The Bookseller.com

4th July 2008

Alan Giles spent 20 years in bookselling with Waterstone’s and W H Smith. He retired as c.e.o. of HMV Group last year to take up non-executive and teaching roles.

Right notes

19.02.08

The travails of EMI would make a great soap opera. Tabloids predict fisticuffs between the record label’s boss Guy Hands and Robbie Williams, but the real issue is whether the hard-nosed, rational policies of private equity owners Terra Firma will ultimately succeed in the temperamental, volatile world of rock ’n’ roll.

Radical ideas are clearly necessary to reverse the fortunes of a company that is too small and narrowly focused to prosper against the global media empires of Bertelsmann, Time Warner et al, but too big and corporate to attract new talent compared to fast-moving, artist-friendly independent labels. It makes sense to boost investment in A&R, be merciless in cutting support infrastructure, and separate the management of such different skill sets.

Shifting the focus of marketing spend to digital, and pursuing "360º" deals (which include tour and merchandise revenues) also look right. Other ideas are less convincing: running "focus groups" with customers to inform future releases risks compromising artistic integrity, and sponsorship of albums will surely grate with fans (but I used to say that about football clubs, and now happily walk around displaying my allegiance to a Japanese printer brand).

Could such ideas be successfully applied to book publishing? Most large publishers already recognise that putting editors in charge of the back office doesn’t work, and the pain of rationalising support infrastructure has already been lived through. But beyond high-investment non-fiction projects, it’s hard to see the merits of focus groups. Consumer feedback is useful on jacket designs and advertising campaigns, but can we really expect readers to offer any meaningful sense of direction for new writing, and would editors, let alone authors, take any notice anyway?

Sponsorship is another matter. The first signs are already here with Galaxy’s affiliation with the Nibbies, and it seems a small step to bring such endorsements directly onto book jackets. If there is a reasonable brand fit, and it reduces the cost of books, then why not?

And the prospects for EMI? Replacing the respected Tony Wadsworth with managers who have run airports and manufactured pork pies looks high-risk. Creative talent can, and probably will, walk away. But with the security of long-term, continuing income from the music publishing side of the business, it’s arguable that Guy Hands has acquired the record label part of EMI for nothing, and is therefore placing a free bet.

Comments on this article