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Apple Turnover

Apple's iPad shows that publishers have learned some tough lessons from other creative industries over the past 10 years, according to Danuta Kean

When Steve Jobs took the stage in San Francisco on Wednesday to introduce the new Apple iPad (a combination of tablet computer and ereader), it marked yet another milestone in the integration of books with other media. For the five large book publishers who have done a deal with the computing giant to sell books through Apple's iBookstore it means they will be in at the start of what could be the long awaited iPod moment in electronic book publishing.

Immediate reaction from the blogosphere to news that Apple had opted for the open source ePub format rather than a deal with an existing retailer, such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble, was not completely ecstatic. On his blog cultofmac.com, Pete Mortenson of growth strategy consultants Jump Associates described Apple's decision as "troubling". "Even though Apple’s going with the open-source ePub format, which means books from Barnes & Noble should work, there’s no direct mechanism yet for connecting the two, and the import experience remains to be seen."

But for publishers, whether this is the much-heralded iPod moment for books or not, the deal with Apple implies that they have learned a lesson over the past 10 years not just from their experiences with locked down retail deals, but from their attempts not to be left behind by technological developments.

First by being in the vanguard of iPad content, the five - Hachette Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Simon & Schuster – are ensuring their titles get maximum exposure and kudos from the hype surrounding the launch. Second, the move tackles head on accusations that trade book publishers are more Me Too than Bleeding Edge when it comes to embracing IT innovation.

And, most importantly of all, it shows that trade publishers are finally "getting" the fact that whether snazzy gadget or social networking site, what all new delivery platforms need is something to deliver, and who better to supply them than an industry with a 500 year-old heritage in content? No wonder Jobs crowed triumphantly when presenting the iPad: "We're going to open the flood gates for the rest of the publishers in the world starting this afternoon."

How times have changed. Over the past 15 years technological change has led to a gradual blurring of the edges between publishing and other creative industries. Where book publishing had once stood robustly aloof from other media, operating, it claimed, under a different set of rules to those followed by other, less well-established rivals. Whereas technological developments undermined music and film through piracy, books were different. Nothing would distract us from our love affair with paper, board and glue – and besides, as the traditionalists never ceased pointing out, you can't read and ebook in a bath.

Books may be “different” but they are not immune to technology. Nor, if they wish to remain relevant to future generations, should they be. The rapid rise of the internet and spin off social media have revolutionised the way we read as well as watch and listen. In the past year, Sony with it's ereader, Amazon with the Kindle and now Apple, have created an atmosphere in which reading books electronically is no longer anathema, but both easy and in some circles cool. Scroll back 10 years and it is not too unlike the tipping point reached in the MP3 market on the eve of the launch of the iPod. If the iPad doesn’t do it for ebooks this year, it is highly likely that one of the many computing giants planning similar launches in 2010 will.

Apple’s iPad marks a tipping point in the thinking of publishers. It is about time. The arrival of the internet freed the book from the printed page, but, as digital media consultant Jon Reed explains, book publishers have been reluctant to take advantage of that freedom and, in trade publishing especially, that has cost them dearly. "They have been too tied up with traditional media and have been missing out on what is happening online," he says. "Online consumers want content, and publishers have all this content that they could be using more meaningfully to fulfil that demand."

Though he acknowledges the concerns of IP holders about fair remuneration and piracy, the failure of the traditional trade to engage more proactively with online has left a gap in the market, which the online world has rushed to fill. At one end this has spawned profitable businesses such as blogs like The Huffington Post and Mashable, at the other end the solution found by online has created shockwaves, hence the furore over the Google Settlement.

Gone is the age of the Gentleman Publisher, adds Reed, whose book Get Up to Speed with Online Marketing is published by FT Prentice Hall in July. Modern book publishers are about content not paper and glue, he believes. "It's no longer sufficient for publishers to just produce print products," he says. "They also need to engage with digital media. And if they don't, online media will fill that gap, and take those revenues for them - it's already happening. They can learn from online content business models as well as simply from how other industries (such as music and film) have 'adapted' to the 'threat' of digital." This seems a lesson those publishers involved in the launch of the iPad have taken on board.

In part the changes forced on publishers reflect "massive social change", Owen Atkinson, Chief Executive of the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society, believes. This is particularly evident in attitudes towards paying for content. Freeconomics, in which the consumer expects content to be free, whether delivered illegally through peer2peer pirate websites or legally through newspaper websites, has changed the economic model of publishing irrevocably. It has created a culture in which Google's mass appropriation of other people's intellectual property could be thought not only acceptable but legal.

The ALCS has been involved in the Google Settlement, and works with other bodies representing IP holders, such as the Performing Rights Society, to lobby national and European governments about copyright protection and fair remuneration. Watching the experiences of film and music has brought home to those involved in books the need to challenge freeconomics and make the public aware that there is always someone subsidising the giveaway – usually the creator. "What we have realised is that there is a real lack of education about copyright out there," says Atkinson. "Everyone thinks it's there so why shouldn't I take it, why should I pay for it?

Aware of the failure of other creative industries to respond quickly and effectively to peer2peer file sharing and, at a grass roots level, to communicate adequately why piracy is wrong, the ALCS is working with publishing bodies and the librarians’ organisation CILIP to personalise copyright. Authors visit schools and talk about the issue in a way that children, some of the biggest users of pirate sites, can understand. "What we leaned from the music industry is that you have to educate to get the message across," Atkinson adds. "We have learned that the technology now moves so fast you can't afford to just coast. You almost have to develop a third eye to anticipate the problems it will throw up."

Benjamin King, Head of Policy and Communications at the Publishers Association, agrees. "Developments over the past decade within the creative industries have shown that there is a heavy price to be paid by not keeping pace with consumers' changing tastes and expectations," he says. It is this realisation that has led to increased investment in digital in recent years, and the more innovative approach taken to the technology on offer – such as the launch of book apps, now one of the biggest sectors in downloadable 3G mobile phone software.

Without doubt the success of book apps prepared the ground for publishers involvement in the launch of the iPad – not only did it show publishers how readers would engage with digital book content, but it showed a giant like Apple that, despite failure of ebooks to take off significantly, that was not because readers rejected the concept of electronically delivered content. More importantly, it showed that delivered in the right format, people will pay for digital books.

Where publishers have been less successful in adapting to the creative opportunities offered by digital technologies is social networking, especially microblogging sites like Twitter. In part this is because the corporate culture of large publishing does not adapt well to the personal ethos of these sites. It is not about selling, it is about building authentic relationships with contacts, which is why the most successful book industry Tweeters and Facebook users are literary agents, led by Carole Blake, small operators like Salt Publishing and authors, all of whom have no obligation to hold the party line dictated by a remote central office.

This is changing however, and publishers are starting to recognise the ability of social networking sites to reach millions of people for a fraction of the price of an above the line marketing campaign. According to Alex Martin, Senior New Media Manager at Midas PR, social networking has blurred the line between advertising and publicity. "It's about having conversations with your customers rather than just talking to them," he says.

For those who really get it, social networking has enabled publishers to be playful with their marketing. It means they can create campaigns that far better reflect the creative content they are pushing than an ad on the side of a bus or Tube platform ever could. For once, the medium really is the message.

"Where posters and branding used to be the job of advertising, and video or website creation was the job of marketing, it’s now all the realm of PR," adds Midas’s Martin, whose agency reflects this merging of function. In the past year Midas has created iPhone apps, street stunts using graffiti and even Twitter campaigns using characters from Maverick Books children's titles. He believed this change is of benefit because it means publishers' marketing can be more focused and targeted.

This pro-active mentality reflects the cultural shift that powered publishers' support of the iPad. It is a cultural shift as significant in its own way as any iPod moment for ebooks. Because it means that at last, the book industry is shaking off its fixation with the past and learning to embrace the future.