The publishing industry must always reflect, and operate within, the distinct circumstances at any given time: the nature of business, government, trade, politics, finance, market conditions and of course conflict on an international level are all factors that shape publishing companies and their fortunes. Needless to add, I am sure those of us who are fortunate enough to make their living in this industry, whether as employee, employer or freelancer, will have witnessed changes within the last 12 months that were necessitated by the global economic downturn. Long-term prosperity in international circumstances enabled such global publishing powerhouses as Elsevier, Macmillan, WolterKluwer, McGraw Hill, Informa, Pearson and Springer (in no particular order) to emerge and flourish. These are companies where innovative, creative individuals plan and implement multi-media products; ultimately to provide value to shareholders/owners, which is an ever-present concern amongst such international houses. Oxford University Press, for example, has recently given £100m to Oxford University, in part aided by its fortuitous charitable status.
Much is known about these globally dominant publishers courtesy of trade news, PR, AGMs and annual reports. There is, however, generally less awareness within ‘mainstream’ publishing communities of publishing ventures which are not held to account solely in terms of gross profit, sales figures, turnover, citations, adoptions, takeovers or other barometers of success by which they judge performance. There are numerous political, religious, non-governmental organisation (NGO) and non-profit publishers thriving in the global landscape today. These include NGO publishers such as Oxfam, African Books Collective, Association for Progressive Communications (APC), HSRC Press, Practical Action Publishing, and The World Bank, amongst others. It is my belief that ‘conventional’ commercial publishers have much to learn from them.
UNESCO is one such example. Established in 1945, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization had one original, ambitious goal: ‘to build peace in the minds of men through education, science, culture and communication.’ Of course, this is now the cumulation of many tailored objectives, for example the Millenium Development Goals of UNESCO which stipulates:
‘By 2015 all 191 United Nations Member States have pledged to... Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger... Halve the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and who suffer from hunger... Achieve universal primary education... Promote gender equality and empower women... Reduce child mortality... Improve maternal health... Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases... Ensure environmental sustainability.’
Ian Denison, its Head of Publishing since 2007, kindly allowed me an insight into how UNESCO Publishing is an indispensable part of this global strategy from its location in Paris. I began by asking him about his own publishing career, and how he came to work for UNESCO Publishing:
‘I came out of college with a law degree, by which time I had already decided not to pursue a career in law. I moved to Bristol and, as I was then very much into student politics, I worked initially on trade union magazines until I eventually got a job with Quarto publishing. In 1990 I then moved to France and got a job with the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) working on their energy content. I worked there for 5 years before being headhunted into UNESCO.’
Denison began at UNESCO by working on educational content, and spent the next 11 years in Paris. In 2005 he moved to Canada (with UNESCO) and returned to Paris as Head of Publishing in 2007. What have been the most important stages in his career?
‘Moving to the OECD. It is a big institutional publisher, where I learnt the ropes, and how to work within the confines of bureaucracy. The next important stage was becoming Head of Publishing. I’m working on providing new editorial guidelines for all staff worldwide, sourcing co-publishers and focussing on translating our products into languages than the six core languages.’
What does the Head of Publishing role involve?
‘I am heavily involved in standard setting across all offices worldwide, for staff and external consultants working on various projects. I’m working to pass on expertise in terms of rights and production issues. I’m working with the publishing of our frontlist, which is 100 books per year. I’m also involved with finding consultants and appropriate co-publishing companies.’
What are the most enjoyable aspects of the work?
‘Working internationally. I’m just back from the Bangkok, providing field training for staff and attending the book fair in Beijing. We’re getting involved with the new important book fairs, such as South Africa and Abu Dhabi. Having a challenge to ensure we publish in as many languages as possible. Adapting our books for different audiences as well.’
What are the main challenges ahead for UNESCO Publishing?
‘There are a few: I would say, to stay multi-lingualism. Another challenge right now is license with the right partners, especially those who can translate. We’re aiming to get our books into China, and translated into such languages as Russian and Arabic. A high priority for me is to focus on young people. The UNESCO Courier was a very popular magazine for young people, but the format wasn’t quite right, so now one of the main challenges is doing things for young people. So, in summary, it’s translating, sourcing rights partners and protecting the brand.’
How is technology being utilised by UNESCO Publishing?
‘We’re mainly using technology for sales and in mixed distribution channels. We’re involved in online major reference works, such as encyclopedias, in a Wiki-style format. We have a series -- the History series – which should be ideal for this type of format. We are looking at becoming part of Google Books and have had discussions several times with Google. We are also reorganizing distribution services to include POD (discussions with Lightning Source).’
What are the future plans for UNESCO Publishing?
‘We are under considerable pressure to justify what we are doing, so we need to establish a more economically viable operating model, show we are recovering costs and making profit from what we’re doing. We can’t continue to give titles away free forever, so we are looking to address this. We’ve also got the issue of evaluating our free content; we’ve not really been able to do that, so we’re aiming to be more visible economically, reaching out to the right people, producing a report on this, etc.'
Who are UNESCO Publishing’s core audience/consumer?
‘This is a difficult one to answer as they are so diverse. It’s mainly a core customer base of researchers, academics, studentscivil servants, NGOs, government employees, but again this is something we are looking into in more detail.’
Finally, I wondered if Denison could offer any advice to any SYP members interested in pursuing a career in this type of international publishing:
‘Yes, I would advise to be very flexible in job searching. There is never an ideal job at first or job profiles that correspond to private sector publishing, so it’s important to get a foot inside the door first, and then use your contacts. It’s often difficult to see from the outside to judge how the organisation functionswhat is going on. But once inside, for someone who is a keen and intelligent employee, and who wants to work for international progress UNESCO is a very good employer.'
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