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Promote Book industry innovation hubs.
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Implement omnichannel strategies.
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Discoverability as a paramount goal in the Internet.
The three modest proposals are the result of the work carried out in the on-line Readmagine’s 2020 edition. Based on the three documents prepared by Fundación GSR a meeting was held on November 16 with the participation of some of the experts gathered during Readmagine 21.
The three working groups aimed to build brief proposals on:
Policy to promote reading in Europe (coordinated by Miha Kovač), European policy to support the book industry (coordinated by Enrico Turrin) and Business models for Publishing in Europe (coordinated by José Manuel Anta).
In this video you can follow the presentations corresponding to the proposals for Business models for Publishing in Europe and also a short conversation between the three rapporteurs, moderated by Luis González (FGSR).
- The working group was formed by:
- Christoph Blässi (JGU, Germany)
- Carlo Carrenho (Streetlib, Sweden)
- Rüdiger Wischenbart (WCC, Austria)
- Ruta Elijošaitytė (LLA, Lithuania)
- Rapporteur: José Manuel Anta (FANDE, Spain)
As rapporteur of the new policymaking for the European publishing industry, José Manuel Anta presented eleven ideas selected by the group of experts.
The experts suggested that the coronavirus crisis is the greatest test the world has faced in many decades and for everyone it’s the very first time that a challenge like this is also a trial on the industry capabilities and Intelligence to overcome the problems stronger and fit. It has transformed people’s lives and their behaviours at unprecedented scale, impacted every industry and specially those companies that didn’t have the chance to evolve prior to this crisis. This was the case of many players with legacies that had a different starting point than start-ups or digital platforms, such as the value chain of the publishing. Nevertheless, the pandemic is far from slowing innovation, it’s amplifying it to unprecedented levels.
Anta also reminded the conclusions from the previous works (Readmagine 2020) that the publishing industry needs to rethink its own position and its value proposition because customers’ needs have changed. In response, organizations must adapt as far as how they position the value of their products and services within this new context.
The bunch of ideas selected by the group of experts was:
- Boost readership and Book vs other cultural and entertainment options (Attention Economy).
- Use publishing intellectual property (IP) as raw material (Partnership out of the silo / Backlist as an asset).
- Need to add Innovation and Research and Link to the traditional assets of the book industry (Book Innovation Hubs).
- Present (and future) of the brick & mortar bookshops in front of tech platforms.
- Omnichannel strategy.
- Print on Demand in market – close to customers, always available and better for carbon footprint (Green Publishing).
- Discoverability as a paramount goal in the Internet.
- Data sharing: Metadata / Sell Out / Readers Profiles.
- Direct and interactive relation to readers / fan communities (Digital Marketing Tools/AI).
- Target specific marketing, comprehensive brand experience and user-friendly online presences (Accessibility).
- Reinvent the book professional community itself (Cooperation / Local and International level).
José Manuel Anta is Managing Director of FANDE (Spanish Dsitributors Association) and the International Publishing Distribution Association (IPDA). Graduated in Economics by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Master in Foreign Trade by CEOE and Postgraduate Course in Market Research at the Autonomous University of Madrid (1995). Since 1997 Anta is working as Managing Director of the Federation of National Associations of Distributors (FANDE), umbrella organization in Spain for about 200 companies engaged in the distribution of books, magazines, newspapers and digital contents. He is a frequent speaker at various conferences and seminars on the field of books and print media trade.
Is the coordinator, under the IPDA framework, of the European Press Distribution Round Table, The International Meeting of Booksellers and Distributors at the Frankfurt Book Fair and the International Digital Distributors Group. He is the author of many articles published in Spanish and foreign publications related to the distribution of publishing products.
