Industry Statistics: Looking Behind the Numbers

It seems to me that our present trends-reporting model no longer completely describes the distribution realities for the book publishing industry. It is now a multimedia, multichannel industry in its own right. We are truly a media business.

BISG “Trends” has an opportunity to adapt its reporting to the need for metrics and trends data that reflect this new reality. If we really want to measure the health and promise of the industry, I would like to see “Trends” provide comparisons each year of both totals and changes in the numbers of bookstores, libraries, schools, colleges, discount stores, airport newsstands, etc., all of which measure the potential reach for the industry.

I would like to see sales reporting for independent distributors (such as Independent Publishers Group, National Book Network, Perseus, etc.) who carry considerable economic weight, in addition to the wholesaler/jobber category. And, of course, title and revenue growth in audio, CD, video, e-book and electronic publishing. And, metrics that would describe the new supply chain of digital asset distribution.

Our industry is changing rapidly, and some industry experts believe it may be unrecognizable in 10 to 15 years. The reporting systems that the industry relies on today need to be unbound, reshaped and allowed to report freely on the diversity of activity that is emerging in the publishing industry, and that will describe it in the future. BB

Eugene G. Schwartz is a regular contributor to Book Business. He is a publishing industry analyst, writer and editor-at-large for Foreword Magazine. A former PMA board member, he is president of Consortium House, a management and business consultancy to publishers. He previously was a manufacturing, production and operations executive.