Media Conglomerates- To Fear or Not To Fear?

In today's world what we read in a book or newspaper is becoming more and more controlled as media conglomerates continue to gobble up local publishing companies.

Of the top 12 book publishers in the UK only a few are actually owned by UK companies. They are Pearson PLC the parent of Penguin and Pearson Education, Oxford Press, Bloomsbury, and the Faber Alliance of Independent Publishers. The top 2 publishing houses in the UK Hachette Livre and Random House are owned by French and German parent companies respectively. Even Macmillan, which was started in the UK, is now owned by the foreign media conglomerate Verlagsgruppe out of Germany. Rupert Murdoch's U.S. based powerhouse News Corp owns Harper Collins, and the American big wig CBS owns Simon and Schuster.

Of the top 12 book publishing companies in the UK only 4 are UK owned. So overall the amount of UK publishers owned by foreign companies far out weighs the one that are UK owned. Many fear this kind of foreign influence or dominance as it can easily overlook or stamp out local flavor. Despite the fact that most big publishers have a solely UK branch of the company does little to quash peoples dislike of media conglomerates. This is because we cannot help to feel that we are being spoon-fed the same information and products as everyone else. The reason this is so disturbing is because it is the idea that culture is being changed from a unique entity that is dependent on an area and the people who live in the area and their beliefs, traditions and history to a one size fits all model that media conglomerates are injecting into our societies.

On the other hand the more media conglomerates tighten their grip on society the more people fight back. Thanks to the availability of information through the Internet we are able to share the truth behind who owns what and thus become aware of “the man” influencing society. The Internet has also allowed a major increase in the amount of people who can share their ideas without going through a publishing house or media conglomerate. So in a sense the more conglomerates try to control what we see, read, buy and think, the more new technologies are invented to counteract such influence. These new innovations on the Internet have given us the ability to circumvent the control of media conglomerates.

Gail Rebuck- A force to be reckoned with

The longest running CEO of a publishing company, she has made Random House the second largest publishing company in the UK. Her entrepreneurial roots and legendary work ethic have made her a leader in the publishing world.

In 2009 she was made the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the year, and a Dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List. Famous for her unwavering focus in the midst of car accidents and the birth of her children, Ms Rebuck has gained the respect of the publishing world even if some see her as a “turbo-charged careerist”. Her critics say she fits Random House all to well, in that she and the publishing giant are all about is making money, often putting creativity on the back burner. On the other hand Random House is known to go out of its way to support smaller independent booksellers as much as it does for the big chain stores.1 Either way it is hard to deny the influence of Random House and it’s captain Rebuck when such famous authors as John Grisham, Dan Brown, Salaman Rushdie, Tony Blair, Bill Bryson which fill the publishers literary stable, let alone the icons like Virgina Woolf, and Ernest Hemmingway, and Sigmund Freud (to name a few) that have graced the Random House in the past.

As one can see to handle such an influential publishing house, as Random House is no easy task, yet Ms Rebuck has shown the industry what the perfect head of such a company should be strong, smart, and very professional. But it didn’t all start out so golden, as all successes and stories there is a beginning. For Ms. Rebuck it was in London where she was born in 1952, she was educated at the University of Sussex, and worked as a tour guide and driver for her brother before she decided to follow her passion for books into publishing. She started in the publishing world as a production assistant for a children’s book company, then revamped a guidebook series by enlisting the local knowledge of London taxi drivers. Soon afterward she created a new publishing house called Century and after a series of other coup d'état that included ousting her former boss and mentor, Anthony Cheetham, she became CEO for Random House in 1991.

She followed a strict routine and only worked from 9-5 when her children were young, claiming that it wasn’t the quantity of time one spends in the office but rather the quality of work one does when they are there. She is an advocate of adult literacy saying, “learning to read isn’t a skill- it’s the doorway to life.”2 This kind of sentiment also prompted her to be a part of launching World Book Day and a Trustee of the National Literacy Trust and on the Council of the Royal College of Art.

Aware of the changing times and development of new technologies Ms Rebuck believes that the publishing industry is about to be transformed by "a new curve – the emergence of our digital future". Yet instead of being afraid of what that will mean for print books she has embraced the digital revolution claiming that printed books will not be overtaken by their digital counterparts as they are a part of our culture. Instead she has adopted the view "in 10 years time… we may get 25pc or 30pc of our revenue from digital sales.”3 Thus publishers must adapt and find a way to work with new media rather than scorn it.

Along with Random House Ms Rebuck has worked with and been affiliated with many media groups from News Corp, to British Sky Broadcasting Group, and is a trustee of the Institute of Public Policy Research and worked for the Government’s Creative Industry Taskforce to name a few.

It becomes obvious at once that Ms. Rebuck is a force to be reckoned with and that she has followed her passion for books up the corporate ladder to a place of prestige and longevity that few women have attained. In an interview by her old alma mater she advises students looking to get a foothold into the publishing world to “never be afraid to say what you think, always have an opinion, do more than is asked of you and be prepared to fail.” In a time where graduates are more than often found in a vacuum of “what next” Ms. Rebuck is proof that hard work and determination pays off. In a event where Ms. Rebuck was awarded a Doctorate from the University of Essex, the orator aptly said "if there is a “glass ceiling” keeping down ambitious and able women, Gail Rebuck has shown that it can be shattered."4

1. www.independent.co.uk

2. www.guardian.co.uk

3. www.telegraph.co.uk

4. www.essex.ac.uk

www.guardian.co.uk/books

www.sussex.ac.uk

www.independent.co.uk/news/media/

www.bmmagazine.co.uk

www.cabinetforum.org

people.forbes.com

Regulation in Publishing

Regulation in the Publishing industry is multi-faceted, piracy has become a growing concern for authors and publishers alike. Copyright has always been a key aspect of the publishing industry, Cornell University and the UK Copyright Service state that copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years after the authors death. According to the Publishers Association ensuring the author is protected and reimbursed as well as the publisher for taking on the risks and costs of production is vital to the preservation of the creative economy.

One of the most important aspects of the book publishing industry is copyright. The Publishers Association, The Society of Authors, The British Copyright Council, UK Copyright Service, and the International Publishers Association are only are a few of many external associations that have all been developed to support and advocate copyright laws and or fight censorship. Some work through forums and others through representation or awareness.

For example the UK Copyright Service provides online registration for various creative outlets from books to music, websites, logos and much more. The Publishers Licensing Society provides licensing knowledge through clarification and innovation, including royalty distribution to digital licensing.

Examples of internal regulation that Random House UK and Harper Collins implement is a permission policy, that requires written consent from the publisher to allow people to quote one of their books in another work.

Penguin has its own rights website that users can view to keep apprised of all of Penguins Rights news and information. It also has it’s own contracts department to “ensure that it achieves the best possible terms on which to publish [its] books.” Penguin also has it’s own Rights and International Publishing and Licensing Team, this is quite normal for big publishing houses to have regulatory departments within the company. The Rights department focuses on how to “maximize a book’s financial potential” and the IPL team focuses on getting Penguin books or it’s imprints books all over the world. (PENCAREERS09)

Here's a link to many more copyright related associations.

Book Publishing Structure in the UK

Creating a book starts with an author with an idea, and results in a book yet the process of creating a book is a complex multi-faceted process. The following is a map of that process...



The map shows that many of the big publishing companies have departments within them to cover everything from design to production, rights, and sales. Others have only some of these departments, it varies depending on publishing company.


Here is a list of publishing associations
PA-Publishers Association
BPIF-British Printing Industries Federation
BAPC- British Association for Print and Communication
IP3-Institute of Paper Printing and Publishing
BIC-Book Industry Communication
Writers Copyright Association

The Big Players in Publishing

Top 12 UK book publishers by 2009 sales and their parent companies.






www.hachettelivre.co.uk
www.randomhouse.co.uk
www.penguin.co.uk
www.pearsoned.co.uk
www.harpercollins.co.uk
www.faber.co.uk
www.macmillan.com
www.oup.com
www.bloomsbury.com
www.simonandschuster.co.uk
www.wiley.com

My Ideas on Book Publishing and the Future

All media is being changed and influenced by online availability and convergence so my creative business idea for book publishing would be how to utilize the Internet making books more accessible to the public. Along the ideas of online shopping and downloading like Amazon, iTunes and kindle. But broader to include all books, especially academic or special interest books that are restricted to databases and libraries.

My mission statement would be to make books cheaper and more accessible to everyone around the world, from third world countries to people’s computers. I want to see everyone have a book or electronic tablet like an “Ipad” in their hands. Only through education and the sharing of history and culture can we learn to be more understanding and tolerant of one another.

Two images that come to mind are books and hands grasped in friendship or to represent a vast amount of people coming together in knowledge. A word that symbolizes my business idea is insight.

Media Convergence Debate: Reflection after Argument

Our convergence debate sparked deeper thought, making seemingly easy questions slip into a whole new bank of fog.


1. Which traditional media are bound to disappear or transform due to convergence? Why?
2. Will convergence make London an even more multicultural and creative city?
3. Will convergence make the Creative and Cultural Industries more diverse or will it encourage segregation?

After the debate I feel that some of my preconceived notions of what media convergence is have definitely changed or broadened. The two video clips we watched in class that spewed out the facts or rather numbers of people who are on social networks and the like blew me away. For example that more video content was uploaded to YouTube in the last 2 months than if all of the big cable networks had been airing new content everyday all day since 1948. Also that traditional media outlets have been steadily losing business, as we become a more online culture. A lot of these facts I suppose I already knew but it is very different when you see the actual figures. It leads me to believe that traditional media are doomed and are sure to go extinct or will be forced to transform to fit consumer needs and wants.

My first reaction to the first question in the debate was that newspapers and magazines, CD players, radios and the like will be obsolete in 20 years, but after hearing what some of the other students said, like how some people just prefer the sound quality of a CD or a book/ magazine in their hands, I had to re-evaluate my opinion. I had to consider my grandma, who loves to read and can’t wait to get her monthly subscription to Scientific American, one of the most genius people I know, and yet she will not let us buy her a computer so we can stay in contact with her. She refuses to try a kindle no matter how great and easy we tell her it is. Likewise my dad who is quite technologically minded is not very savvy. He has a laptop, a iPod, and cell phone, he knows how to text and Skype. Yet still doesn’t really know how to easily search on Google, or download pictures or other media, he still reads a newspaper every morning and prefers to hold a book or magazine in his hand. Despite the fact that he actually knows about a kindle or the “internet”. It is people like my dad and my grams that like certain traditions or consistencies in their daily lives that will keep traditional media alive. It is also people who like to flip through a beautiful coffee table book or us students who get exhausted eyes from reading, typing, searching and watching TV on our computers all day and thus need a “break” and therefore pick up a book from instead.

As such I believe that traditional media will not go extinct as I first thought before the debate, not until all of our grandparents and parents are gone and my generation is the older demographic. Not until they come out with new easier on the eyes technology (maybe the new ipad is the answer) will traditional media disappear. I do think that it will have to transform and have options for it’s consumers like we are already seeing, in newspapers and magazines and music industries having a online and “real” version of them selves.

In answer to the second question will convergence make London an even more creative and multicultural city; my answer again was challenged by what I heard in the debate. Originally I thought, convergence will definitely make the city a more creative place but no, it will not make it a more multicultural city. Convergence definitely allows artists to get their art, music, etc out into the world. Instead of having to solely rely on getting a record label to be heard, an up and coming musician can upload some tunes on his or her social network of choice and get feedback, a following, and maybe even “noticed” by a record label. The same goes for an artist or actor so I feel convergence is a great thing for promoting creativity.

However I feel that convergence is a bad thing for multiculturalism, it encourages people to stay home because they no longer need to go out in the world to shop, see movies, learn about a different place or culture. One can type in India and learn all kinds of things about the culture while sitting in their pajamas in bed. While this can pique a persons interest or desire to travel, in turn leading to them getting out and seeing a Indian festival or market or movie or restaurant.

However I feel that, more often than not it makes a person feel like OK, well now I don’t have to go do any of that hands on investigating or experiencing. Other people in the debate would strongly disagree with me saying that online learning can lead to more understanding and tolerance. I don’t disagree with them I think they are right but learning isn’t experiencing. One doesn’t truly learn about a people or culture until they immerse themselves in the culture, hear people’s stories, music, taste their food, in some kind of "real" context. It is the same as saying we can know what holocaust survivors went through by reading a textbook, yes it is informative but until you go to the sites and speak to actual people one does not really “get it” and even then it is not the same as actually experiencing something like that first hand.

I feel that by actually experiencing a bit of a new culture in London (for instance), one is more likely to feel engaged and want to learn more about it, maybe even travel to the place. So once again I feel convergence can be helpful as a tool to learning more about another culture, but cannot beat first hand experience, so therefore I do not think that it will encourage multiculturalism all by it’s self.

I think the last question is connected to the previous one but is much trickier. My first reaction is to say that it will not make media and cultural industries more diverse. But this answer was totally put into question in my mind by the debate, when one person said that it does encourage diversity because as the work place become more online people won’t have to “go to work” instead they will have work come to them. Not being seen by your employer could encourage the idea of people being hired because of their skills not because of the way they look or don’t look. This may be a naive idea, but I like it, I think we are still a long ways from not having to go to work.

At the same time perhaps this would be a bad thing and create segregation because by not having to leave our homes we are not forced to interact with people on the street, tube, café, work place that we wouldn’t usually interact with. It would allow us to stick to socializing with or family and chosen friends, it wouldn’t encourage new friendships or acquaintanceship's.

So once again I am stuck on the fence post, I think media convergence could all too easily create segregation. Like in the movie Surrogates, hiding in our homes is not really living and besides then you aren’t learning anything. Maybe that coworker with all the brilliant or horrid ideas is not who you think he is, maybe it is someone of a different culture that you had know idea was so interesting because you assumed it was a white male not a black/yellow/brown/green/young/old female….