Publishing in the Knowledge Economy - DTI Home Page

Issues for competitiveness
Publishing in the knowledge economy
have seen territorial rights as a hangover from a
past era, and argued that in a world of globally
transmitted information, the idea of rights based
on geography is outmoded. Before immediately
accepting what is a superficially compelling
argument, it is worth looking at the issue from
the point of view of the author and agent. They
may well wish to maximise their return from the
licensing of the work by doing deals with
separate publishers that have expertise in
particular markets. They will be unable to do this
if US editions, which will tend to be cheaper on
the back of their very large home market, are
allowed equal access to all markets. The ending
of territorial rights could also lead to a further
concentration of ownership in the industry,
which could be damaging to the range of
products on offer and employment levels within
UK publishing. It must also be said that
currently the US does not offer a level playing
field for international media companies to invest
in US media and has been unwilling to
exchange the old area, criticised as a relic of
the empire, for a new one in Europe.
Large UK publishers have also taken steps to
ensure that they do not publish too late or too
expensively in the relevant markets, so there
has been a converging effect, achieved partly
by local production. This is less open to smaller
publishers who may need more help in this
regard, since their overall contribution to UK
book exports is substantial.
Copyright protection and piracy
In addition to the issues surrounding digital
copyright, dealt with in the section on digital
media below, there is also a serious threat of
piracy of physical material. This is particularly
an issue in the book and directory industries.
Newspapers and magazines, being more
ephemeral and not so internationally traded,
are less affected.
Publishers are constantly engaged in small
skirmishes with pirates. Lately there has been
encouraging progress in some Asian markets
with the co-operation of governments and police
forces, but in some cases, piracy has been
actively encouraged, or at the least condoned,
by foreign governments. Here, high-level
support from the UK government in the form
of pressure on the offending state is vital.
Action point
24 Government must keep up high-level pressure
on foreign governments to cease piracy and to
take action against copyright violators.
15.4 The skills to compete
A strong, well-qualified workforce is essential to
the publishing industry’s continuing ability to
compete. However, the very success of the
industry as a magnet for talented and highly
qualified young people may be masking some
underlying problems.
In the course of our interviews senior
executives rarely identified a lack of skills as
being a constraint on their businesses. This may
be in part a reflection of the downturn in the
high technology and telecommunications
sectors following the bursting of the Internet
bubble, which has eased the difficulty and cost
of hiring specialist technical staff. Nevertheless,
in interviews with middle managers, those
responsible for publishing divisions and those
managing e-commerce projects, it became clear
that there are core skills which need to be
developed and extended. This is supported by
the results of the Publishing NTO Foresight
survey below. Furthermore, the concentration of
much of the publishing industry in London is
leading to other issues of a more social and
quality of life nature.
Table 15.2 Skill requirements
New skills are needed to cope with the
introduction of new technology 80
New skills are needed in order to develop new
products/services 69
New skills are needed to cope with new working
practices 66
Skill needs have not changed 13
Base 523
Source Publishing NTO Skills Foresight, 2001 Base All employers
%
93