IN COOPERATION WITH
Publishers’ Forumfrom editorial to market
Embrace the Future of Publishing –
Become Part of the Network
5 – 6 May 2014
www.publishers-forum.com
“‘Networked publishing’ is not publishing on the network, it is a network of ideas“, said Dan Pollock, Nature Publishing Group, UK, at the Publishers‘ Forum 2013. And Brian O‘Leary, Magellan Media Partners, USA, added in his blog in 2012: “So, the interesting thing about ‘networked publishing‘ is not just the fact that publishing is networked, but which networks are now dominant.“
However the term may be understood and applied to future business models, today there is very little doubt that ‘networked publishing‘ is the publishing of the future. This idea was born at the Publishers‘ Forum, developed over the course of several years and promoted within the publishing industry where it has had wide-reaching repercussions.
This step, which demands of publishers both a great deal of openness and huge change in mindset, would not have been possible if the Forum hadn‘t made stand-ardization an indisputable approach in the market in its first few years of existence – today: almost unchallenged, 10 years ago: revolutionary.
From the very beginning, the Forum aimed to be a step ahead of developments. To this end, open and free thought and discussion are necessary, because the simple truth is: before digitization can be a question of funding and investment, of technol-ogy and know-how, it is a challenge to publishers‘ creativity and business models.
Today, the Publishers‘ Forum is a conference which is known and respected well be-yond the borders of Germany, with a much-valued international network. Within the industry, it stands for the courage to develop new ideas, to dare innovative business processes, which may not initially have the desired result, but above all, for always challenging its own strategic approach: what has to be done today, to give my com-pany the competitive edge tomorrow?
The people behind the Forum are constantly working to expand and develop the conference‘s proven structure – the mixture of keynote speakers and workshops spanning two intensive days. The popular evening networking event remains a key element of the Forum.
We are pleased to be able to extend you an invitation for 2014. As in the previous year, arvato systems is involved as our co-operation partner. We invite you to play a part in the Forum with your ideas and suggestions – during preparations, at the event, or as a sponsor.
Yours
Helmut von Berg
Join Us in Shaping the Future – Take Part in the Publishers’ Forum 2014
Helmut von Berg, Director Klopotek, Head of the Publishers‘ Forum
Facts about
the Forum
Since the beginning of this
annual event in 2004, the
Forum has attracted 2,048
unique participants in total, and
many of them came again and
became regular participants of
this event.
834 professionals participat-
ing in the event worked for
publishers and 768 for service
providers.
More than 338 speakers gave
presentations; this number in-
cludes over 88 speakers from
other countries than Germany.
And interest in the event is
growing outside of Germany,
too; we welcomed 47 interna-
tional participants in 2013.
We expect to welcome 350+
participants in 2014.
2
When standardization was (still) seen from the point of view of the individuality of publishing products and digital book products were primarily viewed in terms of the provision of book pages in the PDF format, the production department was the cen-tral, governing factor in publishing workflows and processes. The (mind) shift from analog, physical processes to digital ones and the dissolution of ingrained business practices in an industry steeped in tradition is still not a simple step, but the result of discussions at the Publishers‘ Forum over the course of several years was that new technological possibilities not only allow for faster, more effective, more com-petitively priced production, but also for more freedom for the product, so that there is increasing room for experimentation in product design, that quality and techno-logical advances are not mutually exclusive, and that business performance can be improved substantially.
The annual, two-day Publishers‘ Forum has been attending the exciting changes in the publishing industry since 2004 – critical, innovative and sometimes provoca-tive, but always closely linked to publishers‘ real experiences and, at the same time, always one step ahead. Subjects such as e-workflow, publishing on demand, new price models and discussions over the provision of free, electronic content and the development of new payment models have been put to the test. Various approaches to and claims about semantic search, semantic XML have been considered and a new appreciation for the necessity of usefully structuring enormous quantities of data or related text to make it analyzable has formed.
The subject of e-books was important: the multiplicity of formats and the potential of a future-proof platform, the corresponding devices and the trade-off between proprietary models and open standards, and, above all, the chance to make content more open, more varied – “enhanced“ – than had previously been possible. Exchange formats and media neutrality to allow the reliable, versatile use of content across a wide variety of channels were among our topics, as well as the use of metadata and the necessity of making content – in units of whatever size – searchable and so useable and thus sellable amongst the overwhelming abundance of information available today.
Embrace the Future of Publishing – Become Part of the Network
A top industry event: Over 75% of the professionals participat-ing are decision-makers and CEOs who work for publishers or service providers.
In 2004, the percentage of decision-makers participating in the event was
This number has been grow-ing; in 2013 we welcomed as many executives as
39% 76%
We are implementing
an end-to-end digital
editorial/production
workflow for books,
which will be based on
XML. We no longer see
ourselves as a ‘print-
ing’ company but as a
‘digital’ company. We
no longer talk about
‘books’ but about ‘solu-
tions’.
Jan Visser, Director Electronic Production, Elsevier B.V., NL,
“Towards an Electronic Book Workflow“, 2008
Readers are changing
their habits – mobile
reading is taking off,
and it’s taking off fast.
But how do you price a
‘book’ sold as an ‘app’?
Cost-driven pricing does
not work anymore.
Andrew Savikas, VP of Digital Initiatives, O’Reilly Media, USA,
“Tools of Change”, 2009
What if customers no
longer wanted a finished
product, but rather just
a product file?
Astrid Funck, Free-lance journalist, among others for brand eins,
Germany, “3D Printers – Are we heading towards a
‘home factory‘?”, 2006
3
New processes are changing the existing rules: data is being offered via the Cloud for use at any time – what does this mean for security and ownership rights? Content is becoming available in various forms and configurations from different contexts – what does this mean for copyright, authors‘ rights, intellectual property and royalty calculation models? Publishers are becoming content providers, libraries are becom-ing publishers, booksellers are rethinking their business in the face of new distri-butions channels. Companies both large and small in this traditional industry are increasingly learning to collaborate comprehensively with their service providers and to restrict competition to that which endows their offering with a sustainable point of difference to others.
Put ideas to the test and learn about other people’s new ideas: don’t sit back
and wait while others are shaping the future of publishing – your future
The publishing and media industry has been fundamentally transformed in the last decade and will have to continue to change to get to the heart of the development – that content can no longer be developed, published and brought to market for a single use. Customers left receptive roles behind long ago. User-generated content, and the enrichment of information through networking, the online book as a social event, the dissemination of knowledge via social networks were major themes of the Publishers‘ Forum in 2010 and 2011.
In 2012, participants at the Publishers‘ Forum passionately discussed subjects that would have been unthinkable just a few years earlier:
Can content usage be successfully offered outside a ‘container‘ mindset?
Is the context in which content is used the extra, indispensable aspect when working on content, which consequently requires more attention and new, analytical abilities?
40
80
12
0 1
60 2
00
240
280
320
2004 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08 ‘09 ‘10 ‘11 2012 2013
Participants – total
Participants – Executives
350+ Participants
48 Hours
50+ Guest Speakers
Extraordinary VenueObscurity is a far greater
threat to publishers than
piracy. Without full and
complete metadata, and
without the capability
to output and feed that
metadata to the digital
supply chain, our titles
are destined to be lost in
the noise of the market.
Mark Majurey, Digital Development Director, Taylor & Francis Books, UK,
“Dealing with Ebook Metadata”, 2010
Every new medium
forces management to
jeopardize its existing
business model.
Or … If you don’t let
them take some of the
old pie, they’ll take all
of the new one.
Gregor Waller, Head of Strategy & Innovation / Controlling, Axel
Springer, Germany, “The Business Environment and Business Models
of the Digital Age – How Can Journal and Book Publishers
Learn from Each Other?”, 2010
Our lives are much
more collaborative
than before. Publishers
need to look at how we
live and work today:
collaboratively, in the
network. This cannot
be ignored.
David Worlock, Co-Chair Outsell Leadership Programs, Outsell, UK, “The Atomization of Everything“,
2013
4
Development of the number of
participants of the Publishers’ Forum
And wouldn‘t it be easier for the publishing world to take audacious steps – as media companies following international developments – if it understood itself impartially as an ‘industry‘ like any other?
As a result of its structure, the Publishers‘ Forum combines international experiences, strategic approaches and promising new procedures from publishing projects. This means that, for both the event organizers and the participants, these discussions are always guided by the thought: what do these ideas mean for my business, what can I change, where do these discussions give me new opportunities to improve the performance of my company?
From the production in print to the digital provision of content, from the idea of a physical product form to the disaggregation of content into completely new offer-ings and networks – the Publishers‘ Forum offers media representatives, academics, and service providers in the media industry ideas and contacts – and the certainty of being a step ahead of the pack every year.
Why are you sponsoring the Publishers’ Forum?
Sponsors of previous events
Service provision and
delivery can be out-
sourced, but not the
thinking about it.
David Sommer, Commercial Director MPS Technologies
(Macmillan BookStore), UK,“Be Successful – Control
Your Digital Future“, 2008
We can no longer sell
content alone, we now
compete on context
and must think of con-
tainers as an option and
not the starting point.
[…] Context is impor-
tant because of content
abundance.
Brian O’Leary, Principal, Magellan Media Partners, USA,“Context First revisited”, 2012
Moving texts from page
to screen allows the so-
cial components of both
reading and writing to
come forward and to
multiply in value.
Bob Stein, Founder & Co-Director, The Future of The Book, USA,
“For Our Grandchildren, Reading Will Be a Social Activity, Something
One Does with Others”, 2011
Optimize your pres-
ence in all of the places
where the customer is.
People will not come to
you. You need to fish
where the fish are.
Fionnuala Duggan, Director Random House Group Digital, UK,
“Web 2.0 and the Digital Marketing Mix“, 2008
NetworkingOpportunities
Presentations and Workshops in English and German
content in context
“The changes in the industry affect every area of the company.
The most important currents and trends are included at the
Publishers’ Forum, where they are discussed by top experts.
This is naturally very interesting and relevant to us and our
customers. That’s why it’s important for us to be involved at
the Publishers’ Forum and we’re looking forward to it…”
Olaf Flöthmann, Head for Trade, Special Interest,
Academic and STM Publishers, arvato Systems 2013
“The Publishers‘ Forum is a fixture on the calendars of those in
the industry who concern themselves with new technologies and
innovative trends in digitization and workflow optimization. It has
blossomed into an international event where decision-makers and
industry experts meet for intensive dialog and to exchange ideas.
At hgv, we have actively supported the Publishers’ Forum for years
because we believe that this is exactly the kind of platform re-
quired in an era of ever faster technological development and the
increasing significance of digital products and business models. It
is important, inspiring and fascinating at the same time – both for
our customers and ourselves.”
Ludger Wicher, Managing Director, hgv, 2013
5
GER EN
David Worlock, Co-Chair Outsell Leadership Programs, has extensive information industry experience. A respected thought leader, he frequently speaks at interna-
tional industry events and advises clients worldwide.
Spring in the Ku’dammIn his blog, David shared his thoughts about the Publishers Forum 2013:
... And from these sessions it is now clear where we are headed. This Spring is defini-tive in ways that other Springs have not quite been. In every previous year you could be sure, here in thoughtful, conservative Germany, that someone would say that we were jumping the gun, that format would survive fragmentation, that the “book would never die”. No such voices this week. In an audience that loves books and lives by them, I felt an absolute certainty that while “book as comforting metaphor” would survive, my friends and colleagues in the body of the hall knew that they had entered the Age of Data. We described network publishing as allusive, particulate, and above all, linked. We talked about workflow: our customer’s workflow as well as our own. This was the age of Metadata as well as the Age of Data. Speaker after speaker spoke of the potential to release new value from content as data, and the need for systems and services to support that monetization potential.
And the feedback loop was everywhere in evidence. The user and the networked power of users has completely shifted the balance from the editorial selectivity of gatekeeper producers to the individualized requirements of users. We once Pushed where now the increasingly Pull. But loyalty was not sacrificed on the way: if you provide solutions that fit user needs exactly then you can experience what Jan Reicert of Mendeley described in a private session as “amazing user love”. On the main agenda, Brian O’Leary spoke, with his usual lucid intelligence, on the disaggrega-tion of supply, and amongst publishers Dan Pollock (formerly Nature, now Jordans) effectively defined the network publishing challenge, (replete like the auto industry with lack of standards) while Fionnuala Duggan of Coursesmart tracked the way in which the textbook in digital form becomes a change agent in conservative teaching societies while enabling the development of new learning tools. Kim Sienkiewicz of IIl demonstrated the semantic web at work in educational metadata. And Christian Dirschl of Wolters Kluwer Germany updated us on the continued development of the Jurion project, a landmark in semantic web publishing for lawyers.
Alongside the publishers stood the Enablers. Publishing seldom realises the value that it gets from its suppliers. Indeed, one of my current mantras is that the importance of software in the industry is now so great that few content players are not also soft-ware developers, and that the relationships they enter into with third parties are of-ten no longer supplier agreements, but really partnership and often strategic alliance agreements, and need to be recognized as such. They not only add value, but they materially affect the valuation of the content players themselves. It is no accident that it was Uli Klopotek who opened this event for his company, and it was gratify-ing to see on the platform a range of services that are symptomatic of the re-birth described here. Hugh McGuire from Pressbooks in Canada exemplifies that enable-ment, as does Martin Kaltenboeck of Austria’s Semantic Web Company. Jack Freivald of Information Builders, Adam DuVander of Progammable Web, and Anna Lewis and Oliver Brooks of ValoBox were each able to demonstrate further value additionality through an elaboration of networked publishing. The result was a rich gulaschsuppe of networked expedients (far more nutritional than the prevalent currywurst of this city!).
Full article: http://www.davidworlock.com/2013/04/spring-in-the-kudamm/
My slideset is available under downloads on www.davidworlock.com and on the conference site at www.publishers-forum.com you will find slides, summaries, images, videos and references (including a very interesting tweetstream at #publishersforum) as these meetings get increasingly blanket-docu-mented with linked description, comment and commentary. Data, in fact. An audience of 350 people at work with speakers, organizers, and media to discuss and share. Collaboration. And that was the theme of the meeting – Collaboration in the Age of Data adds up to Networked Publishing.
6
David Worlock
Developed by Helmut
von Berg and his col-
leagues at Klopotek,
this conference has
now clearly emerged
as one of the leading
places in Europe to
talk about the future
of what we are increas-
ingly calling ‘networked
publishing’.
David Worlock, Co-Chair Outsell Leadership Programs, Outsell,UK,
2013
7
What you’ll get
if you participate:
High-level presentations in English
and German
Targeted workshops in small groups
Events for Executives
DEBATE!
New concepts and ‘ideas that work’
Networking opportunities
Conference dinner
An extraordinary venue
Conference companion (brochure)
Blog (posts, comments, videos,
presentations, press)
Twitter: #publishersforum
The Forum organizer Helmut von Berg is constantly working on improving the quality and diversity of the conference. In 2013 he introduced a new format, DEBATE!, of which the key element is a very lively and focused panel discussion following a short presenta-tion. (Pictured here: Christian Dirschl, Brian O’Leary and David Worlock)
The conference always provides by-invitation-only sessions targeted at executives and decision-makers. In 2014, the Forum will feature the CEO Day for the first time.
Open your mind: the Forum always takes place at an extraordi-nary venue to leave every day life behind.
The Publishers’ Forum offers ex-cellent networking and sponsor-ing opportunities during breaks.
www.publishers-forum.com
During the Forum, Helmut von Berg delivers opening and closing remarks and acts as a moderator. Regular participants in the event know that one of his key messages is that “continuing doing business as you’re doing it today is just as dangerous as trying to do business the way it was done yesterday. – We should address the challenges imposed by digitization by be-ing more creative.”
The number of participants has constantly been grow-ing: in 2014 Helmut von Berg expects to welcome 350+ publishing profes-sionals.
A much-appreciated and loved tradition: The conference dinner always takes place on the evening of Day One at a different venue to give participants the opportunity to spend time together in a relaxing environment.
8
The Publishers‘ Forum is prepared for next year and the years to come. Our experiences in 2013, when a fully parallel
German and English program was offered for the first time following the international keynote presentations, have
resulted in further improvements to the conference.
CEO Day is coming in 2014CEOs don‘t have a great deal of time and want to cut to the chase. The Publishers‘ Forum 2014 accommodates this
desire by introducing CEO Day. The first day‘s agenda is dedicated to items at CEO level, meaning CEOs no longer
need to squeeze two days in their busy schedules.
Both Brandenburg Gate Summits take place in German and English on CEO Day. Participants in these invitation-only
events will hear an introductory statement and engage in personal discussion with senior executives and innovators
from market-leading national and international companies.
The Executive Lounges take place on Tuesday, likewise in German and English. Scheduling both executive offerings
on both days each in German and English proved difficult to coordinate. As a consequence of this change, we believe
we can enable a greater number of participants on each of the respective levels to engage in more productive high-
level discourse.
2014 will focus on more comprehensive, even more valuable keynote presentationsWe have decided to reduce the number of the international keynotes to two while increasing their duration to 45
minutes in order to give them even more weight. The valuable messages from the keynotes will be further enhanced
and explored as a result of the intended link to the executive offerings.
2014 – more thematic focusIn 2014, in order to assist participants in orienting themselves within both programs, associated presentations will be
grouped according to their thematic focus and labeled appropriately in the program.
In addition, more ‘descriptive‘ titles for the presentations and workshops will enable the participants to identify
areas of interest more easily.
2014 – combined closing remarksThe closing remarks of the German and English programs are of interest to all participants, for this reason the Pub-
lishers‘ Forum 2014 will reunite these threads at the end of the event so that all participants can be together when
the conference is summarized and conclusions are drawn.
Contact
Klopotek & Partner GmbH
Schlueterstrasse 39
10629 Berlin
Helmut von Berg
Director Klopotek & Partner GmbH
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +49 (0)89. 544 259 - 0
Fax: +49 (0)30. 884 53 - 100
Be part of the Publishers‘ Forum 2014!In 2014, companies that would like to play an (inter)active role in the two-day
conference have greater scope to do so. You can get involved by participat-
ing in designing the program – from partnership to executive offerings – or by
contributing to the discussion around strategy and content as a main sponsor, by
introducing your range of services in your own setting or in a Round Table Ses-sion, or by flying your flag as a logo sponsor.
Please contact Helmut von Berg directly to arrange a meeting.
The Publishers‘ Forum 2014 – Aspiring to More and Delivering More
5 – 6 May 2014
www.publishers-forum.com