Page: Publishing is too 'London-centric'

Publishing is a very “London-centric” business which has to “stop”, Faber’s c.e.o Stephen Page has said, while adding that the industry is “toe curlingly” white and middle class.

Speaking at the launch of a new postgraduate degree in publishing at the University of Derby, part of a bid to promote publishing in the North and the Midlands, Page also said changes to bring diversity into the industry weren’t happening fast enough.

“There is a huge move from publishers to [bring people into the industry] in a professional way… making the industry represent society. The industry just does not. It’s toe curling the degree to which we are just white middle class as an industry," he said.

"There are initiatives but they are very slow. Somehow we’re going to have to lurch to having different sort of people. We need people who care about reading and about books, but they need to be educated and they need to have a grounding in a very different way. And I can really promise that the top leaders in the industry are absolutely up for this. And the horror of that is pretty much all of us are white, middle class and male. We’re embarrassed by that. We think change really has to come now…So our absolute desire is to become more meritocratic and open to graduates from MA courses.”

He added: "There has always been an appeal to people outside London but it is a very London centric-business, and that has to stop too. It has to be encouraging people to join the industry from around the country and encourage people to set up publishing businesses around the country.”

Page called Derby's MA a "great course" and emphasised to students how much the industry needed "entrepreneurial, energetic, intelligent people", to help it undergo another "paradigm shift”.

The university’s new postgraduate MA will place an emphasis on real-world experience, good links and long term partnerships within industry. It includes practical modules, including on legal aspects of publishing and business leadership and management and it will also offer students the chance to work and contribute toward real book projects that will get published commercially.

Alistair Hodge, senior lecturer and founder of the course, said he thought the university was making good progress to set up an "institute for publishing in the North" that would combine original research and economic development aims and bring together a number of industry organisations, government and NGOs to help stimulate authorship, books and publishing outside the South.

Hodge said: “We want Derby to become a vibrant centre of learning in the area of publishing."

An undergraduate joint-honours BA at Derby has also been proposed for 2017 and is currently being consulted on. The “crossover” undergraduate course, if validated, would be the first in the UK to combine aspects of creative and professional writing and publishing in the same programme.

Sian Hoyle, co-organiser for the Derby Book Festival, said: “I think the publishing world generally is London-centric, so to have something that actually is based in the centre of the country, which is where Derby is, it’s a really great opportunity.” 

A publishing careers Q&A session was also held at the university during the launch. Alison Baverstock, course leader of the MA in Publishing at Kingston University, who helped to validate the MA course, was joined on the panel by IPG development director Edward Milford and HarperCollins resourcing manager Stephanie Hall to discuss the benefits of a university education. 

Hodge said: “To executives and industry I say, we look forward to working with you to help keep our course material bang up to date and relevant, and will prepare graduates who are innovative and adaptable, full of industry knowledge and understanding, with a wide range of transferable skills."