Focus on enabling the publishing sector

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PubliCon

FICCI will be organizing the seventh edition of PubliCon on 1 December 2017 at FICCI auditorium, New Delhi.

PubliCon 2017 will focus on Enabling Publishing Sector by facilitating effective dialog and debate over policy issues, addressing copyright issues, strategies for content monetization across platforms, presenting international business opportunities for authors, translators, and illustrators, and emerging marketing trends to empower publishers and authors.

Publicon will commence with a Plenary Keynote Address, which will discuss the role of the publishing sector in the social, political and economic growth of new India. This will be followed by sessions on boosting content monetization by leveraging multiple platforms; copyright, piracy and publishing; opportunities for publishers, authors, translators, and illustrators with French creative industries; and the PubliCon Marketing Summit 2017.

Some of the speakers at PubliCon 2017 include Rajiv Aggarwal, joint secretary, DIPP, Government of India; Dr. Chandan Mitra, editor and managing director, The Pioneer; Prof. NV Varghese, director, Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education, NUEPA; Urvashi Butalia, chair, FICCI, and director and publisher, Zubaan; Ratnesh Jha, co-chair, FICCI, and managing director, CUP; Major General GD Bakshi, creator of War Hero Books; Arpit Bhargav, director, Diamond Comics Digital Studio; Pankaj Sikka, chief visionary and brand strategist, Invision Brand Consulting; Anand Singh, senior director – South Asia, Turner International; Anurag Sachdeva, director (India & South-East Asia), Rovio Entertainment Ltd.; Ashish Kulkarni, chair, FICCI Animation, VFX, Gaming, and Comics Forum; Dr. Nicolas Idier, head, French Book office; Shilpi Jha, senior legal counsel for Intellectual Property – South-East Asia, USPTO; Vikas Gupta, managing director, Wiley India; Monica Malhotra Kandhari, managing director, MBD Group; Karthika VK, publisher, Westland Publications; Ravi DeeCee, chief executive officer, DC Books; Preeti Hingorani, head – Brand & PR, Cambridge University Press; Rajiv Dhingra, founder and chief executive officer, Wat Consult; Naveen Choudhary, head of marketing – Global Academic Publishing Oxford University Press; Debasri Rakshit, managing editor, Westland Publications; and Paras Bansal, business head, Oxford University India.

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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