BEA: Religious publishing's 'major growth'

Sunday, 21 May 2006 08:00 PM America/New_York

At the Book Industry Trends 2006 session by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), publishing statisticians revealed many smaller and midsized publishers are often not included in research, creating $6.79 billion in unaccounted revenues last year. The BISG report analyzed and projected data for publishers' net revenues, units sold and consumer expenditures in different categories for 2005 projected up to 2010, with less than 2% error in forecasting.

While most categories showed stable growth, the Religious category was charted as up 8.1% in 2005 year-to-date, with growth for this year projected at 6.5%. The market is “the (major) growth area in the business,” said senior researcher Albert Greco of The Institute for Publishing Research. Market growth shows “an unbelievable number of books” being produced, with “really interesting titles, not just by evangelicals like (Joel) Osteen,” Greco said. Referencing the Religious category's increase in consumer expenditures in the last year, he said, “we should all be so lucky.”

Another session at BEA highlighted an industry movement toward energy-efficient publishing. The Green Press Initiative (GPI) unveiled its Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use on Friday. The Treatise was created by more than 25 stakeholders, including large and small publishers, book printers, paper companies and merchants, and “defines shared goals for improving the environmental impacts associated with the book industry's consumption of nearly 1 million tons of paper each year,” GPI said in a statement.

Specifically, the Treatise seeks to increase the industry's average use of recycled fiber from 5% now to 30% by 2011.

GPI announced Random House was one of the first major market publishers to commit to the conservation efforts. Baker Publishing Group President Dwight Baker attended and spoke briefly at the event, saying he had seen Baker through “slow but steady progress,” with “40% of titles eligible for recycled paper are (being made), and (the company is) moving toward 100%.”