Publishing in the Knowledge Economy - DTI Home Page

Publishing in the knowledge economy
The industry today
11.4 Summary of definitional issues and data gaps
Publishing
Newspapers
Books
Journals
Definitional issues
Official data covers
books, newspapers,
journals and periodicals
and some ‘other’
publishing but not
databases, news
agencies, list rental,
exhibitions, etc. No
satisfactory definition yet
exists – key requirement.
For some purposes and
at an international (e.g.
EU and OECD) level,
publishing is still
amalgamated with
printing and even wood
pulp and paper making
Official data splits
newspapers on basis of
frequency of publication
into newspapers and
journals and periodicals;
unofficial data splits by
national and regional
No major definitional
problems – though it can
be difficult to weed out
self-publishers and single
book publishers, leading
to wide variations in
enterprise numbers.
E-books, fragmentation of
'the book' and Print on
Demand may in future
throw up quantitative
issues
Official data merges all
journals and periodicals
together. Global nature of
academic/STM business
means it's important to
distinguish UK revenues,
worldwide revenues of
UK based publishers etc.
New electronic products
and aggregators need to
be accommodated in
definitions
Number of enterprises
Official data agreed to be
an underestimate
Comparatively high
concentration makes
'universe' calculable for
survey purposes. Good
unofficial data
No agreed data – official
numbers c. 3000,
unofficial 30,000-40,000
Unofficial data on UK
based publishers, but
quite high range of
numbers
Turnover and net
revenues
No agreed total – official
underestimates
Both official and unofficial
data exists
Both official and unofficial
data exists; unofficial data
is improving
Unofficial annual survey
data; problems of nonresponse/
unrepresentativeness
Value added
No agreed total – official
underestimates
Official data exists since
1993 but with gaps
Official data exists since
1993
No separate data
Employment
Labour Force Survey
data likely to be closer to
reality as it is self-defined
by employee, but
freelancing an issue
Labour Force Survey
data covers whole
industry but very small
sample size makes for
high variability from year
to year
Labour Force Survey
data covers whole
industry but very small
sample size makes for
high variability from year
to year
No separate data
Exports
Need agreement on how
to represent globalised
nature of book publishing
quantitatively
Need agreement on how
to represent globalised
nature of journal
publishing quantitatively
Rights and licensing
income
Some data in the balance
of trade in services
No data
No data – very significant
gap
Some data
Investment
Capital spending data
exists but what is really
needed is a measure of
investment in intellectual
property
Capital spending data
exists but what is really
needed is a measure of
investment in intellectual
property
Capital spending data
exists but what is really
needed is a measure of
investment in intellectual
property
No separate dat
Entrepreneurship
Entry and exit rates in
Annual Respondents
Database but publishing
merged with printing
No data
No data
No data
Innovation
Publishing included with
printing and paper in
Community Innovation
Survey
Proxy: Number of new
titles data
Proxy: number of new
titles data
Proxy: number of new
journals launched
Environmental/
wastage indicators
No overall data
No aggregate data
Survey data on returns
and estimates of pulping
– not regular
No data
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