Exclusive Print Retreat Interview with Owen Mitchell, Pearson

01 September 2010

Your talk is entitled Global Trends in Content Delivery - what role will print play in content delivery in the future?
Despite predictions of its imminent demise in just about every news source almost every day, printed product will be around for some time yet. For example, there is an awakening of governments in both the developed and developing world to the importance of education which translates into print opportunities. Notwithstanding the surge in e-readers there is evidence that the preference for physical books by a significant base of consumers that will not change quickly.

What trends to you see amongst customer base in terms of their preferences for content delivery?
From reading consumers to retail and publishing customers there is a shift from uniform to personal. The author and journalist no longer has a free reign to create content and must now compete for attention with tools of mass creation, endless blogs and an expectation of "free".

How do you see publishing business models changing in the future to respond to these trends?
Organic investment in content is more important than ever in order to differentiate from mass creation and generate premium content. Content must be developed in a way makes it available for multiple delivery methods. We need to seek new ways of adding value for our consumers e.g. providing educational services as well as basic text. And, of course, we must continue the relentless drive for efficiency in everything we do.

How do you anticipate changes in content delivery will impact the print supply chain?
The drive towards more and more personalization calls into question the equipment we frequently use in the supply chain and our collective obsession with unit manufacturing costs that encourages over-printing. Book publishers are no longer only competing with each other but increasingly with digital versions of the same content that require less fixed costs and a faster cash cycle. Facing up to this reality will necessitate a re-think of the traditional publisher-printer relationship.

What are you looking forward to at the conference in Geneva?
I'm looking forward to open and frank discussions with leading producers of print as to how each of us is approaching the challenges that bind us.