Print medium will continue to grow, will co-exist with digital publishing

CEOs from the world of publishing and communication held out the view that while digital publishing is a great opportunity, print will not perish. In fact, the print medium will continue to grow and both will co-exist. This was expressed at the programme CEOSpeak – Over Chairman’s Breakfast 2015, organised by the National Book Trust, India with FICCI. The CEOs who shared their perspectives and made industry presentations at the FICCI-NBT ‘CEOSpeak – over Chairman’s Breakfast’ included A Sethumadhavan, then chairman, National Book Trust, India; Virat Bhatia, president – IEA, South Asia, AT&T Communication Services India Pvt Ltd & Chair, FICCI Committee on Communication and Digital Economy; Ameet Datta, partner, Saikrishna & Associates; Kim Kum-pyoung, director, Korean Cultural Centre, New Delhi; Kathy Lal, CEO, National Arts Council, Singapore; Dr MA Sikandar, director, NBT, India; Rohit Kumar, advisor, Reed Elsevier Pvt Ltd; Karthika VK, chief editor, HarperCollins Publishers, India; and Bhanu Potta, advisor, World Reader.

The Indian publishing market is estimated between Rs 12,000 – 15,000 crore; India ranks 3rd in the world in English language publishing after USA and UK, the market is growing at 20 percent CAGR and over 1,00,000 titles are published suggested was implementation of the National Book Promotion Policy, which aims at promoting books to all segments of the society even in the remotest corners, creation of National IP Policy, a robust framework for protection of digital assets (DRM), creation/rejuvenation of libraries, grant “Industry Status” to the publishing sector, establish institutes to impart management & technical courses in publishing studies and leverage technology to reach out to readers in remote areas, while retaining the time tested strengths of publishing and distribution of books.

It was noted that the converged digital domain and Intellectual Property is characterised by passive online consumers becoming active ‘prosumers’(producerc on sumers ) driven by convergence; social media is driving new disruptive business models but it also raises complex questions in the context of IP protection.

It was also contemplated to bring Indian language publishers to mainstream publishing. Speakers expressed their concerns about the absence of even ISBN by some small Indian language publishers. The representatives from the Government said that they are working towards creation of a conducive policy framework for the publishing sector to flourish.

Over 130 CEOs from the publishing community participated at the programme.