Introduction

'Publishing' is traditionally seen as printing material to make it available for public view. It referred to the creation and distribution of books, newspapers, music and magazines. Books have always been regarded as an important media for the development and promotion of human values. They record new ideas, preserve and communicate knowledge, impart education and values, and aid the overall development of an individual. The Publishing sector in India is the third largest in the world in English language publishing. Current statistics reveals that the sector is truly a colossus - a giant in slumber, which needs to be awakened and given its due status and identity.

More recently, the creation and increased use of internet and electronic media has widened the scope of publishing significantly. Now a huge volume of websites, emails, computer games and software and blogs are published each day around the world, and this has had a detrimental impact on sales of printed publications.

Goods and services : The publishing industry produces a variety of publications, including magazines, books, newspapers, and directories. It also produces greeting cards, databases, calendars, and other published material, excluding software. Although mostly producing printed materials, the publishing industry is increasingly producing its material in other formats, such as CDs, online, or other electronic media. Establishments producing exclusively on the Internet, however, are not included in this sector.

Textbooks and technical, scientific, and professional books provide nearly half of the revenues of the book publishing industry. The other half consists of adult trade—the fiction and nonfiction books found in a typical bookstore—and juvenile, religious, paperback, mail-order, book club, and reference books.

There are two types of magazines - business-to-business, called "trade," and consumer magazines. Trade magazines serve a particular industry, profession, or service, while consumer magazines are written for general audiences.

Directory and mailing list publishers produce collections and compilations of data and information for residential and business customers. The most common directories are the telephone directories known as the white pages and yellow pages. These directories are designed to help calling parties locate residential telephone numbers and addresses and to allow people to search for businesses by category.

Although the content and formats may vary, most companies follow similar steps when publishing material. First, editorial departments must acquire the content, or material, to be published. Some publishers have a staff of writers, reporters, and editors who research and write articles, stories, and other text for the publication. Photographers and artists are also brought in to supplement the written material with photos and illustrations as needed. Other publishers purchase their written and graphic material from outside sources, mainly independent "freelance" writers, photographers, or artists. After the story or article is written, the manuscript is reviewed for accuracy and edited to ensure that it uses proper grammar and style. Editors and publishers develop captions and headlines and design pages and covers.

The sale of advertisements, including classified advertising, is the major source of revenue for magazines, newspapers, and directories, such as the telephone Yellow Pages. Advertising sales agents work with clients and advertising agencies to sell space in the publication. While most commercial advertisements are produced by advertising agencies, small advertisers may require the help of copywriters and graphic artists in the publisher's advertising department to create an advertisement.

When complete, all of the content - manuscript, photos and captions, illustrations, and any other artwork, including advertisements - is collected at one location and, with the help of desktop publishing software, the pages are laid out. Most newspapers and many magazines have art and design staffs that perform this "prepress" operation. Other publishers contract out their prepress work to commercial printers, along with the physical production of the publication.

Newspaper printing has become highly automated over the years, and the dominant printing process used to produce newspapers is lithography. The process involves putting the pages of the newspaper on film, and then "burning" the images from the film onto a thin aluminum plate, which is then installed on a press and chemically treated and inked. Presses then move rolls of paper along the rotating inked plates at very high rates of speed.

Getting the publication to readers is a function of the distribution department. Major book publishers often have large warehouse operations where books are stored and from which they are delivered as needed. Newspapers and magazines, however, distribute each issue only once. Immediately after they are printed, newspapers are folded, filled with inserts, bundled, and wrapped. The newspapers are then transported to distributors, who deliver the newspapers to newsstands and individual carriers. Another major function of newspaper distribution is making sure that newspapers are delivered on time at readers' doorsteps. Magazines are mailed to subscribers after printing or shipped to retail distributors. Many magazines and some newspapers contract out their distribution.

Publishers' publicity, marketing, and circulation departments are responsible for promoting a publication and increasing sales and circulation. Book publishers, in particular, promote new books by creating elaborate publicity campaigns involving, for example, book signings and public appearances by the author.

Industry organization : Newspapers employ the largest number of workers in the publishing industry. With a staff of reporters and correspondents, newspapers report on events taking place locally and around the world. Despite the local nature of most newspaper publishing, the newspaper industry is dominated by several large corporations that own most of the newspapers in the country. It also is becoming common for companies to buy several newspapers in a single region so that they can be produced more efficiently. This is known as "clustering." Under this arrangement, multiple newspapers share the same printing plant, and advertising sales agents can sell advertising space as a bundle in all of the papers.