‘Bright spots in the face of challenges’ says PANZ President

PANZ Newsletter 

At the PANZ AGM held last Monday, 23 June, Sam Elworthy (right) outlined the issues the New Zealand publishing industry has confronted: Over the past 18 months we have all faced the challenges of a lifetime in the New Zealand publishing industry.

‘We’ve seen major publishers closing retail sales falling by over 20% a sponsor walking away from one of our flagship promotions and lawsuits and political parties challenging the value of copyright. In the middle of all those challenges, there are also some bright spots: we’ve experienced one of the fastest growing ebook markets in the world, we’ve seen a whole bunch of new publishers starting up, with the Publishers Association bringing in more new members than ever before.

As individual publishers, I think we are all working on reinventing publishing today. The Publishers Association also needs to keep reinventing itself so that the organisation remains solvent and relevant to publishers’ changing needs.

You’ll hear from the Association’s hard working councillors and director about what we’ve all been doing over the last 12 months, but to me a few key principles come through that seem to guide the work of the Publishers Association and—I think—are probably also driving some of the changes we are all making as publishers.’

Read the full President's report here.