Report 2013 - Kelly Fagan HERE - Australian Publishers Association

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The Australian Media Space In the media sphere, magazines were closing – and not just niche publications. Mainstream women’s magazines, such as Grazia and Madison, regularly featured books and authors across their pages. Those that were left, on the most part, had less space for books (especially reviews). Vogue magazine, in particular, had previously employed a freelance literary editor and ran a dedicated books column and featured several book reviews ceased to do so, instead choosing to feature ‘beautiful books on an ad-hoc basis’. 5 Newspapers too either reduced or combined their coverage of books. The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph have stopped employing a books editor altogether as did The Canberra Times instead electing to publish reviews commissioned elsewhere in their respective groups. The Sydney Morning Herald literary editor, Susan Wyndham, took over managing pages for the weekday, Saturday and Sunday editions of the paper. Previously there had always been a Deputy Literary Editor who would manage the Sun Herald pages. A piece on ‘structural challenges in newspaper publishing and their consequences for the book industry’ written by Matthew Ricketson and Sybill Nolan for the Sydney Review of Books reports that the pagination of the book section in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald was almost halved in 2012 to six or seven pages only. The report also highlights the negative impact that this reduction in books coverage in the Australian press has had on authors, on publishers and on ‘the national cultural conversation’. 6 Wyndham is blunt about the challenges ahead for publishers when it comes to newspaper coverage for books. ‘Around 50% of reviews in my pages now come from The Age’ she says. ‘And I cannot see there ever being an increase in print space for books again’. 7 Interestingly, Wyndham also mentions that a recent Sydney Morning Herald readership survey revealed that book reviews and features were the second most read pieces in the Spectrum section after film. Wyndham’s book column “Undercover’ has finally been published online, as well as in the Saturday print edition of the paper. Online media and blogs are, of course, on the rise in Australia too. The Hoopla and Mamamia go some way to filling the void left by women’s magazines but we have yet to see online or social media really make or break a book in the same way that newspapers and magazines used to. When it comes to social media, Australians are both early adopters and heavy users. In August this year, Facebook released the following Australian user metrics: ▪▪ 12 million monthly active users (desktop and mobile) ▪▪ 9 million total daily active users (desktop and mobile) ▪▪ 9.8 million mobile monthly active users (mobile only) ▪▪ 7.3 million mobile daily active users (mobile). These figures confirm Facebook as the biggest social media site in Australia. 8 Facebook is used in publishing in Australia both as an advertising medium and as a way for publishers and authors to converse easily and inexpensively with readers – but to what effect 5 Face-to-face interview with former freelance Vogue Books Editor, Jeanne Ryckmans, 20 May, 2013 6 http://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/parallel-fates-2/ 7 Face-to-face interview with Susan Wyndham, Literary Editor Sydney Morning Herald 11 November, 2013 8 http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/facebook-checked-by-9-million-australians-every-day-20130820-2s7wo.html#ixzz2lZHjxnkA Author: Kelly Fagan 6
An Australian book consumer benchmarking study conducted by Thorpe Bowker in October 2012 reveals: ▪▪ one-in-six book buyers say they discover books via general social media sites, over 80% use social media sites at all, rising to over 90% among book buyers under 25. ▪▪ Two thirds of book buyers use Facebook, and one-in-seven use Twitter, with 60% using either of these at least weekly. However, more book buyers use YouTube (35%), GumTree (23%) or GooglePlus (20%) than Twitter. ▪▪ Use of Facebook rises to over 70% of female book buyers, 18–24 year olds and those using an e-reader for their e-books, while the use of Twitter and YouTube is higher among male than female book buyers, and those reading e-books on a tablet as opposed to an e-reader. 9 Marketing and Publicity Department Structures (Australia) The initial catalyst for my fellowship application was primarily a selfish one: I was ‘marcommed’. In late 2012, HarperCollins Australia announced a restructure in its marketing and publicity departments. At the time, CEO James Kellow said that HarperCollins had decided to merge its publicity and marketing divisions under the title of marketing communications as ‘the distinction between traditional publicity and marketing has disappeared, and both teams are now engaged in one mission’. He said the brief for the marketing communications team ‘will be to ensure that we are speaking to our readers, whether directly, through traditional media, new media, electronically or in print, with one consistent and trusted voice’. 11 The announcement was cause for much discussion. What did this actually mean In house, those in ‘publicity’ wondered if they would soon be planning poster campaigns. Those in ‘marketing’ were suddenly pale faced at the thought of accompanying an author on tour or cold calling journalists to try and drum up promotion. Across the Australian trade, big players including Random House, Pan Macmillan and Hachette all announced similar restructures to their marketing and publicity teams. Hardie Grant Egmont managing director, Natasha Besliev, went as far as to say that ‘the “traditional” publicity function will not be a focus of our marketing strategies’ when announcing her company’s restructure. 12 Not so at Allen & Unwin where separate marketing and publicity teams still exist. Publicity Director, Andy Palmer, says that ‘it is true that we work very closely with our marketing department, but the nature of Allen & Unwin’s list is such that our authors benefit very much from a dedicated publicity team’. 13 At Simon & Schuster, the structure has always been to employ combined marketing and publicity managers. The team is small and the nature of their list makes it possible for personnel to work across the entire promotional process from sell-in to sell through. Some (but not all) of these restructures led to high-profile redundancies and resulted in people with decades of experience, expertise and contacts leaving publishers and, in a few cases, leaving the industry altogether. The retail and media data presented above certainly supports a case for change. It has become abundantly clear that publishers need to communicate directly with readers. But what is the makeup of the new ‘MarComms’ department Is it as simple as teams working closer together 9 Source: Thorpe Bowker Australian Book Consumer in 2012 for Subscribers (supplied with the cooperation of Jo Henry) 10 http://www.idealog.com/blog/book-marketers-need-rethink-three-things-time-timing-budgeting/ 11 http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/DetailPage.aspxtype=item&id=24941 12 http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/DetailPage.aspxtype=item&id=27519 13 Face-to-face interview with Andy Palmer, Publicity Director, Allen&Unwin, 18 April, 2013 Author: Kelly Fagan 7
Page 1 and 2: A Very Long Engagement: how the new
Page 3 and 4: Overview With book marketing, every
Page 5 and 6: Key Findings 1. Differences/similar
Page 7: The Australian Retail Space In Aust
Page 11 and 12: The UK Retail Space When I approach
Page 13 and 14: The UK Media Space (cont.) As in Au
Page 15 and 16: Marketing and Publicity Department
Page 17 and 18: The Evolution of Marketing and Publ
Page 23 and 24: What Does it Mean to Connect Direct
Page 25 and 26: What Does it Mean to Connect Direct
Page 27 and 28: Cross Industry Collaboration In thi
Page 29 and 30: Conclusion jThis report led me down

Report 2013 - Kelly Fagan HERE - Australian Publishers Association

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