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The Booksellers Association and Publishers Association are working on a cross-industry campaign to promote the value of reading. The move was revealed at Book Marketing Limited's annual conference this week, where it was reported that the proportion of people buying books has fallen over the past five years to 57%. Delegates were told that there are fewer people buying books now than in 2004.
Publishers, retailers and wholesalers, including Waterstone's, Hachette, W H Smith, Gardners, Random House, Pan Macmillan and independent booksellers, are working together on a promotional logo and slogan. The slogan will be unveiled at this year's BA Conference in June. Tim Godfray, BA chief executive, told delegates: "There's a real need to promote better as an industry the value and entertainment that books offer."
One slogan has already been re-jected, Godfray said, with some objections to an emphasis on price value. Clare Harington, Hachette group communications director and chair of the working group, said: "The idea behind it is to come up with something everyone can use however they want to. The model is like the 'five-a-day' [government] campaign." She added that while the logo could be carried on the likes of plastic bags and press releases, new books would not carry the logo. She added: "The feeling was that it wouldn't work on books."
The BML research indicated that while volume has grown 10% over the past five years, with 330 million books sold in 2008, there has only been a 4% increase in spending. Steve Bohme, research director at BML, said: "Taking into account general price inflation, the 4% increase in spending on books between 2004 and 2008 represents a 6% decrease in real terms."
Volume growth has not resulted in more readers, with the proportion of 12 to 79-year-olds buying books falling over the past three years, from 61% in 2004 to 57% in 2008. Bohme said: "The market has become increasingly reliant on a smaller pool of buyers buying more books each year."
Six per cent less was spent on books in 2008 than 2007, down from £2.47bn to £2.31bn. Even stripping out the success of Harry Potter in 2007 results in a drop in spending of 3%. Book purchases in 2008 were worth 2% less than in 2006.