ABSTRACT

The previous chapter provided an overview of the nature and composition of business models, ranging from the traditional to the digital and the hybrid in nature. This chapter is different in that it narrows the focus and looks in some detail at a range of business models in use in the Australian book publishing sector. It is based upon 14 separate case studies conducted during our earlier government-funded research into digitization within the industry, carried out from 2006 to 2008. Although to an extent limited by a requirement for anonymity on the part of the 14 case companies concerned (three trade book publishers, four educational book publishers, one professional publisher, three specialist book publishers and 3 university presses), this is in effect a case study of the progress of digitization in Australian book publishing at that time. Apart from the fact that much of what is reported from that period is still current, this earlier research exercise enabled us to test and iterate the methodology later employed in building the models amassed during the later phase of our research, in 2009. Furthermore, with the exception of the specialist and university publishers, all the remaining case study companies feature in Table 9.1, which depicts the leading book publishers in Australia on the basis of their market shares. We begin by providing a brief overview of book publishing in Australia. Market shares in publishing in Australia 2003–2009 https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">

Major players

Market share (%)

2003–04

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd

3.69

3.52

2.66

2.50

2.40

Australian Consolidated Press Pty Ltd

1.40

1.40

1.40

Hachette Livres Australia Pty Ltd

2.00

2.00

2.30

John Wiley & Sons Australia Pty Ltd

1.40

1.40

1.40

McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd

6.00

5.00

2.50

2.40

2.50

News Australia Holdings Pty Ltd

8.00

8.00

8.00

2.17

2.20

2.20

Pearson Australia Holdings Pty Ltd

7.00

10.00

11.00

6.24

5.70

6.00

Publishing and Broadcasting Pty Ltd

2.81

1.00

3.00

Random House Australia Pty Ltd

2.28

2.20

2.20

Reader’s Digest Australia Pty Ltd

2.00

Reed Elsevier Australia Pty Ltd

12.00

12.68

13.35

2.71

2.70

2.70

Sensis Pty Ltd

45.00

30.00

31.00

42.57

42.60

39.30

Scholastic Australia Pty Ltd

6.00

5.00

5.18

2.82

2.80

2.80

Cengage Learning (Thomson Corporation Australia Pty Ltd)

13.00

12.00

5.21

1.00

1.00

1.00

Wolters Kluwer Australia Pty Ltd

3.00

6.00

6.27

1.90

1.90

Other

1.15

5.63

8.47

28.35

31.10

33.80

Sources: IBISWorld 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010