Page 12 - ELG1906 May-Jun Issue 465

BUSINESS NEWS .

Brits behind as book trade booms?
explor
explores what is happening es what is happening
By Melanie Butler language publishing has taken a backseat, In the last ten years, most major British ELT
allowing smaller players to eat into the market. publishers have concentrated almost entirely
across Europe in our annualoss Europe in our annual
McGraw Hill Education and Cengage At this year’s London Book Fair, for example, on general English course books for adults and acr
Learning are to merge, according to the the biggest ELT display we found belonged to on localised courses for overseas state school
Financial Times. The new company, which will MM publications, with two other European systems. With the exception of Cambridge
EU Special
include National Geographic Learning, will providers, Express and Global ELT, also having University Press, they have also cut back on
have projected cash earnings of US$3 billion. a strong presence. their supplementary titles.
The strategy behind the merger is to expand Europe’s largest specialist ELT book This has allowed the European publishers EU Special
the number of students, mostly in Higher distributor, BEBC in Bournemouth, confirmed to fill the gap with their own products: exam
Education, who subscribe to Cengage’s to the Gazette that the big British publishing books from Global; graded readers from
textbook subscription service, seen as a houses are losing EU market share to ELI and Black Cat; and methodology from
solution to the ‘affordability issue’ in Higher publishers who started out publishing for a Helbling. They then expanded their lists to
Education. local ELT market: Greece in the case of MM, include course-book publishing, particularly
With all the major British ELT publishers’ Express and Global, Italy in the case of ELI and for younger learners in private language
increasingly focused on Higher Ed, English Black Cat. schools, a move which could help them gain a
“They understand the industry much better, foothold in the UK.
WIKIMEDIA about to publish the first course book for the coming to the UK, and the age of the
Under-16s now make up half of all students
they react faster. Express, for example, are
Occupational English Test,” Nick Edwards of
youngest students has now fallen as low as
BEBC told the Gazette. three. However, only Cambridge University
British publishers have switched away from Press and National Geographic Learning are
using ELT-specialist sales people, often using actively promoting products for this market,
the same reps for both ELT and Higher Ed. such as short summer school course books.
One result is that news of industry changes are The fast moving Europeans are anxious to fill
not filtering back to the editorial teams. With the gap.
most of the majors now already working on Meanwhile Anglo-American National
five-year publishing plans, the smaller, swifter Geographic Learning, now part of the Cengage
players are in a better position to respond to McGraw Hill merger, are already the fastest-
The London Book Fair market changes. growing publisher in the BEBC charts.

Which direction ection
Which dir
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for English language students?
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12 May/June 2019