Association Publishing is Bigger than You Think.

Associations and member organizations support some of the most prolific publishing in academia and science. Ranking and estimating the size of this market is difficult because reporting can be inconsistent; however, in a recent research project undertaken by my team, we identified approximately 230 associations with publishing programs and/or education programs. These associations range in size from mega-organizations such as the Mayo Clinic, American Heart Association and American Chemical Society to organizations with less than $200,000 in revenue.

In total these organizations produce over $3.5 Billion in publishing, educational and training materials annually with the majority of this content supporting research and the mission of each organization. While publishing is an important component of most associations on this list (88% report publishing revenues) it is notable how the importance of publishing revenues to total association revenue varies. Of the large organizations with small publishing programs, it is interesting to contemplate whether they are underestimating a potential secondary source of funding particularly when many of these associations compare unfavorably with associations in the same field but with more significant publishing programs. We have built a full list (including key staff salaries and vendor payments) but here is the top 20:

Association	Year	Total Rev	Pub Rev
American Chemical Society	2019	$671,000,000	$560,000,000
Consumer Reports	2019	254,000,000	210,000,000
Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers Inc	2019	563,000,000	208,000,000
Massachusetts Medical Society (NEJM)	2019	135,000,000	104,000,000
American Psychological Association	2018	135,000,000	100,000,000
CFA Institute	2019	416,000,000	65,000,000
American Society For Testing And Materials	2019	100,000,000	64,000,000
American Society of Testing and Materials	2019	100,000,000	64,000,000
American Institute Of Physics	2019	83,000,000	63,161,000
American Medical Association	2018	332,000,000	60,000,000
American College of Cardiology	2018	115,000,000	51,000,000
American Physical Society	2018	67,000,000	45,000,000
American National Standards Institute	2019	81,000,000	39,000,000
American Association For The Advancement Of Science	2019	116,000,000	36,000,000
American Academy Of Pediatrics	2019	123,000,000	35,000,000
American Society for Clinical Oncology	2019	163,000,000	32,000,000
Public Library Of Science	2019	30,000,000	32,000,000
SAE International	2018	79,000,000	30,000,000
The Optical Society	2019	50,000,000	26,000,000

In our related research into publishing technology (for our annual report), interviewees noted a COVID related trend impacting associations showing how varied and broad-based their publishing programs can be. During COVID many associations had to communicate with their members in any way they could due to the absence of in-person meetings and conferences. Not only did this create new classes of content (for them) but it also established new processes around engagement. These processes are becoming embedded into how the organizations treat all content not just the ‘formally’ published research materials and education content and associations are seeking supporting tools and solutions. As an outcome of COVID, content types have grown to include webinars, podcasts, market research some of which may have been produced in the past but is now viewed more as an asset and less of a throw-away.

As we will note in our technology report, associations are likely to expand their publishing programs and will be seeking solutions to support that activity. Several software companies such as Silverchair have anticipated this trend and have solutions in the market already. We will see more activity in this space over the coming year.

Every Four (or five) Years This Happens

 The Olympics coverage is predominately bad. But this rant is good (Guardian):

From NBC proper to NBCSN, the USA channel, the Olympics channel, and the Golf channel, there has been no shortage of options for Olympics viewing on basic cable. But instead of sticking with single events throughout primetime – introducing them, highlighting the stakes and the protagonists, getting the viewer comfortable with the quirks of competition – NBC has deployed this vast arsenal of broadcast resources to spray America’s households with a kind of inescapable Olympic televisual vomit.

Viewers have been able to see everything at any given moment (provided you have the Peacock streaming service) while understanding fundamentally nothing about what’s going on. NBC has never met a night of swimming finals that didn’t need to be spliced up with bizarre human interest segments on Caeleb Dressel’s first ride through the Florida wetlands on an airboat, or a routine on the double bars that couldn’t be improved by a quick jump to an ad break and some random highlights of Denmark and Indonesia in the badminton. We all want to know who the athletes are, of course, if only at a superficial level; and since the whole Olympics is so overwhelming, with so much going on at once, some measure of discombobulation from the host broadcaster is always understandable. But when we switch on the Olympics, I think it’s fair to say that most of us want to witness elite athletes perform spectacular feats with their bodies, not hear a series of driving stories about how they handle their daily commute.

The Coming Revolution in Textbook Publishing

Gone is the textbook?  With big players Pearson and Cengage changing the textbook model are we finally witnessing an inflection point?

Last week Pearson, PLC launched a direct-to-student content app that give student subscribers access to Pearson’s entire 1500 textbook catalog. Cengage bravely launched something similar a few years ago and the strategy was seen almost as a hail Mary pass to save the company’s business model. As most will understand, the textbook sales model – particularly in undergraduate education – has been challenged for many years. In the eighties and nineties textbook companies consolidated and textbook prices started to increase which slowly eroded sell-through. At the same time, the secondhand market became more organized as retailers saw margin benefits in their efficient buy-back programs. Later, further dislocation occurred via the Internet and new company entrants like Chegg brought rental to the college market. 

Pearson Launch Subscription Textbook Offer

Cengage led the industry with their all-in textbook subscription offer several years ago and now Pearson has jumped into the market with their own textbook subscription product. Pearson is going with a monthly $14.99 offer to students and just in time for the fall semester.  

From their press release:

Developed in collaboration with students, Pearson+ delivers a range of eTexts and study tools that fits their lifestyle and helps improve their learning outcomes. Features include: 

• Availability through both desktop and a mobile app 

• Pearson’s library of over 1500 e-book titles-all in one place 

• Offline access to e-books for learning on the go 

• Audio versions of Pearson eTexts

• Advanced notetaking capability with enhanced search features   

• Flash card sets for many titles and the ability to create and customize flashcards 

• A range of fonts and backgrounds so students can personalize their eTexts

• 24/7 live student support  

• Discounts on Smarthinking tutoring services 

• A carbon footprint that is only 20% of a traditional print textbook   

 This is likely to add some needed competition into this space and more direct competition with D2Student companies like Chegg and B&N education.  More on this later.

Media Week (Vol 14, No.7): B&N Education Reports, Book TikTok, Teaching Reading, Must Read-TV,

Barnes & Noble Education Reports (Edgar)

Financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021show severe impact of COVID.  Over two years revenues are down $500mm.

• Consolidated fourth quarter sales of $222.8 million decreased 13.3% as compared to the prior year period; consolidated fiscal year sales of $1,433.9 million decreased 22.5% as compared to the prior year.
• Consolidated fourth quarter GAAP net loss was $(44.4) million, compared to a net loss of $(40.3) million in the prior year period. Consolidated fiscal year GAAP net loss was $(131.8) million, compared to a net loss of $(38.3) million in the prior year
• Consolidated fourth quarter non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA loss was $(31.4) million, compared to a non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA loss of $(20.7) million in the prior year; consolidated fiscal year non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA loss was $(65.6) million, as compared to non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA of $42.2 million in the prior year.
• Consolidated fourth quarter non-GAAP Adjusted Earnings was $(32.8) million, compared to non-GAAP Adjusted Earnings of $(28.1) million in the prior year period; consolidated fiscal year non-GAAP Adjusted Earnings was $(89.0) million, compared to non-GAAP Adjusted Earnings of $(21.1) million in the prior year.
• Total fiscal year 2021 borrowings increased by only $2.9 million to $177.6 million as compared to the prior year period, led by working capital improvements, the sale of logo and emblematic merchandise inventory to Lids, and the strategic equity investment in BNED by Fanatics and Lids. 

Operational highlights for fiscal year 2021:

• BNC First Day® digital course delivery model year-over-year revenue increased 94%, benefiting from the accelerated move to digital courseware.
• Reached agreements for 64 campus stores to support the BNC First Day® Complete courseware delivery program in Fall Term 2021, representing approximately 300,000 in total undergraduate enrollment; up from 12 campus stores and 43,000 in total undergraduate enrollment in Fall Term 2020.
• Gained over 300,000 gross subscribers for the bartleby® suite of services in fiscal 2021, with DSS revenue increasing 15.7% for the same period.
• Launched beta release of bartleby Expert Live Chat, a text-based tutoring offering that connects students to our expert network for students who have follow-up questions on a bartleby solution, need more clarity on a textbook question, or want to speak to a tutor as soon as possible.
• Continued to attract new clients and generate new business growth, signing over $103 million in gross new business in fiscal year 2021 and expanding BNED’s footprint by 52 institutions and 31 K-12 schools.
• Entered into a long-term strategic omni channel merchandising partnership with Fanatics and Lids (FLC), forging an alliance with the two retail and ecommerce leaders in the licensed sports and emblematic merchandise category. Significant joint go-to-market activity planned with Fanatics and Lids to attract new business through enhanced offering.
  

Book Tik Tok (Evening Standard)

TikTok doesn’t seem like an obvious destination for book buzz but that hasn’t stopped it from booming. The #BookTok hashtag has racked up over 5.8 billion views, and some authors have seen a tenfold increase in book sales for works that are often decades old.

Even bookstores are jumping on the trend. The Barnes & Noble website now has a “BookTok” page dedicated to the most popular books on TikTok and its American stores have introduced allocated sections displaying titles that have gone viral on the platform.

Also - The Rise of BookTok (Guardian)

Teaching Reading Right (The Economist)

The consequences of this are striking. Less than half (48%) of all American adults were proficient readers in 2017. American fourth graders (nine-to ten-year olds) rank 15th on the Progress in International Literacy Study, an international exam. And that was before covid-19 closed schools. According to UNESCO, American schools were closed either fully or partially for 56 weeks, compared with 47 in Canada and 27 in the United Kingdom and China. In theory the need to make up for lost schooling could be an opportunity to try something new. But America remains stuck in debate about teaching children to read that has been rumbling on for decades.

Wiley's "Tech-Enabled" Publishing (SiliconAngle)

“It’s been amazing to be part of education and research during this pandemic, during a time when these things have never really been more important. For a long time, we’d been building these online and computer-based education platforms and really trying to get folks to move there. And that’s been a long, long process. The pandemic has really accelerated that,” Mack stated.

Wiley has seen a profound increase in the usage of its online education platforms with the onset of the pandemic — but it has definitely not been the only one. With the number of businesses that have been given a “digitization boost” by the pandemic, maybe there’s a bit of opportunity in every tragedy after all.

Making writing more working class (The Economist)

The entire publishing industry has been colonised by the middle and upper classes. A study last year of literary types found that only 13% came from a working-class background. So Ms Carthew has launched the “Nature Writing Prize for working-class writers”, now in its second year, to “burst the stereotype of what it means to be a nature writer” and allow other species to thrive.

Emoting in the open air might seem an egalitarian pursuit. Fields are free, while pens and paper cost mere pennies. It is not so simple, says Ms Carthew. One cannot wander lonely as a cloud if one is working in a call centre, and it is easier to write about the questing vole in a plashy fen if one owns the fen. Such accusations make the publishing industry squirm: like most liberal elites, publishers are happier to be seen as liberal than elite. Steps therefore are being taken. Surveys have been conducted, working-class networks have been launched, hands have been wrung. There remains an uncomfortably large number of people in the industry called Sophie.

 The Rise of Must-Read TV (The Atlantic)

All of this has had a profound effect on the literary world. As you might expect, becoming a TV show increases a novel’s popularity enormously. Adaptations can drive book sales, as in the case of this winter’s breakout hit Bridgerton. The Regency-era bodice-ripper is not alone: A number of backlist titles, such as The Queen’s Gambit, have enjoyed a late-in-life revival thanks to Netflix’s attention.

We see evidence of the adaptation effect in other measures of literary success as well. We compiled a list of about 400 21st-century novels that met certain criteria—inclusion in top-10 best-seller lists, critics’ picks, publishers’ comp titles, and so on. Within this group, a novel that becomes a show will receive about four times as many ratings on Goodreads.com as a novel that has never been adapted to TV or film. (Film still has a bigger effect, boosting a novel’s Goodreads ratings more than 1000 percent; TV nonetheless dramatically improves the fortunes of a novel.)

Emerging formats in Scholarly Publishing (Research Information)

Making content easily discoverable is vital to create an impact. Embracing digital transformation is key to survival in the current scenario. The publishing industry is contending with the availability of free content, declining readership, and switching to various content delivery platforms. Forward-looking organisations must embrace the digital revolution to meet changing customer needs. New and more effective content formats, like infographics and video summaries can help researchers, particularly those working in multidisciplinary fields, discover more relevant studies.

 

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See more headlines from past MediaWeek posts - going back to 2006.

 

Please, Won't You Be My Member?

Content owners are fascinated with memberships. Faced with eroding subscription revenue, many legacy publishers plan membership programs in a well-intentioned attempt to turn around their revenue declines, but do no more than confuse their core customers. “Membership” programs - offering more frequent content such as topic-specific newsletters, earlier access to the magazine, database content and a branded mug are nothing more than a tiered subscription offer. But when memberships are differentiated from subscriptions, they offer “members” reciprocity in the purpose and function of the publication and deeper engagement for the mutual benefit of both the member and the publication.

After conducting some market research for an enthusiast publisher recently, I found that an important component of their subscriber base was the large number of long-time subscribers who kept physical copies of the title going back many years. While these subscribers exhibited a propensity for deep engagement with the content, packaging a ‘membership’ program to sell them more stuff was not going to result in more engaged and connected partners. Past management teams had attempted to leverage this ‘loyalty’ to create a vendor “marketplace” which only exacerbated the company’s financial problems as subscriber numbers continued to decline and no one bought the knick knacks.

Subscriptions represent a financial transaction; well-designed membership programs facilitate a two-way conversation between the publication and its members to produce something unique – such as fresh content, new products, ideas and engagement. What makes a membership program different is that it may not have a well-defined objective whereas a subscription is always defined by its payment status and is, by nature, a short-term proposition – renewals notwithstanding. Once membership conversations start, they should yield a wealth of new ideas and initiatives, bringing a vitality to the business that may not have existed before. And that can help split new content and business models. But it is the openness of the members give and take which is the primary objective, not revenue growth per se.

Building effective subscription plans and models is not straightforward - it requires careful planning and a lot of experimentation. Without that, subscription programs become stale and routine particularly when supporting a predominately print-based audience. The development of a membership program will be more complex, multi-dimensional and evolutionary, and will require new staff capabilities, experience and thinking. But base subscription programs should not be ignored and should work in tandem with the new membership program.

Below I’ve framed some ideas for expanding your existing subscription program and building a new membership program:

Subscription Program	Membership Benefit
Purpose is to raise average subscription revenue per subscriber. The following benefits could be an up-sell to the existing subscription or new (higher) tier	Build a two-way connection between the magazine and members that results in deeper engagement and mutual benefits
·   Early digital access to the print publication ·   Free digital subscriptions ·   Archive and legacy content access – via website ·   Discounted gift subscription rates ·   Early and preferential access to webinars and events ·   Multi-year subscription options and, if available, cross-sell subscriptions with other magazines ·   Advertiser and partner discounts	·   Don’t promise to engage but then fail to do so. Build a program of active engagement first before launching the program ·   Invite existing subscribers into the organization to help plan the membership program ·   Build exclusivity with limited member invites to events each year ·   Launch a “badging” for members to use via interaction with the community – suggests exclusivity ·   Establish dedicated staff and special member events designed for close interaction and exchange ·   Consider topic-based focus groups: Potentially live and broadcast to members ·   Allow members to report on events such as conferences and shows for publication ·   Enable members to build interest groups around specific topic and subject areas

One of the biggest objectives the publisher may seek through the development of a membership program is to improve the positioning and viability of the magazine thereby improving long-term financial success. That’s not immodest if the membership program is designed to truly engage key constituents in a conversation. A more engaged member will help guide the publication and this will, in turn, help maintain and even expand your core subscription base. With this objective, the publisher may decide to charge only a modest fee for the membership program.

The high level and directional ideas above will help you differentiate between subscription models and memberships programs - each represents different value propositions to the organization. Confusing the two will confound your subscribers and infuriate your more loyal customers. A membership program can be a powerful strategic tactic leading to a range of new ideas and option ...   just don’t forget to diligently maintain your subscriber base. 

 

(Article originally published Nov, 2019)

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Michael Cairns is a publishing and media executive with over 25 years experience in business strategy, operations and technology implementation.  He has served on several boards and advisory groups including the Association of American Publishers, Book Industry Study Group and the International ISBN organization.   Additionally, he has public and private company board experience.   He can be reached at michael.cairns@infomediapartners.com

Read more articles on my Flipboard magazine:

Media Week (Vol 14, No 6) Using Fiction to Forecast, TikTok Book Clubs, Journal Quality Improves, Either the Flag Goes?

 ‘At first I thought, this is crazy’: the real-life plan to use novels to predict the next war (Guardian)

His favorite example of literature’s ability to identify a social mood and cast it into the future is a retelling of the Cassandra myth by the East German novelist Christa Wolf. Kassandra, published in 1983, casts Troy as a state not unlike the late-stage German Democratic Republic, succumbing to the paranoia of a Stasi-like secret police as it veers towards a not-so-cold war. Kassandra, cursed with the gift of prophecy, is also a cipher for the author’s own predicament: she foresees the decline her society is heading for, but her warnings are ignored by the military patriarchy.

If states could learn to read novels as a kind of literary seismograph, Wertheimer argues, they could perhaps identify which conflicts are on the verge of exploding into violence, and intervene to save maybe millions of lives.
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All this raw information is fed into Watson, IBM’s artificial intelligence platform, which helps convert it into maps highlighting potential trouble spots: green indicates stability, orange highlights instability, red warns of a conflict on the verge of escalation. One German official says the AI prediction system had already given Angela Merkel’s government a few months’ warning of the rebel insurgency in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province, where security forces are battling with militants trying to set up an Islamic state. But the early warning system is still in development: the aim is to eventually be able to predict conflicts 12-18 months in advance.

The rise of BookTok: meet the teen influencers pushing books up the charts (Guardian)

These posts can attract millions of views, and rekindle an appreciation of books in young readers. “I started reading again after six years when I came across BookTok for the first time last October,” says Mireille Lee, 15, who, with her 13-year-old sister Elodie, now runs the high-profile @alifeofliterature account on TikTok.

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Publishers are watching with interest. “The pool of people who are guaranteed to buy young adult books is limited to a few thousand dedicated lovers of the genre, but BookTok is exciting, with its short, entertaining videos bringing a new, powerful opportunity to reach and engage non-readers, to create more book lovers,” says Kat McKenna, a marketing and brand consultant specialising in children’s and young adult books. “These ‘snapshot’ visual trailers are making books cinematic in a way that publishers have been trying to do with marketing book trailers for a really long time. But the way TikTok users are creating imagery inspired by what they are reading is so simple, and so clever. It’s that thing of bringing the pages to life, showing what you get from a book beyond words.”

Quality shines when scientists use publishing tactic known as registered reports, study finds (Science)

The trio of journals thought registered reports offered a better way. The approach turns the normal publishing timeline on its head: Authors write manuscripts laying out only their hypotheses, research methods, and analysis plans, and referees decide whether to accept them before anyone knows the study’s results. The innovation is that this guarantees publication for even the most mundane findings. Unlike standard papers, “the decision [to publish] … is based on the importance of the question, and the quality of the methodology you’re applying,” says Brian Nosek, a psychologist at the University of Virginia and an advocate of registered reports.

But until recently, concrete data to support the benefits of this publishing model have been thin. Today, Nosek and his colleagues published a paper in Nature Human Behaviour reporting that reviewers rate registered reports as more rigorous, and their methods as higher in quality, than similar papers published in the standard format. And despite concerns that the approach could stifle research creativity, the reviewers considered registered reports to be as creative and novel as the comparison papers. The findings join the first small wave of studies exploring whether the publishing format—now offered by at least 295 journals—lives up to its promise.

IDG Acquired by Blackstone in $1.3B Deal (Techcrunch)

With IDG, Blackstone gets tech analyst firm IDC along with a collection of tech publications that includes CIO, Computerworld, InfoWorld, Macworld, Network World, PCWorld and Tech Hive. The media publishing arm was once a powerhouse in the 1990s tech publishing world, although its shine has faded in recent years as the publishing industry in general has come under intense pressure.

The company has also been making some additions to the platform more recently with a stronger focus on data and analytics. Last year it bought Triblio, a marketing data platform to help companies deliver more personalized customer experiences. Last month it acquired Metri, an IT pricing service, which can help with IT budgeting and procurement. The latter could dovetail nicely with IDC’s consulting services.

Axel Springer: Mathias Doepfner tells pro-Palestinian staff to quit (ME)

Several staff reportedly complained when the company raised an Israeli flag at its Berlin headquarters during 11 days of deadly violence between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Hamas movement in May, which killed 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, in the besieged Gaza Strip and 13 people in Israel, including two children.

According to a report from Israel Hayom, CEO Mathias Doepfner said in a video call with staff worldwide on Monday: "I think, and I'm being very frank with you, a person who has an issue with an Israeli flag being raised for one week here, after antisemitic demonstrations, should look for a new job.

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See more headlines from past MediaWeek posts - going back to 2006.