Suzanne Kavanagh is Director of Marketing and Membership Services at ALPSP (The Association of Learned & Society Publishers). She has worked in the publishing industry for over 15 years, holding senior sales and marketing positions at Routledge/T&F, Continuum Publishing Group, and most recently as Partnership Manager for Publishing at Creative Skillset. She holds an IDM Diploma in Direct Marketing and has worked as a consultant with a range of clients. She was also a visiting lecturer at City University on the MA in Publishing Studies.
In 2010, 28% of publishers reported skills gaps in their current workforce. Skillset brought together a panel of industry experts from publishing, TV, film and computer games at the London Book Fair to debate the issue and understand what can be learnt from other industries. Can we fill the skills gap and avoid a ‘Talent Time Bomb’?
While boxes around industries are dissolving as everything can be viewed through one device, publishers need to think clearly rather than just tinker with their own model. The traditional linear model of author-to-publisher-to-retailer-to-consumer no longer holds true. Agile project management, reflexive and responsive ways to develop projects and the ability to adapt to change are essential. The industry needs to learn how to build, develop and fail fast so it can learn and move on. We need to move quickly, but think deeply.
Ben Hammersley, Editor-at-Large of Wired UK is an engaging speaker, not afraid to tell the audience: “if you’re not producing content for all platforms – especially mobile – your business will die.” Straight to the point then. He also made a pertinent point (much to the relief of many in the room) that the old formats won’t die. Cinema didn’t kill theatre, the iPad won’t kill print. Each format is usually better in one way than the other.
