At the recently concluded fifth GlobaLocal 2014 conference in New Delhi, Winnie Hung, development manager publishing and cross-segments strategy of HP Digital Press Solutions Asia Pacific and Japan, said, “The dynamics of the publishing printing segment is changing rapidly worldwide.
As print runs are coming down and eBooks and multi-channel offerings are starting to suppress the print volume of printed books, it is a critical time for printers to re- strategize in order to assure their continuous profitability and growth.
In order to do so, it is very important to link the business model discussion with the technology discussion.”
In her keynote presentation – Content is king but not inventory, Hung described several business initiatives and steps undertaken by publishers and printers jointly to reduce wastage and costs. With a print- on-demand model in place, the extra cost of printing, warehousing and logistics of overruns that are a matter of habit in traditional book publishing is eliminated and apart from the cost saving there is an environmental benefit of not having to pulp overstock.
She pointed out that changing reading habits, the advent of electronic media, environmental issues and lower expected returns are some of the biggest challenges for publishers and printers globally.
The biggest problem for modern publishers is inventory. In the current times, how should a printer print efficiently? “70 to 75% of the sales forecast by publishers is not correct all the time,” said Hung, “and often printers and publishers have to either warehouse the excess copies or go for push selling at lower prices.
” The cost of maintaining the inventory is often more than the cost of printing or distribution. Hung also said, the best or most optimized situation for the book publishing world is currently in China compared even to the US, Japan or Korea.
Assessing the total cost of ownership (TCO) is essential to optimizing supply chains, feels Hung. TCO includes capital and non-capital inventory carrying charges in addition to unit cost. According to Hung, the TCO for inventory carrying cost is equal to the sum of warehousing and capital costs, where warehousing costs include various costs such as obsolescence, pilferage, damage, insurance, taxes and administration charges.
80% of the book titles are not generating profit for publishers whereas only the remaining 20% are profitable. Thus a new print policy cannot be a hard and fast rule but needs to be flexible. This includes correct stock levels for all titles, maximizing overall margins from book sales, and maintaining the lowest inventory investment and carrying cost while achieving the former objectives. She said that the optimum printing method across the life of a title with digital and offset working together will help in generating revenue from the 80% of book titles that are otherwise not-so-profitable.
Hung emphasized that the publishe benefits from short run and print-on- demand digital printing with reduced cost of ownership, reduced risk of obsolescence, helps keeping titles in print, and shorter lead times allowing print quantities to be closer to anticipated demand.
GlobaLocal 2014 attracted publishers from across the country along with several foreign delegates — a wonderful opportunity for publishers, printers and publishing professionals to align themselves with the ever changing requirements of the publishing world.
Conferences and seminars like these with many publishers, book printers as well as intermediary distribution companies in the audience can help to bring the various segments of the industry on to the same page
