Mobility is reportedly the buzzword in the content industry currently. It was recently reported that 13 American publishers stated that their e-book sales increased 176.6 percent in 2009 to $169.5 million. Industry players – particularly trade publishers and their content services providers — are increasingly noticing this trend.
Various events over the recent past – such as the iPad launch, Amazon’s tiff with publishers and the iBookstore announcement - have only made it clearer that e-books and mobile content rule the roost. However, a fall in US federal and state government funding has been negatively influencing the K–12 segment. It has also hit the higher-ed segment that has otherwise witnessed a rise in adult/continuing education and college enrollment. On a positive note, publishers are going for e-learning in a big way and preparing to reach the audience anywhere.
E-readers and their software may face highs and lows, but the basics - in this case, the ePub and the underlying XML standards - are here to stay, according to an article in Publishers Weekly. The article states that sticking to preferred formats while remaining device agnostic is the way forward. It also points out that European and American publishers have been outsourcing increasing numbers of SSTM and journal projects to India to reduce costs and keep afloat in the midst of a struggling global economy. There has also been an increase in the number of digitisation projects - for both front- and backlists – and this shows no signs of flagging.
There are several companies in India that can help convert, design, manage, dechunk, distribute, or archive content. The challenge for the publisher is to determine who will best serve its needs while meeting its budget.
The Indian publishing outsourcing industry is expected to hit $1.2 billion by 2012, up from $660 million in 2008. But that is just a fraction of the global English-language publishing market (inclusive of the newspaper, magazine and legal segments), which is estimated at well over $250 billion.
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