Google, Yahoo Help us Reach our Audience: Macmillan

Everyone feels sad and protective at the thought of books going out of fashion. But how do publishers feel?

BW's Vanita Kohli-Khandekar decided to ask Richard Charkin, CEO, Macmillan, one of the world's leading educational and general publishing companies. Nature magazine, its most popular product by far, will soon be launched in India. 

Excerpts from the interview:

On the threat from Google and other websites

Our biggest challenge is to reach our audience and Google, Yahoo or MSN help us do that. But the problem with some of Google's utterances is that they are seen as breach of copyright. The solution is building a digital warehouse or bookstore where all the data on our authors will be stored. It should allow, say Google, to search it, but we must control access to it ourselves. We are already doing this for science books. So Google scholar will search our database and give you small abstracts from Nature. If you want to see more, you have to pay.

On the blurring lines between media and the opportunities for books

Five years ago, we decided on the Web as our primary medium, and have tried to focus on ways to give a weekly scientific journal on it. We have created site licences in universities and public libraries, so that our journals can be accessed from any licensed terminal.

The distribution cost of a journal is high, but the web makes it easier. Therefore, if 100 people read a page of Nature earlier, now 10,000 do so. Seven weeks ago, we launched a podcast of Nature. It is at present among the top 50 items on iTunes, and over 30,000 people have downloaded it so far.

We are also trying to use blogs to generate publicity.

On opportunities in India

About a year ago, we set up Macmillan Publishing Technology in Gurgaon. It offers fulfilment services, software development and project management to book publishers. That is where we really make our money.

The India operation is about $25 million, but the effort it takes to make that is the equivalent of making $250 million in some other market.