OUR MIDSIZE PUBLISHER MEMBERS
How successful are the midsized members of the Independent Book Publishers Association? Close to half have annual revenues in excess of $1 million, and the group as a whole continues to build thriving businesses.
These experienced publishers—who support our association with membership dollars, teach at Publishing University, and generously offer time to mentor people new to the industry—have their own needs. This is particularly true in the areas of education and marketing, and our association is now taking steps to ensure that we provide what’s needed.
Educational programming for our midsized publishers has been sporadic over the years, but a more concerted effort began in 2005 with the first PMA Graduate School—a one-day program of educational seminars led by past PMA president Don Tubesing and featuring industry experts on a variety of topics. Only midsized publishers could attend; the attendee group was limited to 30 to 35, and there was plenty of time for networking. Response from attendees was enthusiastic, as it was again for last year’s Graduate School.
FACTS ABOUT OUR MIDSIZE PUBLISHER MEMBERS
To plan the Graduate School program for 2008, the responsible board committee decided that it was time to find out more about midsized publishers and the kinds of educational programming that would be most useful to them and their companies. Accordingly, the board of directors commissioned a survey. Conducted by Robin Bartlett, educational chair of Publishing University, it relied on a combination of personal phone calls and responses submitted electronically.
From the nearly 100 respondents, we learned:
- The average number of employees at members’ midsized publishing companies is 12.5.
- The average number of years in business is 27.4.
- The average number of titles in print is 211.
- 13.3 percent of the respondents have annual revenue of less than $100K.
- 25.3 percent have annual revenue of $100K – $500K.
- 14.7 percent have annual revenue of $500K – $1 million.
- 40 percent have annual revenue of $1 million – $5 million.
- 6.7 percent have annual revenue of $5 million and up.
Asked about interest in a one-day educational program custom-tailored for the larger publisher and to be held the day before BEA 2008, almost 100 percent of the respondents said YES!
BUT…Midsize publishers wanted:
- programming far more advanced than the Publishing University classes
- even more opportunities for networking with other publishers facing similar challenges
- high-level experts providing useful tools for doing business better and smarter
- lots of advice about using the Internet
Web marketing, digital rights management, social media—the survey revealed a paramount yearning for tools and opportunities to fuel success in an industry where content seems to be moving from paper to pixels at a dizzying pace.
We listened and now present the 2008 PMA Graduate School!