Local Perspectives
in a Globalizing Culture.
The Challenge for Local and Regional
Small and Medium Size Enterprises in the Publishing Industries.
A Systematic Approach.
Globalisiation & Concentration:
USA
- 8,5 billion US $ spent for mergers and acquisitions in the USA in 1-6/1998
- 90 % of the US book market controlled by top 20 companies by 1999
France
- 2 conglomerates (Hachette & CEP Communication) control over 50 % of the French book market
- 26 publishers with over 100 million Francs have 75 % market share
- In specialized sections far more (reference: 96 %; textbooks 82 %)
Germany
- Publishers with more than 60 million DM turnover grow by 4,2 %
- Top 50 grow by 5,7 %
- Publishers between 18 and 60 million DM grow by 1,6 %.
Consequences e.g. for the book market
Book = 1 of many media for content
Slow vs. fast channels
New middelmen rise:
- (Book- & Media-) Superstores
- Supermarkets
- Online (Book- & Media) retailers
- Companies globalize - and so does content
- The consumer turns into the (versatile) user
- Choice turns into opportunity
New technologies - new channels - Information
- Entertainment
- Education
- Art and Culture all compete for attention, time & money of the user (the public)
Slow Motion in Fast Times
- Globalized content
- Local form & media
Þ transnational impact on local content (the public / user compares everything from everywhere)
Þ A broad view from everywhere (everything can be accessed / can be seen)
- Niche content may change the media (e.g. local history goes online)
- Niche content becomes de-professionalized
- Culture jobs turn into culture as a hobby (despite the use of advanced technological knowhow!)
The alternative: Professionalise small enterprises
Initiate a new approach to content:
- Specific content and profile ("creative" industries)
- Specific public (not necessarily on a local / regional scale)
- Specific channels and media (user-driven)
- Specific emphasis on distribution
The alternative: Professionalise small enterprises
Internationalize small & medium publishing / culture companies:
Þ Co-productions
Þ Trading rights
Þ Printing on Demand; Online etc.
Þ Creating communities
Þ Exchanging bits & bytes
Thus open (transnational) platforms are needed, e.g.
The Frankfurt Book Fair / The Frankfurt Rights Catalogue / Virtual Frankfurt
- The digital complement for access and orientation
- A level playing field
- Advanced technology accessible for everyone everywhere (2000 companies from 68 countries)
Dynamic perspectives:
- A global and professional platform open for local enterprises
- A many to many network for the exchange of information and the trade of rights
- User-driven
- Business-to-business
- Open to new media & technologies
Political consequences:
- Supporting production :
- Creating dynamic frames (access to open platforms) is instead:
has no answer to the rise of new channels an no answer to changes in user orientations
User driven (focus on distribution and on on channels)
Generating feed back (implement tools for evaluation)
The Goals:
- Sustaining Variety
- Create communities of users / of the public
- Encourage SME to form nodes between local and transnational networks
- Hold (or create) jobs in culture and the arts
Rüdiger Wischenbart is the Press Officer of the Frankfurt Book Fair
Email: wischenbart@book-fair.com
Internet: www.frankfurt-book-fair.com
Rüdiger Wischenbart (*1956, Graz), PhD in German Literature. Journalist and Publicist. Lecturer at the University of Vienna. Essays and several books on contemporary literature, cultural politics and on culture in Central Europe. Last publications: "Canettis Angst. Erkundungen am Rande Europas (Canetti's Fear. Explorations on the European Periphery)", 1993; "Sehnsucht nach der Großen Stadt. Flüchtlingsgeschichten aus Wien (Longing to become a Metropole. Migration and Refuge in Vienna)", 1995. Wischenbart is currently the Chief Press Officer of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
