EUROPEAN PUBLISHING TRAINING NEEDS IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

LEONARDO DA VINCI (STRAND III.2.A)

SLOVAKIA REPORT

PROJECT PARTNERS:

CENTER FOR PUBLISHING DEVELOPMENT, OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

SCHOOL OF ART, PUBLISHING AND MUSIC, OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY, OXFORD, UNITED KINGDOM

STRATEGY RESEARCH AND ACTION, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

AUSSTELLUNGS UND MESSE DES BORSENVEREINS DES DEUTSCHEN BUCHHANDELS, FRANKFURT, GERMANY

PUBLISHING TRAINING CENTRE, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

MAY 2000

1. INTRODUCTION

Leonardo da Vinci project III.2.A has been commissioned by the European Commission to identify the extent and nature of the need for publishing training in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). The project is entitled European Publishing Training Needs in the Information Society II (EPTNIS II).

The project was commissioned following the success of EPTNIS I, a project conducted in 1998 in western European countries.

The project assesses the training needs of the publishing industry in 9 CEEC countries.

In January 1999 the project members met in Budapest to draft a research plan and to discuss the agenda for the project. As a result of this planning meeting a two-stage research project was agreed on and completed. The initial stage involved qualitative research in 4 countries followed by quantitative research in all 9 countries.

1.1 PROJECT PARTNERS

The project benefits from experienced partners, and each partner complements the skills of the other partners.

The project partners include:

Paul Richardson, professor of publishing at the School of Music and Publishing at Oxford Brookes University;

Frances Pinter and Jerzy Celichowski, from the Center for Publishing Development, Open Society Institute, Budapest;

Dag Smith, from Publishing Training Centre, London;

Barbel Becker, Ausstellungs und Messe des Borsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels, Frankfurt;

Robin Birn and Simon Whitehead, Strategy Research and Action in London.

However the data collection stage of the project could not have been successfully completed without the contribution of the staff of the Open Society Institutes in the countries involved, who worked to coordinate the translation and mailing of the quantitative questionnaire. It is for this reason that the research results have proved so robust, and the success of the project ensured.

It is also of value to mention the high response rates achieved during the research, and to appreciate that many of the publishers have been forthcoming in information, some of which could be considered to be sensitive.

1.2 METHODOLOGY

The research has been completed using a two-stage approach.

The first stage, the qualitative stage, consisted of in depth interviews with publishers. It was designed to provide guidance to help shape the quantitative research and identify the key issues related with training in Eastern and Central Europe. There were 10 interviews conducted in each of the 2 larger countries of Poland and Romania, and 6 in Hungary and Latvia.

The quantitative research was completed in the 10 countries of Central and Eastern Europe that have applied to join, and are being considered for membership of, the European Union in the future.

These countries are: Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria and Estonia. All responded with sufficient questionnaires except Estonia.

The research has been designed to be fully comparative across countries and to identify the comparisons and contrasts between the countries in the study. As such the methodology reflects these needs.

The quantitative research sought to interview a statistically significant number of publishers in all 9 countries and access them by means of a postal self-completion questionnaire. The samples were decided using a sample frame from established data prepared by the Open Society Institute on publisher numbers in each of the countries.

In each country different sources were required to build a postal address list of publishers, and the Open Society Institutes in each country were able to provide substantial assistance in this regard.

A total of 2,306 questionnaires were mailed out.

The response rates in each of the countries obviously differed, but a total response of 780 returned for analysis was achieved.

When compared to typical research projects the response rates are all very high for a number of reasons, and this project has a response rate of 34%. This is in itself an encouraging sign from publishers in the region.

It is believed the good response rates are due to the specific nature of the study, the interest from the respondents, and the Open Society Institutes following up each questionnaire they posted out with a telephone call. The data can therefore be used to define training needs and to assess future training activities in each country.

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The main objectives for completing the research were as follows:

• Establish the attitudes towards training of publishers in the region
• Establish the extent to which electronic publishing is undertaken by publishers in the region
• Define the extent to which publishers feel publishing training is needed, and in which business disciplines it is most required
• Define the extent to which electronic publishing training is a priority in the region
• Produce data on the publishing industry which is internationally comparable, and which will provide a benchmark of the state of the publishing sector in the region

Users of the data should therefore be able to define better the segments in the publishing industry in the region, and position themselves better to grow the market with this knowledge.

1.4 USE OF RESULTS

The European Commission who have provided funding for the project, will be using the data, report and recommendations to assess the possibilities of providing financial assistance to publishers in Central and Eastern Europe in order to enhance the building of an Information Society within the Union.

It is assumed that the countries involved in the project will join the EU in the medium or long term. Consequently the results can be used to enhance knowledge about the new countries in order to coordinate transnational projects.

A further use of the data is by publishers themselves and by the Open Society Institute as a tool for decision-making. This is the first definitive survey of publishers’ activities in Central and Eastern Europe and is data which can be interpreted to define transnational publishing and subsequent training needed.

1.5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

There are a significant number of results that have come out of the research. Those that are most significant are likely to refer to individual countries or to come about as a result of comparison between data sets. As such this executive summary is limited to findings relating to Slovakia only.

The key findings of the research are:

• The most significant sector is the education sector (History/Social Science/Academic/STM/Textbooks). This is measured by the number of publishers involved in publishing each genre.

• Electronic publishing (Internet and CD-Rom) is primarily confined to the Educational market, again implying institutional buying.

• Expenditure on training is very low, but Slovak publishers are more likely to spend more money on training than other publishers in the region.
• Such training that there is appears to be distributed between non-EU and EU training providers, as well as between trainers in the booktrade and trainers external to it.
• When looked at in more detail it becomes evident that publishers feel that a number of specific fields would benefit from transnational training, whereas a number of others would benefit more from training in their own country. Generally, the outfacing fields such as management and sales and marketing were felt to be likely to benefit from transnational training, whereas in-facing fields such as Editor/Creative and Production would benefit from own country training.
• The biggest problem experienced in becoming involved in electronic publishing is, by a significant margin, lack of resources, followed by lack of business partners.
• Supporting this, publishers feel that the biggest threats to electronic publishing are lack of access to finance, and piracy.
• The lack of current training expenditure is put into further context when publishers say that they feel strongly that their staff will have to change their working methods and roles. Interestingly it is sales and marketing and editorial which the majority of publishers feel will need to change the most.
• The fact that publishers would spend any additional funds on new products reveals a belief that essentially they are operating correctly and efficiently, and that growth would best be achieved by expanding output.
• This is to an extent supported by the data showing that publishers feel that joining the EU would be an advantage to them. Again, it points to an ‘up and at them’ attitude.
• In sum, a proportion of publishers’ express interest in electronic publishing, either by saying it is a priority, or by or by saying that they would be plan to publish electronically relatively soon. However this is to be contrasted with the low proportions of publishers currently involved in electronic publishing. This gap is best explained with reference to the publishers saying that lack of access to finance and lack of resources are a problematic.

1.6 QUALITATIVE FINDINGS

Publishers in the region were initially researched through the Qualitative research about the issues involved in publishing training, as well as their experiences with, and attitudes towards, transnational training and electronic publishing.

The findings of this stage of the research assisted further development of the questionnaire for the Quantitative research, and the bulk of the findings do indeed support the findings of the Quantitative stage.

It was for instance evident that the degree to which a publisher perceived multimedia training as important was a reflection on their abilities to present themselves in the market. Caution was the key word within the multimedia publishing industry, and the inability to deal with piracy a major concern.

Overall, the Qualitative research was used to assess methods to ensure that the quantitative research would be successful, and addressed the perceptions of the publishers in Eastern and Central Europe.

1.7 QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS

The Quantitative findings of EPTNIS II are substantial and in depth. They have been presented as tabulations, and several cross tabulations of questions were specified.

It should be noted that this survey, with 780 completed responses, represents the most extensive survey into the publishing sector ever completed in the CEEC. As such, the data in this report are highly significant statistically. So too, in Slovakia, the data represents the most comprehensive picture of the industry yet produced to assess training.

The following are the results of the research.

7.7.1 CURRENT MATERIAL PUBLISHED

Of the total sample of 780 publishers, 621 (80%) are currently publishing only in print. 18% are publishing both print and electronically, and just over 1% are publishing only electronically.

In Slovakia 92% of publishers publish material in print, 8% both electronically and in print, and 1% electronically.

Slovakia is therefore an atypical example of the structure of the output of the publishing industry in Eastern and Central Europe because it is country where publishers are the least likely to be involved in electronic publishing.

7.7.2 GENRE CURRENTLY PUBLISHED

In terms of the most commonly published genre in Slovakia, Academic material is the most common, with 62% of publishers saying that they publish this genre.

This is closely followed by Literature which is published by 56% of respondents, and History and Social Science, which is published by 54% of respondents.

Children’s material is published by 49% of publishers.

Fiction is published by 36% of respondents, and textbooks are published by 31% of publishers.

Language titles are published by 26%. Other titles are pubvlished by 23% of publishers, Science, Technical and Medical (STM) titles are published by 15% of publishers, and Mind, Body and Spirit titles are also published by 15% of publishers. Biographies too, are published by 15% of publishers.

Food and Drink titles are published by 13% of publishers and Business/Management titles are published by 10% of respondents.

Maps/Atlases and Travel Guides, Computer Software titles, and Sports titles are all published by fewer than 6% of respondents.

No publishers publish Cinema and TV titles.

Slovak publishers generally publish more genres than publishers in other countries.

This may indicate that there are a small number of publishers in Slovakia, and that they attempt to cover the majority of genre commonly published within the industry in Slovakia.

It is worth noting that for some specialist genre Slovaks frequently import titles from Czech (made possible by the similarities of the languages). However due to legislation concerning the promotion of the Slovak language (following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993) imports are not possible for some genre used for some purposes, for example, educational purposes. A common theme in Slovak civil society is ‘Na slovensko po slovensky’ (In Slovakia, Slovak).

1.8 PLAN TO PUBLISH

For the majority of genres, respondents as a whole do not plan to increase the range of their output. Generally publishers say they plan to publish similar genres to those they currently publish.

These results are likely to reflect some ambiguity in the question, whereby those currently publishing a genre may not have responded to the suggestion that they plan to publish a genre in the next 2 years because they feel that as they are already doing so it would not be an additional plan to purchase.

1.9 CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN PUBLISHING CD-ROMS

There are very few Slovak publishers currently involved in publishing on CD-ROM and Disks.

1.10 CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN INTERNET PUBLISHING

Again there are very few Slovak publishers involved in Internet publishing, however a minority have a reasonable number of genres that they publish, mostly arts and literature titles rather than the science based titles.

1.11 PLANS TO PUBLISH MULTIMEDIA

67% of publishers say that they are currently unable to get involved in multimedia publishing in the future. This is higher than the average for publishers in other countries.

13% of publishers plan to publish electronically within one year, and again this is lower than the average.

Currently 21% of publishers have no plans to get involved in multimedia publishing.

1.12 EU TRAINING PROVIDER

69% of publishers did not mention a training provider in the European Union.

This is higher than the CEEC average, suggesting that Slovak publishers are less likely to collaborate with EU training providers than the regional average.

Those (up to 15%) that have any training providers in the EU use in-house experts and external consultants, or other providers.

1.13 NON EU TRAINING PROVIDER

69% of publishers did not mention a training provider outside the European Union, compared to the average of 59%.

21% say that they use external training consultants.

Very few publishers use any other training providers.

The general indication then is that the majority of publishers in Eastern and Central Europe do not currently have any provision for training. Interestingly it is those publishers with a concern for electronic publishing that are more likely to participate in training, and the low involvement of Slovak publishers in electronic publishing is reflected in the low use of training. This may be due to the rapid changes in the field, necessitating the use of external training providers.

The situation in Slovakia is that the majority of publishers are not engaging in any kind of training.

1.14 LIKELIHOOD OF CHANGING THESE RESOURCES IN NEXT 2 YEARS

33% of publishers say that they are possibly likely to change their training resources in the next 2 years.

15% say that they are likely to change their resources.

10% say that they are unlikely to change their training resources in the next 2 years.

A further 36% do not know, and a minority have not answered the question.

Slovak publishers are typical in their attitudes towards their training resources.

1.15 IMPORTANCE OF ACCESS TO TRAINING RESOURCES ABROAD

Respondents were asked to state, on a scale of one to three, the extent to which they feel that it is important that their company has access to training resources in another country.

The mean score is 2.59 in Slovakia, indicating that overall publishers do agree that it is important to have access to training resources in another country. This is higher than the CEEC average.

1.16 FIELDS TRANSNATIONAL TRAINING OF MOST BENEFIT

The fields in which transnational publishing training could be most beneficial to the publishers are:

Sales and Marketing (74%, compared to CEEC average of 72%).

Editor Creative (56% compared to 31%)

Customer service/distribution (49% compared to average of 55%).

Legal/Contractual (44% compared to 32%).

Financial (44% compared to 25%)

Management (36% compared to 44%).

Design (33% compared to 31%)

Production (10% compared to 20%)

What is striking in the results is the extent to which Sales and Marketing is revealed as a field in which transnational training would be beneficial to publishers.

1.17 WHERE TRAINING WOULD BE MOST BENEFICIAL

Publishers were asked to state where they believed training would be most beneficial to their companies.

For Management training, publishers are evenly balanced as to whether it should be conducted in Slovakia or transnationally.

For Editor/Creative training, most Slovaks would prefer to be trained in Slovakia.

For Design training, publishers are evenly balanced as to whether it should be conducted in Slovakia or transnationally.

For Production training, publishers with an opinion felt it would be better conducted in Slovakia.

For Sales and Marketing training, publishers are evenly balanced as to whether it should be conducted in Slovakia or transnationally.

Legal/Contractual training is best done in Slovakia according to many of the publishers.

For Financial training publishers are unsure, although many feel that it is best conducted in Slovakia.

For Customer Service and Distribution training publishers are evenly balanced as to whether it should be conducted in Slovakia or transnationally.

This data shows Slovak publishers are evenly split on a number of the fields.

1.18 SPEED OF GROWTH THROUGH NEW MEDIA

Publishers were asked whether they felt that their company would grow faster if it were to publish through the new media.

On a scale of 1-5, the mean score is 3.64 in Slovakia, suggesting agreement with the statement that a publisher would grow faster if it were to publish through new media, although this is lower than the CEEC average of 3.71.

1.19 LENGTH OF TIME ELECTRONICALLY PUBLISHING

Of those publishers that have been publishing electronically most did not answer the question, and the others are newly established in electronic publishing.

1.20 FOCUS OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING

29% did not have a focus on a particular sector. 14% have a focus on the consumer market.

1.21 PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN BECOMING INVOLVED IN ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING

By far the biggest difficulty encountered by publishers in becoming involved in electronic publishing is a lack of resources for electronic publishing. This is encountered by 57% of Slovakian publishers, and is considerably higher than the average.

43% are investing in other products and 29% lack staff knowledge.

20% suffer from lack of staff skills, 33% from technical constraints and a lack of hardware, and 29% from lack of business skills, and other problems.

1.22 EXTENT TO WHICH FACTORS ARE A THREAT TO PUBLISHING

The extent to which different factors are a threat to electronic publishers is measured on a scale of 1-3, where 3 represents an important threat, and 1 is not a threat.

In ranked order the most threatening factors for electronic publishers are:

Lack of access to finance (2.72, CEEC average is 2.62)

Lack of market (2.52, average 2.38)

Piracy (2.48, CEEC average is 2.60)

Lack of technical skills (2.32, average 2.03)

Lack of business skills (2.30, average 2.11)

International competition from EU (1.92, average 1.94)

Other factors (1.80, average 1.74)

International competition from non EU states (1.76, average 1.67)

Domestic competition (1.58, average 1.70)

It is evident that lack of access to finance is the key threat to publishers in Slovakia.

1.23 EXTENT OF STAFF CHANGE REQUIRED

Publishers were asked to rate the extent to which they will have to change their working methods to meet the challenges of multimedia in the future.

Overall on a score of 1-3, where 1 is not at all, and 3 is a great extent, Slovak respondents gave an average of 2.17, showing that they feel to some extent that they would have to change to meet the challenges of multimedia. This figure is slightly below the average for the publishers in the survey.

18% of respondents state that their staff would have to change a great extent, 51% to some extent, and 15% not at all.

10% of respondents did not answer the question.

Publishers in most of the different countries generally believe their staff will have to change to some extent.

1.24 WAYS IN WHICH STAFF WILL HAVE TO CHANGE TO PUBLISH ELECTRONICALLY

90% of publishers state that their staff would have to develop more experience with multimedia in the future to publish electronically in the future. This is considerably higher than the average for publishers in the region.

10% of publishers feel that they need better working methods between IT and Editorial, which is higher than the average.

21% feel that their staff need to become more aware of market opportunities, lower than the CEEC average.

1.25 LEVEL OF PERSONNEL AT WHICH THERE IS A NEED TO CHANGE OR IMPROVE SKILLS TO PUBLISH ELECTRONICALLY

In Slovakia, 59% of publishers say that they believe Sales and Marketing need to change or improve their skills to publish electronically. 59% also say that Customer Service/Distribution staff need to change or improve their skills.

41% say Management need to change or improve.

38% of publishers say that they believe that Editorial Creative staff need to change or improve their skills.

15% say Production need to change or improve, again this is lower than the regional average.

13% say Financial need to change or improve, and 13% Legal/Contractual. 15% did not mention any areas.

5% say Design need to change or improve, lower than the regional average.

Sales and Marketing, as well as Customer Service/Distribution are the two key areas where change is needed.

1.26 WAYS IN WHICH STAFF ARE CURRENTLY INCORPORATING NEW SKILLS

Currently most publishers are incorporating new skills by on the job training (69%).

36% recruit staff with skills.

13% train existing staff internally.

10% train existing staff externally.

10% incorporate new skills through other means.

1.27 LIKELIHOOD OF THIS CHANGING

Publishers are unsure if this will change, but many think it is unlikely to do so.

1.28 COMPANY OWNERSHIP

When asked whether they felt that the ownership of their company would remain the same over the next 2 years 77% say that they do expect it to remain the same.

18% do not know, and just 5% expect a change.

1.29 SPENDING PRIORITIES

Respondents were given a hypothetical question, and asked to say how they would spend Euro25,000 if they were given it to spend. Their answers are ranked according to the mean score of their answers on a scale of 1-3.

In first place, most say that they would spend additional resources on marketing (mean 2.78), new products (mean 2.70), and staff training (mean 2.60), This is followed by advertising (mean 2.55), and spending on market research (2.20),

Then the priority for spending is on acquisitions (2.05), followed by on capital goods (1.78), and finally management consultancy (1.71).

It is interesting here that information supply fields, such as management consultancy and market research, score poorly, compared to the score of spending on new products and marketing. This may suggest that publishers feel they have knowledge of the market, but without the knowledge of how to access the market with new products and marketing techniques.

1.30 MEMBERSHIP OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

31% of Slovak publishers do not know whether membership of the European Union will be an advantage or disadvantage to their company.

64% view it as an advantage and none see it as a threat. Slovak publishers view membership of the EU in a better light than those of publishers in other countries.

1.31 CURRENT STRENGTHS IN PUBLISHING

When asked to state what they perceived their strengths to be in their current publishing, publishers state two particular strengths.

Specialist lists are mentioned by 69% of publishers, and an established company reputation by 74%.

Other strengths which are considered important are: higher quality than competitors (33%), knowledge of the market (31%), and translation and publishing in different languages. This is likely to be a reflection of the ethnic mix in Slovakia.

Good distribution is rated by 21% of publishers, a wide choice of publications by 15%.

Slovak publishers are not typical of publishers in the region, but feel that the two most important factors are specialist lists and reputation, and that other factors are considerably less important.

1.32 EXTENT TO WHICH ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING IS A PRIORITY

59% of publishers say that electronic publishing is a priority to some extent, but none say it is a priority to a great extent.

36% of publishers say that electronic publishing is not a priority at all.

It is worth remembering that the survey has focused on general publishers, and has not sought out electronic publishers, nor does it include software houses who may have an electronic publishing agenda.

Slovak publishers are marginally less likely to prioritise electronic publishing than other publishers in other countries.

1.33 ATTITUDES OF PUBLISHERS

It was important for the project to assess the extent to which publishers in the region perceived their businesses in the light of change. To this end publishers were asked to state their opinions towards various statements.

1.34 ATTITUDES OF PUBLISHERS – KEY PLAYER

When asked if they are a key player in their market, the mean score on a scale of 1-3 was 2.00, indicating some agreement.

1.35 ATTITUDES OF PUBLISHERS - VULNERABILITY

62% of publishers say that they are not at all vulnerable to foreign involvement in their market, and the mean score is 1.15, indicating that most Slovak publishers are confident that they are not vulnerable. This reinforces the strong positive sentiment in the publishing sector in CEEC as a whole.

1.36 ATTITUDES OF PUBLISHERS – NEED TRAINING

When asked whether they believe that they need training for some skills, the mean is 2.16, indicating some agreement that training is needed for some skills.

Slovak publishers are typical of CEEC publishers.

1.37 ATTITUDES OF PUBLISHERS – GROWTH

Slovak publishers are not confident to some extent that they will grow next year. The mean in Slovakia is 1.44, compared to a CEEC average of 2.13.

1.38 ATTITUDES OF PUBLISHERS – REFLECTOR OF COUNTRY’S ECONOMY

Publishers agree to a great extent that they are an accurate reflector of their countries economy. The mean is 2.68, indicating general agreement that publishers are an accurate reflection of the countries economy.

1.39 CLASSIFICATION

7.40 LENGTH OF TIME IN PUBLISHING

51%, of publishers have worked in publishing for between 5 and 10 years. Most of the others have worked in publishing for over 10 years.

This indicates that on the whole, the decision makers in the publishing industry in Slovakia are relatively experienced.

1.41 NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES

51% of publishers have less than 10 staff, 33% of publishers have between 11 and 30 staff, and 15% over 30 staff.

Slovak publishers tend to be more likely to be medium sized than other publishers in the region.

1.42 NUMBER OF COMPUTERS

67% of publishers have less than 10 computers, while 33% have between 11 and 20.

1.43 OWNERSHIP

79% of publishers are independent, with 10% part of a national group. 10% are state owned but ‘independent.’

1.44 GENDER OF RESPONDENT

74% of the respondents are male, and 26% female.

1.45 AGE OF RESPONDENTS

64% of the respondents are aged between 35 and 54, with 21% under 34 and 15% over 55. Slovak respondents are therefore average of respondents in the survey.

1.46 EXPENDITURE ON TRAINING

21% of publishers say that they spent nothing on training last year, whilst another 31% spent less than Euro250.

15% of publishers spent between Euro250 and Euro1000, and a 18% spent between Euro1000 and Euro5000. 5% spent over Euro5000.

Slovak publishers are therefore more likely to spend more money on training than other publishers in the region.

1.47 LOCATION OF EXPENDITURE

69% say that none of this expenditure was spent outside their country, although this includes those publishers that spend nothing on training (21%).

10% say that they spent up to 25% of their expenditure abroad, 10% spent between 26% and 50% of their training expenditure abroad. No publishers say that they spent between 51% and 75% of their training expenditure abroad, and 5% say that they spent over 75% of their training expenditure abroad.

This is typical of publishers in the region.

1.48 ANNUAL TURNOVER

There was a wide distribution of turnover for publishers in the last year.

15% had a turnover of less than Euro10,000, and a further 15% had a turnover between Euro10,000 and Euro30,000.

15% had a turnover between Euro31,000 and Euro50,000, 5% between Euro51,000 and Euro100,000.

26% had a turnover between Euro100,000 and Euro300,000, none between Euro300,000 and Euro500,000. 5% have a turnover between Euro500,000 and Euro1m.

18% have a turnover above Euro1m, and most of these (15%) between Euro1m and Euro5m.

Slovak publishers have a higher turnover than those of other countries.

1.49 LOCATION OF PUBLISHER

Publishers are located in 9 countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

1.50 OWNERSHIP OF PUBLISHER

62% of publishers have none of their company owned by the state.

The remaining 38% of respondents did not answer this question.

1.51 PROPORTION FOREIGN OWNED

72% did not answer this question, asking about the proportion of the company which is foreign owned. Most of those publishers that did answer the question stated that none of their company was foreign owned.

This may reflect lack of knowledge about the financial ownership of the company, and this may be exacerbated by the difficulties caused by transition to the free market, or it may simply be due to the sensitivity of the information that publishers are reluctant to divulge it.

1.52 NUMBER OF TITLES PUBLISHED A YEAR

26% of publishers publish less than 10 titles a year, 36% between and 10 and 30 titles, and 28% between 31 and 60.

10% publish between 60 and 100 titles, and none over a 100 titles a year.

Slovak publishers tend to produce more titles a year, reflecting the fact that they publish more genre, and tend to be larger.

Executive summary

• Bulgaria
• Czech Republic
• Hungary
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Poland
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia

policy resources

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