Research, consultation, planning, communications

On 23 May 2002 the Rt. Hon. Helen Clark announced that the government was to make an extra $1 million per annum available to support authors and literature in New Zealand.  The mandate of the working party set up to consider the allocation of these funds included possible initiatives to extend the market for New Zealand literature nationally and internationally.  


This research was commissioned by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH) to assist in the process of strategy development by:

  1. Bulletconducting a census survey of relevant book publishers;

  2. Bulletestablishing a baseline of New Zealand industry data relating to book publishing;

  3. Bulletproviding quantitative information to determine the current level of activity in overseas markets; and

  4. Bulletproviding qualitative information to identify current export strategies, international sales aspirations and                                     perceived impediments to export growth.


The first phase of this study involved a postal survey of firms identified in various sources as publishers.  This proved to be a considerably larger task than was expected.  Whereas the contract had anticipated that there might be about 200 publishers, the extensive search process identified over 1000 candidates.  This was eventually reduced to a survey population of 645 as non-publishers and others were eliminated.


The first survey provided a range of data on the book publishing industry and was also used as a sampling frame for a second postal survey which collected financial and market information.  Both surveys were well supported by the industry (with some notable exceptions) with response rates of 63% and 72% respectively. The final stage of the project involved a series of face-to-face interviews to cover the qualitative aspects of the brief.


On the basis of these surveys it is estimated that the turnover of the book publishing industry in 2002 was $204 million, with $117 million of this (57%) generated by exports.  A striking feature of the results is that this revenue and the associated production of more than 3600 titles is concentrated in a relatively few firms.  The industry is dominated numerically by micro-businesses, with two thirds having either nil or one employee (many being just sole operators).  Almost three quarters of the firms together generate just 2% of the revenue.  Local arms of multinational publishers dominate amongst the larger operations.


The analysis of exporting strategies clearly identifies the importance of relationships in the markets and the various impediments that many New Zealand publishers face.  It also identifies potentially preferred paths to markets given the issues associated with various stages and operators in the publishing industry value chain.  Reference is also made to precedents from the UK and Canada of strategies they have adopted to assist their publishing industries.

While there are some structural and institutional issues (including those related to scale) which are particular to New Zealand, many of the issues which need to be addressed in proposed strategy are common to other peripheral producers.  One is simply the apparent limited understanding of marketing and distribution channels on the part of some publishers.  Many are apparently unfamiliar with how overseas markets operate (including how to collect revenue of books “sold”). 


In countries with much larger and robust industries, like the UK, efforts are made by industry organisations and government to ensure that publishers have access to necessary market information.  This, and other themes identified in Section 5 of this report would be useful building blocks in strategy development. 


Careful consideration should also be given to the parallels between the issues faced in the music industry and those with which the book publishing industry has to contend, particularly in terms of revenue collection (and notably for sellers of rights).  The publishing industry has a partial equivalent to the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) and the international network to which it is affiliated, in Copyright Licensing Ltd (CCL).  However CCL has affiliates in only a limited range of countries, and undertakes a much narrower range of functions than APRA and its affiliates.


A copy of the report can be obtained from the Downloads page.