PA creates 'new narrative' video campaign to showcase publishing industry

The Publishers Association has released a video (below) showcasing the value of the industry, as part of an effort to create a “new narrative” which helps to communicate the trade’s "personal, social, economic and innovative value" to a range of audiences including policymakers. 

Its new narrative serves as an outline for how the PA will be speaking about publishing, particularly to key people in the government, and has been developed following “extensive research, analysis, and consultation”. It will use the consumer-tested strapline “publishing brings ideas and stories to life”.   

A series of content and campaigns linked to the narrative will be released over the course of 2022, the PA said. 

Its new video touches on consumer, academic and education publishing with perspectives from authors, educators and booksellers about the industry’s positive impact. It will be hosted on the PA’s website and will be shared on social and played at events and meetings where appropriate.  

Commenting on the PA’s “new narrative” chief executive Stephen Lotinga said: “The publishing industry is a major employer and investor that has successfully transitioned to the digital age. Publishing is the heartbeat of the creative industries, the bedrock of the knowledge and research economy, and central to learning and discovery. This new video aims to help tell the industry’s story and is the first content linked to an exciting new industry narrative.”  

Among those starring in the video is author Konnie Huq, who says she hopes her books “inspire readers". She said" "The brilliant thing about publishing is that you can create experiences that nurture the imagination and let’s face it, in today’s society that is more important than ever.”  

She described it as a “real privilege and an honour” to have children reading her books, and argued that reading in your formative years at primary school and early secondary school is “a brilliant shared experience”. She added: “It can lead to loads of conversations and books do something unique, they give people empathy, and if all our children have empathy then the future is bright,” she added.  

UCL professor Mark Maslin, explained that academic publishing is “incredibly important because it helps us develop the knowledge around the world”, most recently with coronavirus vaccines.  

He explained: “Peer-reviewed, published academic research is critical, it is the gold standard because as we all know there’s a huge amount of fake news, fake data out there and people trying to push different agendas. So what we do is we teach students to think critically, be able to analyse the data and knowledge from different sources to actually evaluate how important they are. Peer reviewed research is absolutely essential to a lot of policy decisions.

“It’s about actually making publishing meaningful and making sure that the people who read those books get something out of it and also allowing them to be proactive act and do things, be empowered." 

John Pye, owner of The Bookshop in East Grinstead, also appears, describing his business as selling “a piece of magic” and stressing the role of the bookshop in the local community. “We have an amazingly successful chess club, author signings, cookery events, our book club, the people who come for coffee and cake, some of them come every single day, it’s part of their lives,” he said. 

Teacher Diane Axford used the video to highlight ways digital resources can be used in the classroom to engage children and make learning more interactive.

She said: “High quality digital resources are really good because you can direct the learning to the particular bits that particular children need. I think you will always need teachers but especially with the last 18 months where we’ve had a lot of blended learning and home learning, digital resources will become more and more embedded in the classroom in the future."