Publishing in the Knowledge Economy - DTI Home Page

Publishing in the knowledge economy
3 In our central predictions, we assume that the
growth of the UK economy, prices and other
important variables matches the forecasts
produced by the UK Treasury.
4. In all the charts with forecasts, we have built
and estimated the models underlying the main
forecasts. Where possible we compare our
forecasts to those produced by experts and
use their ‘high’ and ‘low’ figures to provide
brackets for our own estimates. In the
remaining cases, we have produced our own
‘high’ and ‘low’ forecasts.
Definitional Note
Throughout the report the terms ‘publisher’ and
‘publishing’ occur many times. In the sections in
Part 1 which analyse statistical indicators, these
terms are defined according to the sources
used and comments are made within the
sections on the specific definitions.
Elsewhere in the report, we intend the terms
to be understood as those businesses whose
primary activity is the acquisition, selection,
arrangement and manipulation of content for
sale and for the purposes of securing audiences
for advertisers. This content may or may not be
disseminated in a printed form and can include
all kinds of electronic and audio-visual formats,
and even events and training, though the study
specifically excludes companies whose primary
activity is in broadcasting. It also excludes
music publishers. We are well aware that all
kinds of companies are now engaged in
publishing, whether in print or on the Internet,
for example retailers, airlines, banks,
recruitment agencies and estate agents. There
are also Web-based intermediaries such as
Lastminute.com or FriendsReunited, which also
engage in content acquisition and manipulation,
and perhaps could be described as Internet
publishers, but we do not define them as such.
Their activities have important implications for
the publishing industry, which are explored in
this report, but in our view, they do not form part
of the industry sector under scrutiny here.
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