The Role of Publishers

The Role of Publishing Institutions

Publishing distributes information to the general public. Authors may choose to self publish their own work, or seek the professional help from an established organisation. The stages of publishing include the mass printing of the product (and its electronic counterparts) as well as the marketing and distribution to retailers. Publishing institutions are usually hired in order to give the product the promotion and publicity it needs for profit to be made. With the support of an established publishing company, a retailer can recognise that the product has professional backing and will be more likely to trust and commit to a working relationship.

Publishing is a business as well. In an age of financial competition, a company needs mass audiences to have access to their product if it is to be successful on the market. Therefore if one magazine is published by a national publisher whereas another only has a local publisher, then the product that'll make more money is the one with the national audience. Publishing revolves around the ways in which an audience responds to the product and so two of the main factors which determine the financial success of a product are:

• The availability of a product
• The competition with similar products on the market

In my research about publishing, I decided to include some examples of successful publishing companies in the magazine industry, and what I found is that most publishers are not limited to any specific field:

The Egmont Group

The Egmont Group are a mass media corporation that traditionally specialised in magazine publishing. Their branch publish a wide range of texts for children of all ages, and have included the use of licensed characters such as Shaun the Sheep and Fireman Sam. The benefit of having the rights to publish magazines on popular children's icons is that these characters have a pre-established fame and are likely to be profitable without much marketing, also giving the publishing company more profit from the sales since products of a well-known status will have a larger audience.

Hearst Corporation

Hearst Corporation are a multinational mass media group who are considered one of the largest diversified enterprises on a global scale. Its major interests are in newspapers, over 300 magazines, 31 television stations, ownership in leading cable networks like ESPN, as well as digital distribution and business publishing. Being able to contribute to a variety of mediums establishes both industrial links and income from numerous sources, so if one branch was to go bust or lose profit they would still have other enterprises from which to make money.

Dennis Publishing

Dennis Publishing are an independent publisher who are based in the UK and publish magazines. However they have since undertaken purchases of digital sites and interactive magazines. A publisher with only one interest may not have a broad range of media connections but it will increase confidence through its experience of handling just one particular area of the market, and consequently prove a reliable partner in the magazine industry.

Imagine Publishing

Imagine Publishing operate in the UK and function as a magazine publisher with a range of videogame, computing, creative and lifestyle magazines in their history. Imagine Publishing is a worldwide multimedia content producer and currently has a portfolio of over 20 regular print magazines, 25 websites, 30 mobile apps and over 130 bookazines and eBooks published worldwide within the four key areas of market – technology, photography, knowledge/science and videogames. This focus on current genres shows accessibility to relevant themes and content on a global scale.

Legal Concerns with Publishing

Distributing copies or content to the public has legal risks. The Berne Convention (an international agreement regarding copyright) requires that this can only be done with the consent of the copyright holder, which is initially always the author. In the Universal Copyright Convention the idea of publication is defined as 'the reproduction in tangible form and the general distribution to the public of copies of a work from which it can be read or otherwise visually perceived.'

In providing a product to the general public, the publisher takes responsibility for the publication.  For example, publishers may face charges of defamation (damaging someone's reputation), if they produce and distribute libellous material to the public, even if the libel was written by another person.

This is particularly relevant to my coursework because one of the evaluation questions asks about an institution that could promote or publish my products, so the research above highlights some plausible options.