E-Publishing Outsourcing Signals Boom in Global Publishing Industry: Report

As the world seeks to steer away from the economic slowdown, the global publishing industry is gearing up to venture fully into the outsourcing of publishing activities. Outsourcing of publishing activities is gaining prominence and is a huge market. The surge in outsourcing has been largely influenced by massive acceleration of e-books adoption by global consumer. According to the Association of American Publishers, revenue for e-books for some of the biggest categories grew by 41% in 2012. E-books currently account for around 23% of trade publishing revenues.

The speed at which e-books can be launched to the market has provided a fillip to the outsourcing industry. The process involves converting and formatting for different media such as e-book readers, tablets, mobiles, and devices and applications that enable electronic reading. This enabled digital publishing to gain a strong foothold in the global publishing industry.

E-learning in Digital Age

E-learning outsourcing segment is poised for a big leap as educational institutes have integrated technology in the teaching and learning process. However, maintaining e-learning systems require organizations and educational institute to invest heavily on technology and resources. This provided an impetus to outsourcing firms specialized in e-publishing services. These companies address the needs of the education industry and help publishers to get their products into the market quickly with data conversion, digital archiving, and ePUB conversion services.

Mobilization of Publishing

Faster mobile connectivity is also seen as a major reason for growth of the e-publishing industry. Today, consumers seek content to be made available on mobile devices. There has been a surge in demand from publishers in delivering content on mobile devices. Nevertheless, delivering content suitable for mobile consumption is a big challenge for publishers. As a result, publishers rely on outsourcing companies to convert content ideal for any digital platform such as .mobi to ePUB. This helps publishers to concentrate on the business planning and selling, without mulling on how to reach customers on mobile.

Outsourcing Trends

Outsourcing in the global publishing industry is hitting a crescendo. The fourth annual eBook survey from Aptara revealed that about 54% of e-book publishers rely on a third-party for the majority of e-book content conversion and production. The survey further states that about 55% of publishers continue to outsource work due to lack of internal capabilities and resources, followed by scalability (17%) as external partners can more easily scale to handle larger volumes.

The Way Ahead

The global outsourcing industry has come a long way in offering customized services to the publishing industry. The industry offers tools that meet publisher, education institute and corporate requirements for the e-Publishing landscape. Asian countries like India, China, and Philippines comprise a lion’s share of the publishing outsourcing industry. According to a research firm, the Indian e-Publishing outsourcing industry is estimated at US $1.2 billion in 2012. The figure will grow further with the rise in the number of publishing firms outsourcing their work to stay ahead in the competitive race. E-publishing considerably adds value to content and will propel the outsourcing sector to greater dimensions hitherto unseen.

– Back Office Pro