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Victoria Barnsley, chief executive of HarperCollins, is to become president of the UK Publishers Association in 2010, having been elected vice-president at the PA a.g.m. held in London today (29th April). Barnsley will become only the second woman to be president of the PA, the first being Philippa Harrison, who was president in 1998.
Barnsley will take over from Simon Allen, senior vice-president, International, at McGraw-Hill, who assumed the post of president of the PA at the a.g.m. with Ian Hudson, deputy c.e.o. of Random House stepping down.
In his a.g.m. speech Allen highlighted protecting copyright as one of the key challenges faced by the industry. "All we have are our people and our content, it is critical that we invest carefuly and wisely to protect that copyright."
Allen admitted that he had much to learn from trade publishers, but added: "I don't do the fun side of the publishing, but then I console myself by looking at the [profit] margins."
In his outgoing speech at the PA a.g.m. Hudson said the past twelve months had been "unprecedented in recent publishing history", with publishers facing "£25m" in bad debt from the collapse of Entertainment UK, and a possible further "£20m" had book wholesaler Bertrams followed it into administration.
And Hudson added: "I don't think it is going to get any easier. The next two years will be critical in the evolution of our industry."