HarperStudio RIP

Scribd have posted an internal letter to all staff of their innovative HarperStudio stating its closure.

Harper Studio’s mantra was that it was ‘committed to partnering with authors to publish books in a way that is effective, creative, and sustainable. We believe books are a vital part of our culture. We believe traditional publishing models are broken and are experimenting with new ones. We believe in embracing technology. We believe the future is now.’

HarperStudio was set up as the alternative way forward; with low author advances and high profit splits, high publisher branding and an ‘open’ online presence. Just 2 years in it is has been somewhat quietly closed.

Did HarperCollins give its imprint enough time what did they define as the measurement of success? Did stat up and corporate cultures clash as they often do when the new doesn’t align to the old. We remember a similair case in our own past when the accountants simply saw ‘one goose’ and where incapable of accounting for the golden egg. Maybe experiments should be done quietly without the fanfare and proof of concept achieved before the world is told and the marketing hype started.

It begs the obvious questions about ‘effective, creative and sustainable’ and also about experimenting from within the traditional environment. However we wait to hear what lessons were learnt and what went wrong.

The read to Scribd letter, HarperStudio to Close

Publishing Isn’t One Digital Industry

The one thing that is certain about publishing tomorrow is that it will be different to today. Many will see digital as just another book, or the same book in a digital jacket. Others will see digital as a marketing opportunity to get digital out, not last, but first. After all if digital pricing is going to be cheaper then why not use it as the leader and not automatically presume it has to be at the end? Others will see that trying to squeeze something that was designed for the printed page onto a screen doesn’t always work and giving it the same constraints could be viewed a madness.

Digitisation is challenging and changing not only the way content is developed, packaged, the associated marketing and promotional material, the ways it is consumed but in some cases the content itself. Will the book merely change its jacket and be a digital clone of the physical content, or will the content itself change to fit the new potential digital opportunities often can depend on the sector and the use? We must remember that publishing in not one industry but several that were merely joined together by a common format – the book.

If we look at some specific genre we see different challenges and opportunities which will lead to potentially diverse digital road maps moving in different directions and at different speeds.

If we look at travel publishing - is the content; real time information or just current, expert guides or social recommends, multi media or book format, digitally consumed online or offline, interactive or static, detailed maps or GPS based or even hand drawn, social or expert advice and input, etc. It is clear that the user has a wealth of information now available with a click on the internet. This instant connectivity to information is longer tethered to a landline and is now available on the move. Look at iPhone apps like Urbanspoon, which with a shake of the phone, can not only identify where you are but identify all the restaurants near you, describe them and give you directions to them. Services such as Youtube have not only redefined videos but have made every tourist a potential travel cameraman and journalist. Travel recommendations and experience is longer restricted to the expert guide and can be a social experience.

Travel has always had strong publishing brands, often based on demographics, lifestyle and interests. It is easy to see travel as a vertical market opportunity which may be publishing brand centric but where the content is no longer confined to the publisher and the book is now clearly only part of the overall mix and revenue model.

If we look at the huge area that makes up learning we see many differences between the different levels and then there is vocational and distance learning. They all have their own requirements with respect to trainers, students, courses, measurement, institutions and even guardians. What is clear is that it has never been about the book but about learning the content can be supplemental, basal, assessment, teaching guides and notes and much more. Students need access to information and use it differently at different stages of learning. Students need to be pointed to material that is appropriate to their individual needs which may be different for that of the student sitting next to them.

Again educational publishers have built strong brands and a wealth of material but again learning is not confined to text, images, animation, video and the book is only part of the overall mix and revenue model.

You may think that the examples above lead all publishers to be vertical brand players or building vertical partnerships to exploit their content within a more focused but comprehensive offer. This may be so for some sectors but is not true for all and we must beware of false prophets and sweeping generalisations. Every publisher has always specialised in the content they produce but in a digital world it is the channel and the consumer that is changing and it is this that is now forcing all to redefine their market, channel and consumer demands, revenue model and how to connect the dots from creator to consumer.

Digital size Doesn't Matter

We read today in the FT that Arnaud Nourry, CEO of Hachette Livre, believes that publishers need to further consolidate if they are going to ensure that they have a viable business model with which to negotiate with the new deep pockets of the likes of Google, Amazon, Sony, Apple.

We sympathize with those big six publishers whose model is built on ‘size matters’ and leveraging the economies of scale and scope to grow market, revenues and of course profit. After all it’s what physical supply chain management is all about. But we question whether it is valid in a digital world or in one that supports both physical and digital. What many are discovering today is that rather than being big fish in a little pond, they are becoming little fish in an virtual ocean.

Can any publisher really impose a business model on the likes of Google? Can publisher size really stop Amazon in its tracks? Does Apple even understand the economics that underpin publishing today? The likes of Sony have already said openly that ebook prices must fall – after all they have to sell more devices and cheap product means volume and demand. These players have different drivers and models.

Book publishing is not one industry but several that have been joined together by a common format – the book. However, digitization starts to highlight the differences between these various sectors and although economies of scale and scope still exist within the larger publishers this value is now shifting upstream and the downstream business is becoming commodity and being taken out of their control.

The second interesting dynamic is that publishing has always been a many to many supply chain where the title may have a unique source. The need to comply or co-operate was often forced on it by the sheer diversity and volume of the numbers. We now see the aggregators in the physical world continuing to erode the unique sourcing of titles and in the digital and virtual world they start to come into their own. How have the big publishers responded – they have given their assets (files) to everyone of them, like scattering seeds to the wind. Beware, commodity of distribution often leads to commodity of pricing.

Publishing has always been a relatively low entry business with much of the higher costs outsourced in order to gain the economics of scale and scope. If anything the digital age, irrespective of the output rendition being physical or digital, the cost of entry is being lowered further and outsourcing becomes even more prevalent. Size in relation to new entrants is now not the issue, size in relation to competitors is now not the issue but the ability to develop, manage and license rights profitably is.