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Downer warns publishers: 'set the agenda'
11.10.11 | Philip Jones
Publishers must take ownership of selling books or face quickly becoming irrelevant, former Borders UK chief Philip Downer told delegates at Tools of Change Frankfurt today (11th October).
Downer said he was concerned that publishers could go the same way of chain booksellers if e-book prices were driven down and the new technology damaged "supplier diversity". He added: "I do believe that perhaps the free market has gone too far."
Downer said bookshops had "failed to adapt to change, failed to innovate, and many of them have gone to the wall as a result" and told publishers that they could not rely on it being "business as usual". He said: "Old sources of income will dry up, and businesses will have to be restructured and repurposed to survive. This includes publishing houses. The past may be a foreign country, but the future is another planet."
Publishers must pool resources, and use their power and integrity to set the agenda with Apple, Amazon and Google, he argued. "Use your professional associations, lobby politicians and opinion-formers, not as a rearguard action to try and 'save the dear old book', but to demonstrate with determined certainty that you know where this industry should be heading, and that you are determining its direction of travel."
He warned that the dominant position of companies such as Amazon wasn't good for a "plural market, and it won't be good for the future of publishing". Downer added: "We are entering a world where a handful of corporations own proprietary formats through which all the books—and a great proportion of all other creative content—is channelled. New technology can do great things, as the Arab Spring demonstrated, but it can also damage supplier diversity and consumer choice."
He advised publishers to focus on e-ink readers and tread carefully around amalgamating the e-reader and the tablet, and the "seduction of colour, movement and noise". He added: "Narrative books are a specific cultural entity. If people want to read them on smartphones, let them—but don't allow those books get lost in the welter of different online applications."
He recommended that publishers should "impose pricing sanity on the e-book market" and said publishers, and the rump of remaining booksellers, should "work together to develop and champion alternative channels". He also advised creating a free e-book reader on the grounds that it should be content that excited readers, not the device.
Downer said he worried over publishers who did not change: "I fear for publishers who still believe that printed books as objects of beauty will survive through some kind of divine intervention, and that a lively conversation will enable everyone to rub along together. And I fear for the attitude that keeps customers at arms' length, that says: 'Publishers supply the books and retailers know how best to sell them'. Steve Jobs is dead, but sometimes I think Queen Victoria is still alive."
At an earlier session Mitch Joel, blogger at Six Pixels of Separation, advised publishers to "reboot" and establish direct relationships with their customers in the connected world and make everything "as shareable and findable as possible". He added: "It's not about paper or plastic, it is about where can I get the content I want to consume and read." He said the change in how the consumer buys content would make e-commerce appear like a "market correction".
Also at Frankfurt: Nielsen Book's first US e-book chart is coming in a "matter of weeks", Jonathan Nowell, head of Nielsen Book, told delegates at Frankfurt's Tools of Change conference. "We now have feeds of data coming in from all the major US e-book booksellers. It is now a matter of weeks when we will have the first charts. It is coming very soon, I promise you."
TheBookseller
©2012 Bookseller Media Ltd rights reserved.
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Isn'r asking Mr Downers opinion on anything related to books as sensible as asking the captain of the Titanic how to sail a ship.
Not really. The captain of the Titanic was told by every expert of his time that the ship was unsinkable. He also had a reputation for excellence, and was sailing an untested ship in what was essentially untested waters. If Edward Smith had survived the ordeal of the Titanic, he would have been an excellent source of information for how to avoid a similar disaster.
The same thing is true with Mr Downers. Having his company essentially gutted by the rise of e-books, I would argue that no one is in a better position to offer advice for other companies to avoid a similar fate. His points are valid, he's not advocating the elimination of e-books. But rather that publishers need to adapt, and develop some standardization.
Dear Matthew
While you are historically accurate regarding the Titanic I beg to differ with regard to Borders. The company went belly up long before the impact of ebooks could be blamed.
It always amazes me that people who run an unseccessful business are considered experts. Wasn't Mr Downer a director at Our Price as well does this make him an expert extraordinaire. Well I certainly suppose you can say he has had a lot of experience in companies that have disappeared.
'...having his company essentially gutted by the rise of e-books'....I really do think you are paying Philip a compliment too many! Borders UK, which was never his company and I recall it sank under his leadership. I would accept that he may have taken over a company that was severely holed beneath the waterline, seeing as Mr Collings has started off with sailing metaphors. However I seem to also recall his patching was less that satisfactory and his 'shipmates' beneath decks were treated rather poorly.
It amuses me that he is now trying to resurface as an authority on all things publishing. Certainly Philip should express an opinion, but to be elevated to 'an authority at a conference'. Ye gods next thing it'll be, is moi popping up an spouting my thoughts and surely the industry does not need to scrape the barrel to this level? Even I can often shoot my own thoughts down in flames and should not be given a public forum of my peers to witter on at!
As for the following...'And I fear for the attitude that keeps customers at arms' length, that says: 'Publishers supply the books and retailers know how best to sell them'. Steve Jobs is dead, but sometimes I think Queen Victoria is still alive." ...this has to be my quote of the year!! How anyone can get Jobs and Queen Victoria into the same sentence is priceless!
Philip m'ol cock sparra...move on.....seeing as you're in Frankfurt perhaps have a butchers at the beer brewing industry?
I left the industry in the early 90's to return three years later to find publishers had pissed the whole thing away...leave them alone. Let them sink.
All I'm saying is he's making a valid and more importantly good point, why ignore it? Because he failed as a CEO and ran a business into the ground?
So did Jack Welch, but people still buy his books, and he's never said anything worthwhile.
Again, he's put forth some great ideas if publishing houses want to continue to relevant. Having "helmed a ship" into a shipwreck, and apparently having learned from it, would make his thoughts at least worth considering.
I largely agree. Although the rise of E-books had nothing to do with the demise of Borders. The race to the bottom with prices, online retailers like Amazon and competing with supermarkets made it very difficult. There were also deep flaws in the business model and management.
With a name like that, how could you NOT work in publishing?
Indeed - didn't the ending of the government subsidy on their "central" warehouse (in Cornwall!) leading to its closure mean that they lost all the efficiency savings that centralised buying gave them?
Why does the Bookseller continue to offer Downer a platfotm to spout given that he destroyed not only Borders but also Books etc, put many people out of a job, left publishers with debt etc. Having worked at hsi former organisation for many years I can confidently state that it was his direct decisions regarding multi-buys, 'one size fits all' Front of Stores, diluting margin via a disastrous DVD and CD offer, disillusioning employees and general idiocy that resulted in Borders UK disappearing, and nothing to do with the rise of the e-book.
Philip Downer delivered one of the most cogent analyses of the present book business I've heard in a long time, and it is that, rather than his time at Borders, which this report is about. If you cannot accept that someone who once ran one of the UK's largest book chains might have something to say about the book business then I'd suggest you are on the wrong website and contributing to the wrong debate. And if you read the piece, you'll note that Philip does not blame e-book sales for the demise of Borders UK, and Books etc, in fact, in his speech he admits that much of his analysis predates the impact of digital. Digital will simply exacerbate the current trends, he says, started by online retail. Sorry to be grumpy, but Borders has gone (on both sides of the pond, I should add), Philip has done his time (much of it played out on this website for good or ill), and like many of us he has a passionate interest in the future of this business, and the selling of published content in digital and print form: most significantly he has important things to say, that need saying. Perhaps better engage with the argument rather than playing the man.
Philip
If "he admits that much of his analysis predates the impact of digital" I think people are right to question whether his analysis is worth listening to now. Digital is here, it is going to stay and its impact could well be greater than all the issues that pre-dated it and lead to the demise of Borders.
Thank you, Philip Jones, for saying what many of us are thinking.
"And if you read the piece, you'll note that..."
I think the problem is that so many of the commentators here are not reading the story, and don't seem to be interested in the current challenges facing the book industry. Rather they see a photo of a former CEO and place all their bitterness and (often misguided) blame on his shoulders.
TheBookseller.com is in danger of losing its readers because we're all getting so tired of the vitriol (directed at PD and others). Our industry is in a crazy, exciting, frightening (for some) place right now. Embrace it and be a part of it rather than standing on the outskirts yelling.
Yes, people lost jobs. Yes we ALL lost much loved bookstores. But it really is time to move on.
Sorry my fault, his analysis of the collapse of book chains such as Borders UK, which was obviously faltering before e took hold. Here is the key passage: "In hindsight, the success of online selling looks inevitable, but the simple fact is that physical shop numbers are falling, and will continue to fall. Bookshops run on very slender margins. They’re dependent on both independent shop owners and chain store staff making the lifestyle choice to work for a pittance in the sector they love. But unless they are to run on purely charitable principles, perhaps with more equitable publisher support, everyone in this room has to accept that most UK and US bookshops will close, quite quickly, as a result of online sales erosion. And of course, all of this predates the digitisation of content, which will serve to speed up the bookshop’s demise."
There is plenty in the speech about digital, and what it will do for/to the book business.
When I wrote my original comment it was merely to point out the irony of having Philip Downer talk at such a prestigious event as the Frankfurt Bookfair. Philip is entitled to an opinion and the content of what he had to say may have some merit. We are all entitled to an opinion, even a broken clock is correct twice a day.
My point was that he was probably not the best choice. Two years ago he was running a company that folded costing publisher thousands if not millions of pounds. Yet here he is lecturing the very same publishers on how to run their business and what they are doing wrong and the real irony of it is that the publishers are paying for the priviledge. If anything you have to admire Philip for wangling the gig in the first place.
Philip Jones to say that Philip Downer did his time is a little off. Those poor sods who were made unemployed and were wondering where the rent money was coming from did their time. For Philip gardening leave is probably more apt.
Andy, publishers and readers of this site can do irony on their own without belittling a fellow professional. I said nothing about the poor sods, many of whom I had first hand dealings with at the time, and remember their many deeply felt comments well. I was judging Philip, and this piece, on what he had to say, and found that it did indeed have merit, as does his blog Front of Store.
It isn't bitterness. I simply refuse to take seriously the pronouncements of a CEO who - twice - was in control of a company and frankly did more harm than good and now presents himself as an authority of the book business. I was always brought up to believe that it is not what a man says that is important but what he does. Mr Downer is simply not credible.
Downer was a horrible man to every single member of my staff when he visited our Books Etc store many moons ago... however, this piece and what he says raises many valid points.
I loathe the man, but unlike many I'll rea what he has said and take it at face value.
My whole concern is not with the content of Philips speech it is the fact that he was given the opportunity to give a speech. I still work in the industry and I want their to be a future and a good future for the industry. I want the people who are going to put themselves forward as the experts and leaders to be credible. Philip doesn't have the credentials to fill the post.
The person who should be standing up their giving the publishers their ten cents worth should be somebody with a history and experience of success.Philip said somethings that made sense, not an issue he just shouldn't have been the person given the platform at such an event.
The person should have come from a successful background, have a history of innovation and who puts some confidence back in the industry. Philip is not that man. This is not a comment intended to belittle anyone it is a comment because I give a damn about this industry.
I don't buy into your position Andy. Failure is a great educator. In this instance what happened at Borders - some of which was clearly down to external forces - is very relevant to how the market is continuing to develop. There were plenty of other speakers at TOC: apart from the person who spoke about typography for 45 minutes, we were spoilt for choice!
Isn'r asking Mr Downers opinion on anything related to books as sensible as asking the captain of the Titanic how to sail a ship.
Not really. The captain of the Titanic was told by every expert of his time that the ship was unsinkable. He also had a reputation for excellence, and was sailing an untested ship in what was essentially untested waters. If Edward Smith had survived the ordeal of the Titanic, he would have been an excellent source of information for how to avoid a similar disaster.
The same thing is true with Mr Downers. Having his company essentially gutted by the rise of e-books, I would argue that no one is in a better position to offer advice for other companies to avoid a similar fate. His points are valid, he's not advocating the elimination of e-books. But rather that publishers need to adapt, and develop some standardization.
I largely agree. Although the rise of E-books had nothing to do with the demise of Borders. The race to the bottom with prices, online retailers like Amazon and competing with supermarkets made it very difficult. There were also deep flaws in the business model and management.
Indeed - didn't the ending of the government subsidy on their "central" warehouse (in Cornwall!) leading to its closure mean that they lost all the efficiency savings that centralised buying gave them?
Dear Matthew
While you are historically accurate regarding the Titanic I beg to differ with regard to Borders. The company went belly up long before the impact of ebooks could be blamed.
It always amazes me that people who run an unseccessful business are considered experts. Wasn't Mr Downer a director at Our Price as well does this make him an expert extraordinaire. Well I certainly suppose you can say he has had a lot of experience in companies that have disappeared.
All I'm saying is he's making a valid and more importantly good point, why ignore it? Because he failed as a CEO and ran a business into the ground?
So did Jack Welch, but people still buy his books, and he's never said anything worthwhile.
Again, he's put forth some great ideas if publishing houses want to continue to relevant. Having "helmed a ship" into a shipwreck, and apparently having learned from it, would make his thoughts at least worth considering.
'...having his company essentially gutted by the rise of e-books'....I really do think you are paying Philip a compliment too many! Borders UK, which was never his company and I recall it sank under his leadership. I would accept that he may have taken over a company that was severely holed beneath the waterline, seeing as Mr Collings has started off with sailing metaphors. However I seem to also recall his patching was less that satisfactory and his 'shipmates' beneath decks were treated rather poorly.
It amuses me that he is now trying to resurface as an authority on all things publishing. Certainly Philip should express an opinion, but to be elevated to 'an authority at a conference'. Ye gods next thing it'll be, is moi popping up an spouting my thoughts and surely the industry does not need to scrape the barrel to this level? Even I can often shoot my own thoughts down in flames and should not be given a public forum of my peers to witter on at!
As for the following...'And I fear for the attitude that keeps customers at arms' length, that says: 'Publishers supply the books and retailers know how best to sell them'. Steve Jobs is dead, but sometimes I think Queen Victoria is still alive." ...this has to be my quote of the year!! How anyone can get Jobs and Queen Victoria into the same sentence is priceless!
Philip m'ol cock sparra...move on.....seeing as you're in Frankfurt perhaps have a butchers at the beer brewing industry?
I left the industry in the early 90's to return three years later to find publishers had pissed the whole thing away...leave them alone. Let them sink.
With a name like that, how could you NOT work in publishing?
Why does the Bookseller continue to offer Downer a platfotm to spout given that he destroyed not only Borders but also Books etc, put many people out of a job, left publishers with debt etc. Having worked at hsi former organisation for many years I can confidently state that it was his direct decisions regarding multi-buys, 'one size fits all' Front of Stores, diluting margin via a disastrous DVD and CD offer, disillusioning employees and general idiocy that resulted in Borders UK disappearing, and nothing to do with the rise of the e-book.
Philip Downer delivered one of the most cogent analyses of the present book business I've heard in a long time, and it is that, rather than his time at Borders, which this report is about. If you cannot accept that someone who once ran one of the UK's largest book chains might have something to say about the book business then I'd suggest you are on the wrong website and contributing to the wrong debate. And if you read the piece, you'll note that Philip does not blame e-book sales for the demise of Borders UK, and Books etc, in fact, in his speech he admits that much of his analysis predates the impact of digital. Digital will simply exacerbate the current trends, he says, started by online retail. Sorry to be grumpy, but Borders has gone (on both sides of the pond, I should add), Philip has done his time (much of it played out on this website for good or ill), and like many of us he has a passionate interest in the future of this business, and the selling of published content in digital and print form: most significantly he has important things to say, that need saying. Perhaps better engage with the argument rather than playing the man.
Thank you, Philip Jones, for saying what many of us are thinking.
"And if you read the piece, you'll note that..."
I think the problem is that so many of the commentators here are not reading the story, and don't seem to be interested in the current challenges facing the book industry. Rather they see a photo of a former CEO and place all their bitterness and (often misguided) blame on his shoulders.
TheBookseller.com is in danger of losing its readers because we're all getting so tired of the vitriol (directed at PD and others). Our industry is in a crazy, exciting, frightening (for some) place right now. Embrace it and be a part of it rather than standing on the outskirts yelling.
Yes, people lost jobs. Yes we ALL lost much loved bookstores. But it really is time to move on.
Philip
If "he admits that much of his analysis predates the impact of digital" I think people are right to question whether his analysis is worth listening to now. Digital is here, it is going to stay and its impact could well be greater than all the issues that pre-dated it and lead to the demise of Borders.
Sorry my fault, his analysis of the collapse of book chains such as Borders UK, which was obviously faltering before e took hold. Here is the key passage: "In hindsight, the success of online selling looks inevitable, but the simple fact is that physical shop numbers are falling, and will continue to fall. Bookshops run on very slender margins. They’re dependent on both independent shop owners and chain store staff making the lifestyle choice to work for a pittance in the sector they love. But unless they are to run on purely charitable principles, perhaps with more equitable publisher support, everyone in this room has to accept that most UK and US bookshops will close, quite quickly, as a result of online sales erosion. And of course, all of this predates the digitisation of content, which will serve to speed up the bookshop’s demise."
There is plenty in the speech about digital, and what it will do for/to the book business.
When I wrote my original comment it was merely to point out the irony of having Philip Downer talk at such a prestigious event as the Frankfurt Bookfair. Philip is entitled to an opinion and the content of what he had to say may have some merit. We are all entitled to an opinion, even a broken clock is correct twice a day.
My point was that he was probably not the best choice. Two years ago he was running a company that folded costing publisher thousands if not millions of pounds. Yet here he is lecturing the very same publishers on how to run their business and what they are doing wrong and the real irony of it is that the publishers are paying for the priviledge. If anything you have to admire Philip for wangling the gig in the first place.
Philip Jones to say that Philip Downer did his time is a little off. Those poor sods who were made unemployed and were wondering where the rent money was coming from did their time. For Philip gardening leave is probably more apt.
Andy, publishers and readers of this site can do irony on their own without belittling a fellow professional. I said nothing about the poor sods, many of whom I had first hand dealings with at the time, and remember their many deeply felt comments well. I was judging Philip, and this piece, on what he had to say, and found that it did indeed have merit, as does his blog Front of Store.
It isn't bitterness. I simply refuse to take seriously the pronouncements of a CEO who - twice - was in control of a company and frankly did more harm than good and now presents himself as an authority of the book business. I was always brought up to believe that it is not what a man says that is important but what he does. Mr Downer is simply not credible.
Downer was a horrible man to every single member of my staff when he visited our Books Etc store many moons ago... however, this piece and what he says raises many valid points.
I loathe the man, but unlike many I'll rea what he has said and take it at face value.
My whole concern is not with the content of Philips speech it is the fact that he was given the opportunity to give a speech. I still work in the industry and I want their to be a future and a good future for the industry. I want the people who are going to put themselves forward as the experts and leaders to be credible. Philip doesn't have the credentials to fill the post.
The person who should be standing up their giving the publishers their ten cents worth should be somebody with a history and experience of success.Philip said somethings that made sense, not an issue he just shouldn't have been the person given the platform at such an event.
The person should have come from a successful background, have a history of innovation and who puts some confidence back in the industry. Philip is not that man. This is not a comment intended to belittle anyone it is a comment because I give a damn about this industry.
I don't buy into your position Andy. Failure is a great educator. In this instance what happened at Borders - some of which was clearly down to external forces - is very relevant to how the market is continuing to develop. There were plenty of other speakers at TOC: apart from the person who spoke about typography for 45 minutes, we were spoilt for choice!
My word it amazes me how in the trade of freedom and expression we sport so many bigots and sensors . Let the man speak , you are free to listen or not .
I too - and I admit it freely - am not a fan of Mr Downer. I used to work for Borders, indeed as a store manager, and he made many many mistakes (poor appointments at area manager level in particular). However, he cares about books so I will listen. (He perhaps knows more about books than how to run a business, but that's another story...) In the long term, things will change - there will be places in bookshops on the high street to pop in and download an ebook, heck, they may even buy a real paper-based book in the process. It will take a while to shake down but I think we don't know how. I remember Philip Downer confidently standing up at an annual conference and calling for the end of RRP pricing on books. Well, he went before that has, so maybe he's not such a guru after all. We all have an opinion - I think what a lot of people object to on here is the fact that so much time and space is given over to a man who oversaw the demise of Borders and books etc, and yet he continues to pose as an 'expert'. Not so much, I'm thinking.