13.12.13 | Lisa Campbell - The Bookseller
Speaking at the Publishers Association’s International conference held in Haberdashers Hall in London yesterday (12th December), Chi said that publishers had to take control of the conversation about what they do and its worth to the general public.
Chi, who is also the chairman of Elsevier, said the digital age had seen publishers increasingly stereotyped as “greedy” and like “dinosaurs”.
He said: “We as an industry have an image problem . . . We are no longer the guardian of culture, we are now seen as greedy, as locking up knowledge.
"How did this happen? One thing the digital age has made very clear is that the majority of people do not know what publishers actually do. Many people confuse us with printers. People believe that an e-book should be much cheaper because we are not printing and shipping them. They do not realise that the cost of printing a book is just a small percentage of the investment in a book. There is a big disconnect between how much we are doing and how much is known about what we do.”
Chi said that the UK Publishers Association was working to combat publishing’s “image problem” but urged other countries to co-ordinate with the organisation in getting the message out. “We will see over the next 12 months messages and target audiences, and who is going to deliver those messages,” Chi said. “I think we need to talk about ourselves more.”
Keeping ahead of customers’ expectations was imperative, but the task is “becoming a challenging race where the finish line keeps on moving”, according to Chi.
“There is a lot of ambiguity about where everyone sits in the ecosystem,” he said. “Twitter and Facebook are being referred to as publishers and publishers are increasingly hiring technology workers, developers and designers. The most dangerous thing for publishers to do is ignore it.” Chi said that those who do not embrace technology “did so at their peril” and that all publishers should be experimenting with business models.
It is also important for publishers to educate “policy makers” about copyright, Chi said. “We are in the midst of one of the most challenging and exciting times around publishing. There is a great deal of uncertainty ahead but sitting back and watching things unfold is not an option for us. As Winston Churchill said, it is no time for ease and comfort, it is time to dare and endure,” he said.
Elsevier's own image problems have included a petition from academics for a boycott of the publisher, claiming it was involved in "the exploitation of a monopoly position" in overcharging for its online journals, which has now received over 14,000 signatures.
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