PANZ International Summit 2015: a world wide perspective

 PANZ

José Borghino, Will Atkinson and Henry Rosenbloom brought their European, UK and Australian perspectives to the PANZ summit and left their audience, of more than 65 publish with a wider understanding of those markets and current trends in books and publishing. It was a cracker of a conference, challenging, thought provoking and a chance to see opportunities as well as pitfalls in the world marketplace
 
Sam Elworthy, PANZ President, welcomed publishers outlining milestones that have seen this country become more visible on the international stage – Guest of Honour at Frankfurt Book Fair in 2012, Eleanor Catton’s Booker Prize winning The Luminaries and Guest of Honour at the Taipei International  Book Exhibition earlier this year. He also noted one area of vulnerability: our educational publishing is dependent on government policy decisions in both local and international markets.

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IPA’s Borghino on the Freetard Jihad

 

José Borghino, policy director for the International Publishers Association based in Geneva, did have a cautionary tale of government educational policy interference… Hungary nationalised the whole of their educational publishing and only one publisher in the field remains.
 
Calling his address From Simple Numbers to the Freetard Jihad, (the latter a term borrowed from commentator John Birmingham) José looked at the size of various creative endeavours today: Books and publishing are worth $250 billion, movies and entertainment $181b, magazines $185b, video games $84b and music $68b – all translated to $NZ. “We need to feel important - publishing is much larger than the other sectors. And none of them are giving up their copyright – why should we feel pressured to do so?”
 
He likens “creative commons” to fishing in Mauritius. “Fishermen found it easier to put gelignite in their reefs and blow the fish out of the water – but that destroyed their fishing industry.”
 
The good news: there are still growing print markets; the bad news: industrialised countries’ print sales by volume are stable or steadily declining. Causing concern: the EU is promoting Open Educational Resources, but without knowing whether this is sustainable.
 
“We need to tell our own story better,” José says. He believes the public and policy makers don‘t see publishing as a digital industry, but as a leftover 19th century business limping behind.One proactive move by the IPA is strengthening their Educational Publishers Forum and extending this in Asia-Pacific areas.
 
“The public don‘t see our passion and expertise. They don‘t see what they will be missing if their government policies don‘t contribute to a flourishing local publishing industry.
 
“Copyright is not outmoded in a digital world.”