Fairfax, Va.

No region in the world is safe from piracy. That's the conclusion of Patricia Judd, executive director of international copyright enforcement and trade policy at the Association of American Publishers (AAP) in Washington, D.C. "Piracy is a worldwide phenomenon," Judd says. The AAP estimates losses to its members of more than $600 million a year in about 67 markets across the globe. As more book publishers explore their offshore book manufacturing options, foreign book manufacturers are boosting efforts to lure American publishers. It's all in the name of lowering costs. But does this offshore manufacturing activity put publishers at an increased risk of

Offshoring has taken on new meaning in recent years. The Web, electronic file transfer, advancements in foreign technology and faster, better ways to communicate globally have all stirred the waters of opportunity for tapping the American marketplace from overseas. A global marketplace has swelled beyond what many expected. For some, this means greater opportunity, savings and growth. For others, it means the promise of more jobless Americans, more abandoned factories, more unfair labor competition. For many book publishers, specifically, it means more options for manufacturing books cost-effectively. It means new options for digital content creation, design and editorial. It means increased profitability, growth

Move XML to the front-end of workflows, and your publishing organization will reap the maximum benefit when producing, re-purposing or managing content. Organizations are struggling to produce and repurpose increasing volumes of content. Many use XML to deliver content in an expanding variety of formats required for Internet, Web, wireless and other media. A surprising few are employing XML early enough in the production process to reap the full benefits of this powerful technology. Only 5% to 10% of book publishers, for example, use front-end XML workflows today. That means the majority of publishers using XML do so only on the back-end of their production processes. Their

"Why XML?" is the key to two panel presentations planned by TechBooks' CTO Gurvinder Batra who will moderate the North American Publishing Company's panel on Digital Workflow at 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 11 at BookTech 2002in New York. Later in the same day (3 p.m.-4 p.m.), he will participate on a panel about XML as a publishing standard and the key to the industry's future.   A sought after speaker and commentator on publishing technology, Batra says that almost half of all TechBooks' customers are using an XML process to generate new revenue channels and reduce publishing costs.   XML processes speed production and improve accuracy, says Batra,

More Blogs