One would expect customer satisfaction levels with outsourcing providers to be proportional to the years spent in outsourcing. However, our findings from a recent survey of publishing industry segments – STM/Academic and Educational publishing threw some of these assumptions off the mark. It is surprising to note that publishers from the STM/Academic segment indicate such low levels of satisfaction with outsourcing despite being pioneers in outsourcing and offshoring.
For paper manufactures like Norske Skog, AbitibiBowater and Stora Enso the past few months have been critical. The newspaper industry, one of their largest market, has been witnessing significant upheavals in operations. Newspaper publishers are in the midst of many challenges, and the rise in cost of print is just going to trouble them more. According to RISI (a consultancy firm for paper and pulp products), global rates has increased by 25%. This has led to many publishers in growing markets shelving launch/expansions and those in developed markets feeling an additional pinch.
The e-book market is still hazy at best, and the influx of e-book readers is not helping publishers and readers. To get a better sense of how many e-book readers are out there, I did a Google News search. There are close to 1500 articles from the start of this year – an indicator of the flurry of activity that the device space has seen. (In all fairness, a significant proportion of them might be from Apple and the iPad). I am amazed at how many e-book readers are already out there or are due for launch. Many gadget companies have already started looking at this space and are accordingly launching their products. I have listed a few of the e-book readers that I have come across. (Do let me know if I missed any)
Publishers lament the lack of skills when it comes to offshoring complex copy-editing to India. Some complain that even simpler, less complex copy-editing jobs are difficult to procure at the same level of proficiency that a US/UK-based counterpart can achieve. Service providers admit to the huge challenge of finding the right guy for the job, and more importantly keeping him there. The talent gap is evident… solutions are elusive! Apart from intensive on-the-job training provided by most service providers, other steps have been tried and proved useful, some of which include:
The newspaper and magazine segments are the largest contributors in revenues to the global publishing industry – contributing close to 52% of global publishing revenues. It would therefore be safe to assume that of all the challenges faced by the industry, none would be as altering (in terms of revenues) as the challenges faced by these two segments. The newspaper and magazine segments have already lost considerable revenues on account of dip in ad revenues. This is directly attributable to the global economic slowdown, which has led to decrease in consumer and corporate spending.
With the publishing industry facing cost pressures, change in consumption patterns and struggling to sustain its revenues, it only seemed logical that the industry as a whole would outsource more. To truly understand how the industry value chain perceived outsourcing, we at ValueNotes Sourcing Practice decided to conduct a publishing survey.
The newspaper and magazine segments are the largest contributors in revenues to the global publishing industry – contributing close to 52% of global publishing revenues. It would therefore be safe to assume that of all the challenges faced by the industry, none would be as altering (in terms of revenues) as the challenges faced by these two segments. The newspaper and magazine segments have already lost considerable revenues on account of dip in ad revenues. This is directly attributable to the global economic slowdown, which has led to decrease in consumer and corporate spending.
In one of my previous posts, I had written about therise of Google in the ebook market and its implications. But are ebooks as important an offering as the publishing industry is making out to be? Will ebooks be a one fit solution for publishers? Can a publisher ultimately sustain on revenues from ebooks?
Margin pressures are a sign of maturity (and commoditization) in any services industry. Publishing outsourcing is no different. Low entry barriers have kept the wannabes pouring in, relentlessly setting up shop, offering ridiculously low prices … to a point where it won’t work any further. However, that hasn’t stopped any more wannabes from joining the game.
The publishing industry has been undergoing a transition. Starting with increasing costs of production and print, the industry is struggling to address the increasing demand of digital content as opposed to print. In the midst of this transition, the global economic slowdown prompted lesser spending by consumers and corporate spenders. Over the past few months, we have seen publishers try a variety of approaches – going digital, reducing print publishing, and cutting costs.
