Program
Publishers Launch London: A Global Perspective on Digital Change
Tuesday, June 21, 9:00 to 5:00
Congress Centre, London
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9:00 Welcome, opening remarks, and introduction to the program
As publishing becomes an increasingly global business, the traditional paths to market and ways of monetizing content will inevitably evolve. With particular attention to the challenges and opportunities presented to the UK players in a developing global market, Michael Cader and Mike Shatzkin will share their vision for this conference and provide a framework within which publishers, agents, booksellers and others in the book business can develop ongoing strategies that address both the current marketplace and the changes ahead.
Michael Cader, Publishers Lunch and PublishersMarketplace.com
Mike Shatzkin, Founder and CEO, The Idea Logical Company
9:15 The Developing Global Digital Infrastructure
The sudden emergence of a real market for ebooks in the UK is bringing with it a host of powerful players that built their infrastructure (and their title base) in the US. They include six particular companies whose impact will be felt globally, but probably first in the UK — Amazon, Apple, Google, Kobo, Ingram, and Overdrive. By comparison, there is only one company from outside North America demonstrating the intent to be global: the ebook provider Mobcast, which works through phone companies to deliver ebooks to audiences already in place.
Michael Cader and Mike Shatzkin have been two of the leading chroniclers of the growth and development of this infrastructure in the US. Together with three British digital executives who already know these companies well — Sara Lloyd, George Walkley, and David Roth-Ey – they will discuss how British publishers can work with them.
Moderators: Michael Cader and Mike Shatzkin
Including: Sara Lloyd, Digital Director, Pan Macmillan; David Roth-Ey, Group Digital Director and Publisher, HarperCollins Publishers; George Walkley, Head of Digital, Hachette UK
9:50 An Emerging Opportunity: Selling into the US
The digital market in the US is further along than any other in the world, and it is a market that many UK and Irish publishers with world English rights – which tends to be the independent ones rather than those part of a global conglomerate — have yet to exploit. The same infrastructure that threatens to bring US and foreign-language titles to the UK market also presents an opportunity for UK publishers to sell their titles into the US. Selling to the US requires clearing rights, setting up channel relationships, and thinking about the US in marketing. This panel will feature publishers and an agent exploring this opportunity.
Moderator: Eoin Purcell, Founder and Principal, Green Lamp Media
Including: Charlie Campbell, Agent, Ed Victor Ltd.; Jean Harrington, Managing Director, Maverick House Publishers and President, Publishing Ireland; Helen Kogan, Managing Director, Kogan Page; François von Hurter, Founder, Bitter Lemon Press
[10:30 Morning networking break]
11:00 New Skill Sets: Capabilities publishers don’t have and how they’re developing them
The digital revolution is changing the skills a publisher needs to have in-house. And it is changing the way things get done in the creation, production, and marketing of our product.
A panel moderated by publishing recruiter Jo Howard, with Jacks Thomas of Midas PR and publishing executives who have come into publishing from outside the industry, will discuss what publishers must do to have the capabilities they need in the digital age.
Moderator: Jo Howard, Publishing Search Consultant, Mosaic Search & Selection
Including: Juan Lopez-Valcarcel, Director Digital Product & Consumer Technology, Pearson; Charlie Redmayne, EVP & Chief Digital Officer, HarperCollins Publishers; Jacks Thomas, CEO, Midas Public Relations
11:35 Information is Power: Recent facts, data and research
In the information age, we are constantly bombarded with data — sales reports, consumer studies, anecdotes. Michael Cader will present key research and reporting that you may have missed, and he will identify trends and gaps in the data.
Michael Cader, Publishers Lunch and PublishersMarketplace.com
11:45 Preparing for the Future: Changing the publishing infrastructure to meet new challenges
Three panelists with very different perspectives, priorities, and organizational objectives will discuss how book publishing will adapt to a world that is built on 50% or more digital revenue. We all know that digital change is happening quickly and that the time when more revenue will come to publishers from ebooks than print books is not far away. How publishers must adapt their organizations to prosper in this environment and to prepare for the further changes so much digital publishing is bound to engender is the topic of this discussion.
Moderator: Mark Bide, Executive Director, EDItEUR
Including: Sarah Faulder, CEO, Publishers Licensing Society (PLS); Rick Joyce, Chief Marketing Officer, Perseus Books Group; James Long, Editorial Director, Digital, Pan Macmillan
[12:30 Lunch]
1:30 A Message from the Publishers Association
Richard Mollet, Chief Executive, The Publishers Association
1:40 Territorial Rights and Open Markets: Present complications, future prospects
Ebook growth threatens to reopen the question of what territorial rights model can work in changing times. Richard Charkin of Bloomsbury, a dedicated advocate of global publishing; agent David Miller; and a yet-unnamed defender of the current territorial rights regime; will explore the future of territorial rights and how the realities of these negotiations will be affected as the proportion of a book’s sale becomes increasingly digital.
Moderator: Philip Jones, Deputy Editor of The Bookseller and Co-Founder of FutureBook
Including: Richard Charkin, Executive Director, Bloomsbury Publishing; David Miller, Director, Rogers, Coleridge and White Ltd.; Toby Mundy, CEO, Atlantic Books
2:20 Metadata: What you have to do and what you ought to do
As more and more of the book business is transacted online, the importance of metadata, the information about print or ebooks that lets computers talk to each other about what they are and what’s in them, becomes increasingly important.
The panel at Publishers Launch London will discuss both core metadata, the information that drives transactions, and enhanced metadata, which are marketing materials from catalog copy to author videos to reviews, the importance of each, and what publishers have to do to make sure they’re own data isn’t preventing them from selling all the books they can.
Moderator: Graham Bell, Chief Data Architect, EDItEUR
Including: Ruth Jones, Director of Publisher Business Development, Ingram Content Group; Karina Luke, Digital & Data Supply Chain Manager, Penguin Group (UK); Jon Windus, Product Development Director, Nielsen Book Services
[3:00 Afternoon networking break]
3:30 Innovation in Marketing and Business Practice
Changes to the way people purchase and consume content are necessarily changing the way publishers work. This panel of innovative publishers will share their experiences with new marketing strategies and new business models.
Moderator: Richard Mollet, Chief Executive, The Publishers Association
Including: Peter Cox, Managing Director, Redhammer; Dan Franklin, Digital Editor, Random House Group UK; Lee Harris, Editor, Angry Robot
4:10 Where are we now and where will be 12 months from now?
How much of sales is now electronic? How much do we expect that to grow in the next 12 months? How much of a hit does print take, and how much of that hits brick-and-mortar? Will big authors be self-publishing? Are big publishers going to learn how to be effective direct marketers? If publishers have to significantly cut their overheads (do they?), how will they do it?
Moderators: Michael Cader and Mike Shatzkin
Including: Jonny Geller, Agent, Curtis Brown; John Makinson, Chairman and Chief Executive, The Penguin Group; Stephen Page, Publisher and CEO, Faber and Faber Ltd; Rebecca Smart, Managing Director, Osprey Group
4:55 Closing Remarks
We are proud to be presenting Publishers Launch London: A Global Perspective on Digital Change in partnership with The Publishers Association:
The Publishers Association (PA) is the leading trade organisation serving book, journal, audio and electronic publishers in the UK.
The PA is actively represents the voice of publishing in contributing to digital legislation on a UK and Europe-wide basis, as well as leading industry debate around the digital future.
The PA’s mission is to strengthen the trading environment for UK publishers, by providing a strong voice for the industry in government, within society and with other stakeholders in the UK, in Europe and internationally; providing a forum for the exchange of non-competitive information between publishers; and providing support and guidance to the industry through technological and other changes.
With special thanks to these Participating Organizations:
