Publishers rightly tend to stick to what they good at when
it comes to genre and content. The public may not always recognise the
Publishing brand and only recognise the author, but focusing on the genre and
building authoritative collections is critical to publishing today. Some
mistook this focus as being what book sellers should also do, but forgot that book
consumers were eclectic in their buying habits and wanted both value and ‘one
stop’ shops.
Earlier this year, Wiley sold its Fromer’s travel guide to
Google and had declared its intent to dispose of its remaining trade and reference
division. Today they concluded that sale to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH). The
sale includes Wiley’s cookbooks, dictionaries and study guides. This continues
the new approach within HMH to trade and consolidates material under their Betty
Crocker, Better Homes and Gardens and How to Cook Everything brands. We are all
aware of the cookbook celebrity brands and success of the likes of Jamie Oliver
in the UK and Betty Croker in the US. Cookbooks appear to be holding their own
in print and despite the significant growth in cookery applications and
websites, account for some 2% of book sales in the US market. HMH now also add Webster’s
New World Dictionary to it’s CliffsNotes and educational publishing, test
preparation and assessment services.
Growing vertical publishing operations is not new and is
publishing. As further publisher consolidation takes place, what we once saw a
one industry joined together by a single format - the book is starting to
diverge and consolidate into stronger vertical operations. The digital marketplace
now allows these focused content repositories to be exploited in ways that were
somewhat restricted by the book and the economics of the physical market. Consolidation
of ‘book’ content will continue for those wanting a one stop shop and book
buying value, but new markets will now evolve for the digital content and
context which will be outside of the book market as we know it today. Packaging
and licencing rights into new offers will become increasingly important as the
content itself starts to become more fluid. We must always remember that Steve
Jobs in creating iTunes sold tracks not albums, George Martin said the album
was the menu and the concert the meal and that individual recipe could be proportionately
more valuable than the collection.
Should publishers become the genre point of focus? Can
author brands co-operate to form compelling points of consumer focus, or will
they always be reliant of third parties to aggregate them? Who are the genre consolidators
that the consumer recognises and how can they cash in on their ‘first point of
contact’ opportunity?
Yesterday, books were not stocked by retailers whose primary
goal was to sell other stuff, but as
retail itself migrates increasingly online, then adding associated digital
content that enhances the proposition and authority of the sale, becomes a
potentially no risk, small cost added consumer value and lock-in. Being able to
licence that digital content in chunks, collections and many renditions may be
the key to many publishers moving forward.
It’s all about content and rights.
