MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
September 7 – September 14, 2006 Edition
HarperCollins,
Penguin, Springer
All Courting China
9/07/06—Three large media companies have either announced publishing alliances or have established new offices in China this summer to tap a market estimated to be growing by $300 million per year. HarperCollins and Penguin have announced cooperative publishing agreements with Chinese book publishers, and Springer Science+Business Media has opened new offices there.
HarperCollins has signed a deal with China’s People’s Literature Publishing House in which the US publisher will collaborate on several publishing projects. HarperCollins plans to publish five classic contemporary Chinese authors in English editions to be distributed throughout its worldwide sales channels. The collaboration is expected to almost immediately generate five times HarperCollins’s present $1 million revenues from China and to grow exponentially thereafter.
Attending a special singing ceremony at the Grand Hyatt Beijing were HC CEO Jane Friedman, president Brian Murray and Liu Binjie of the General Administration of Press and Publication, Liu Bogen of the China Publishing Group, and Pan Kaixiong of the People’s Literature Publishing House.
Penguin Putnam, owned by Pearson Plc., has begun a long-term strategy to establish the Penguin brand in China. In late August, Penguin announced that in November 2006 it will release Chinese editions of ten classic titles, including Wuthering Heights, Moby Dick and Jane Eyre. Penguin will release another 15 titles in May 2007all of which will be under the Penguin logo and will be priced at $2.50 each. Penguin will work with Chinese publisher Chongqing Publishing Group to translate and publish the titles in Mandarin.
Springer Science+Business Media (Springer) officially inaugurated its new Beijing office on 28 August 2006. Springer’s excellent relations with China have a long tradition, with the Hong Kong operation acting as a sales and marketing office for Greater China, Korea and Southeast Asia for over 20 years. Maurice Kwong, Managing Director of Springer China emphasized: “The ceremony in Beijing confirms Springer’s strong commitment to China and the region.”
With its Chinese Library of Science on SpringerLink, Springer is the leading provider of Chinese research literature in the world. “We are very fortunate to be able to cooperate with China’s prestigious scientific publishers and learned societies. Together with our publishing partners, we will increase the number of academic journals to 74 in 2007 and make them accessible to the international scientific community”, said Rüdiger Gebauer, President of Global Publishing at Springer.
The Chinese market for scientific literature boasts significantly above-average growth rates. “China is already fifth on the list of most frequently cited source countries, and its position in the global scientific community is advancing further. We are delighted to further strengthen our presence in the market”, said Derk Haank, Springer’s CEO.
Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) is one of the world’s leading suppliers of scientific and specialist literature. It is the second-largest publishing group in the science, technology, and medicine (STM) sector and the largest business-to-business publisher in the German-language area.
