturated market.  The iPad generally has a monopoly on the tablet device market at the moment, but when the day comes that everyone is using a tablet of all types, positioning becomes important to target specialised and specific consumers. 

For example, in a saturated newspaper industry, the Daily Mail was struggling to keep up with its vast number of competitors and its sister paper had to be closed.  The Mail repositioned itself as targeting female readers, the ‘gap in the market’, and is one of the most successful papers today.  New products may be positioned, or older ones re-positioned to target certain markets, such as business people (as Blackberry originally did), or perhaps children.

Print vs Digital and Self-Publishing Journalism

  While the concept of self-publishing books through Amazon has garnered a lot of attention, what are we to think about self-publishing journalism?  With the rise of citizen journalism, anyone can produce content, but thoughts about publishing it are largely limited to blogs, websites and other online capabilities.  E-zines do exist, but are really only utilised in addition to a real-world print publication with added rich content.  There are few online only magazine and news sites that use the model of the digital flipbook.  This may come from an assumption that journalism content is more detachable from its form than books, for example.     

    In the World News Future and Change Study, editors and publishers indicated they were looking to invest more in new digital media revenue streams and less in production costs, however there are alternatives than forecasting the death of print media.  In an article in a print and digital magazine called What’s Next, Andrew Losowsky says the future of print is actually in digital.  Self-publishing sites such as www.magcloud.com offer options to combine digital platforms and print to create runs of magazines up to the number of people who order them.  This form of bespoke printing may not work on such a large scale right now, as it is used more for short-run print products, but the concept could be adaptable.  

The important point is that print and digital don’t need to be opposing forces, but can and should work in tandem.  In the article, Losowky quotes Russel Davies, “Print has evolved over hundreds of years to be exactly how we want to read.  Screens are way better at many things. However we’ll use screens for those things, and keep print for the things it does best.”  

What's Next, Issue 2 Collaborate, Digital Edition <http://www.whatsnextmagazine.net/wp-content/themes/sappiwhatsnext/assets/downloads/issues/whats-next-magazine-issue-2.pdf> [accessed 22/01/2012]

World News Future and Change Study, World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers November 2010 <http://elearn.uclan.ac.uk/webct/urw/lc693393467011.tp693393503011//RelativeResourceManager?contentID=699075264021> [Accessed 22/01/2012]

What is Social Reading?

Reading has always been social to a certain extent. At one time social reading was the dependency of a community on the few, usually men, who could read, to keep them abreast of the new texts that were being written.

Things changed very quickly as people became better educated and by the 20^th Century “literacy became a benchmark of civilization.” (Patrick) Throughout this progression reading actually developed in to a personal activity, only involving the reader and the book. There have still been elements of sociability through book clubs and lectures, but ultimately people have discovered their own love of reading.

With this in mind it is evident that social reading is not a new concept.

So what is social reading now?

Social reading is now the ability to expand the reading experience past the book alone. It is now possible, through the use of just one electronic device, to talk with the author, bookmark pages, save and send and share sections of text via e-mail, chat with other readers inside paragraphs by attaching notes to the text and operating the ‘Recently Read’ application on Facebook.

But what is so great about this? This can all be done with a pen, some post-its and the Royal Mail.

The joy of modern day social media is in the instant nature and the vast capabilities of it as a concept. But is this actually always a positive?

It is widely accepted that “reading can and does contribute to personal development and influence social attitudes and behaviour.” (Gray) Therefore could the instantaneous and unedited nature of this new social reading be a problem?

Gray, W. (1947) “The Social Effects of Reading.” The School Review, [online] May. Available at: <http://www.jstor.org/pss/1082566> [Accessed 27^th January 2012)

Patrick, B. (2011) “What is Social Reading?” Book Riot, [online] 18^th October. Available at: <http://bookriot.com/2011/10/18/what-is-social-reading/> [Accessed 27^th January 2012]

Unknown. (2011) “The Independent announces its new social reading experience.” The Independent, [online] 22^nd September. Available at: <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/the-independent-announces-its-new-social-reading-experience-2359224.html> [Accessed 27^th January 2012]

             

Publishers, Libraries and the Bilbary model

Government spending is under a tight rein due to the recession and the slow recovery rate of the economy. Spending cuts have been putting publicly funded libraries at considerable risk.  The Museums, Libraries and Archives council gave advice, stating that libraries needed to “exploit digital technologies to survive the cuts,” (Hitchcock, 2011). Embracing digital technologies has also been said to offer libraries the opportunity to become “next generation research centres,” (Hitchcock, 2011). The most successful libraries of the future are predicted to provide a range of services including a physical meeting point to share and discuss, free internet service and an emphasis on cheap material for electronic platforms as well as print. Libraries consequently must make changes and a particularly key area is making titles available in ebook format, as “70% of publishers expect that by 2014 more than half their publications will be electronic,” (Hitchcock, 2011).

Their largest obstacle is that publishers are holding back. “Macmillan and Simon & Schuster do not sell e-books to libraries. Hachette and Penguin withhold their newest titles, and HarperCollins caps the number of times a book can be loaned at 26 after which, in principle, it needs to be repurchased,” (Osnos, 2011). The reason for such hesitation is the concern that widespread downloading of ebooks may facilitate mass piracy of content and cause a significant loss in sales.

Movements are underway to try and find a solution to this stalemate. One of the newest interesting models to arise is Bilbary, a comprehensive ebook website with approximately 300,000 – 400,000 titles, that provides all the benefits of a large ebook retailer and of library lending. The key difference is the income made and the resulting extra revenue for publishers. Ebooks will be available to buy or rent (for a lower price), and publishers are set to take approximately 80% of royalties. Bilbary’s main focus will be on academic texts, as it sees “a particularly attractive option for publishers to make expensive reference titles available at a reduced rate,” (Milliot, 2011). Bilbary even aims to help physical libraries, enabling them to use their e-library as a service, cutting out the need to purchase from publishers. But success rests on the question as to whether consumers are willing to pay low rental-fees for ebooks, with the library service traditionally founded upon access to free content.

What is certain is that publishers need to remain aware of the value of libraries to their industry. “Libraries are comparable to independent booksellers as a percentage of business, and they "never send books back," (Osnos, 2011). They provide a means for readers to experiment with new authors, lend and discover books and without this important service readers are arguably more likely to turn to piracy.

Hitchcock, Gill (2011) “Libraries Face a Digital Future” The Guardian (online)

< http://www.guardian.co.uk/government-computing-network/2011/nov/14/digital-future-libraries-e-books> Accessed 23^rd January 2012

Milliot, Jim (2011) “Tim Coates to Launch International E-book store, Bilbary” Publishers Weekly

 < http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/49710-tim-coates-to-launch-international-e-bookstore-bilbary.html> Accessed 26^th January 2012

 

Osnos, Peter (2011) “Library Wars: Amazon and Publishers vie for Control of E-book Rentals.” The Atlantic (online) < http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/12/library-wars-amazon-and-publishers-vie-for-control-of-e-book-rentals/249544/> Accessed 26^th January 2012