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Kevin Chapman, Director of Upstart Press comments:

Last week I went to a lecture at Auckland University. It was given by a noted American lawyer and academic, Professor Kenneth Crews, and was ostensibly about copyright and library exceptions in NZ.

Copyright and the prospect of creep in the exceptions area should be a concern for every NZ author and publisher. The lecture started out like Copyright 101, and was designed for its audience. Apart from myself, Sam Elworthy, and Jackie Dennis from NZSA, the audience appeared to be largely librarians and academics, so a fertile ground for anti-copyright sentiment. And that is what Prof. Crews gave them. In a reasoned and mild-mannered way, pretty much every statement had an underlying message – “rights-holders are out to deny you access”. Every so often he would make a statement that seemed even-handed, such as talking about balance, but would then push back to his default position. Apparently balance is a difficult and problematic concept.

As well as minimising the value of copyright, Prof. Crews had another agenda. He said that he was not here to push a particular view, but he then delivered the hardest sell for “fair use” that I have seen so far in NZ. Fair use might well suit a litigious society like the U.S., but there is a reason why it has not been universally accepted. And he did not mention that of 188 members of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, only four have fair use.

However, in this room it appeared a panacea for all ills. When the questions began, the tilt really showed, and I couldn’t stop myself at one point. A questioner, in reference to the Marrakesh Treaty, asked why people would object to exceptions for the visually impaired. Prof. Crews gave a little riff on how movie companies argued that nobody but them should apply closed-captioning to their movies, and publishers said that they should be the ones who produced braille and daisy-wheel editions, but that they didn’t. I challenged him, pointing out that publisher objections had centered around lack of controls over who could make copies and distribute them. He accepted the point. So then I asked him if he had any comment on the PWC report that said that educational authors’ income and educational publishing had been decimated (common usage meaning, not the literal one) by education exceptions in Canada. He talked about academics not minding losing that income as they did it as part of their job.

I write this because this attack on authors and publishers livelihood is widespread, and insidious. This is a man who consults with WIPO, and met at least one minister during his visit here. The danger for the creative sector is “exception creep”, and each exception can seem harmless, especially when articulated by people who pretend to be author-friendly. All of us should be talking about this at every opportunity.

UPDATE: 30th March 2016

We are pleased to announce three further keynote speakers to the stellar line-up for the PANZ International Conference 2016.

The Conference Committee welcomes the participation of:

• Jo Lusby, Managing Director of Penguin Random House (North Asia),
• Justin Ractliffe , Managing Director: Marketing, Publicity & Australian Publishing at Hachette Australia
• and Nicky Hager, author and investigative journalist

Jo Lusby joined the company that is now Penguin Random House (North Asia) in 2005, and has established offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Seoul. She oversees local publishing in the English, Chinese, and Korean languages, as well as the sale of imported books from the US and UK from her base in Hong Kong. A prominent member of the China’s creative business community, Jo is a regular public speaker on a range of subjects including digital transformation, brand and marketing, and regulatory issues for media companies.

Justin Ractliffe started his career in publishing at Walker Books Australia and then Random House.  Justin’s final position at RHA before coming to Hachette Australia was Head of Digital Marketing. At HA he was Sales & Marketing Director for the Hodder & Headline division before becoming Marketing & Publicity Director for Hachette Australia when it restructured in late 2013. In September 2014 he was appointed Joint Managing Director with a specific brief to manage publicity, sales and local publishing. He is the author of the children’s picture book DADS: A Field Guide and has a Masters of Marketing degree from the University of New South Wales.

Nicky Hager, based in Wellington, has written six best-selling books. He divides his time between investigative writing and freelance feature writing. He has specialized in investigating hard-to-document subjects, such as military and intelligence agencies and public relations activities and the unseen sides of politics.

PANZ is delighted to confirm the following world-class key-note speakers at the PANZ International Conference 2016 – local publishing, global thinking: 

• Diana Broccardo, Sales and Marketing Director at Profile Books
• Businessman Paul Blackwell
• Emma House, Director of Publisher Relations, The Publishers Association (UK);
• Kathy Hurley, industry consultant, US
• Briony Lewis, General Counsel, Legal, Contracts, Rights and Royalties for Penguin Random House APAC
• Kelly Morton, Head of Digital Marketing at Hachette Australia
• David O’Brien, Vice President, Schools Division, Cengage Australia.

What a line-up of national and international publishing talent!

Paul Blackwell has been involved in business in New Zealand since leaving school, and is currently a shareholder in Pak’n’Save Albany, the NZ Breakers basketball team, and P.Q. Blackwell Publishing.

Emma House runs the PA’s Boards on all aspects of publishing – Academic/STM, Education, Trade/Consumer and International. She also has responsibility for the PA anti-piracy enforcement campaigns in overseas territories and develops overseas business opportunities for UK publishers.

Kathy Hurley is the former EVP Pearson Foundation. She has over 40 years’ experience in traditional educational publishing and the Ed Tech sectors. Since retiring from Pearson Kathy has founded a global non-profit, Girls Thinking Global while continuing to consult in the Ed Tech sector.

Briony Lewis is an accomplished corporate lawyer with substantial commercial and legal experience gained within in-house and private practice environments. Her recent roles have been at the General Counsel level with extensive experience in dealing with a number of internal and external stakeholders across complex and regulated business environments.

Kelly Morton assumed her current role in 2014 and is a self-confessed Digital Nerd and Beatlemaniac.

David 0’Brien has 28 years’ experience in publishing.  He has responsibility for the strategic and business initiatives of the schools division as well as publishing and marketing and the sales functions for both primary and secondary in Australia.

The PANZ International Conference 2016 – local publishing, global thinking will be held on Thursday 30th June and Friday 1st July in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 128 Albert Street, Auckland.

REMINDER: We have secured rooms at a preferential rate for PANZ Conference delegations BUT there are a limited number of rooms available at this rate and the hotel will release the rooms if our delegates don’t require them.

Follow the link below to secure the conference rate of $195 a night for standard rooms at the Crowne Plaza hotel.

Publishers Association of New Zealand

More speakers and the programme will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Under the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement now before a select committee, New Zealand commits to extending the term of copyright from 50 to 70 years after the death of the author. Based on a 2009 report by Henry Ergas, just released, government estimated the net cost of term extension to New Zealand to be $60m a year in increased royalties to foreign rightsholders–$21m of that for books.

To publishers, that looked like a very big number. It would double the total royalty paid on New Zealand book sales—those long-dead authors must have written some extraordinary bestsellers! PANZ investigated. PANZ’s analysis, online here and now with the Foreign Affairs and Trade Select Committee, argues that the government got it wrong. About 200 times wrong. Even accepting the methodology of the Ergas report, term extension on books will lead to about $80,000 of increased royalties to overseas rights holders. If term extension stimulates just a 0.1% increase in output from NZ publishers (experts suggest much higher), then in fact copyright term extension will be a net economic benefit to this country.

PANZ councillor Sam Elworthy, who looks after the copyright portfolio, comments: ‘Another $21m a year for authors and publishers would have been great, so it’s disappointing that it’s not true. And it’s even more disappointing that the government has been relying on such a deeply flawed analysis of the economics of copyright for years. The $60m cost figure has flown around the world: For people who want everything to be free and don’t care much for authors, publishers, and copyright, it’s another stick to beat us with. That undermines the value of copyright and the creative industries in the public mind. We call on the New Zealand government to engage in much more robust analysis of the economics of the creative industries in the future so that the value of intellectual property as a driver of New Zealand’s economic growth can be correctly quantified.’

In late August 2015, Massey University Press began with a single employee: respected former Random House New Zealand publishing director Nicola Legat.
When Professor Glyn Harper, the historian who chairs the Press’s editorial board, announced her appointment, he said “With Nicola, we are in excellent hands … (Her) appointment as publisher is a strong signal that the Press is a serious venture and will be a force in New Zealand book publishing.”

So, big expectations and a big job: build a new publishing house from scratch! Nicola regards the challenge as “professionally enormously exciting. It’s no small thing for a university to set up a Press in these difficult times. They have invested a great deal of trust in me and I fully intend to earn that trust.”
Nicola has hired former Random House project editor Kimberley Davis as managing editor – a part time role for now – and well-known freelance book publicist Sarah Thornton will handle all the publicity for the list. David Bateman Publishing is handling sales and distribution.  A new website www.masseypress.ac.nz will launch shortly.

Ten books are scheduled for publication in 2016, the first being the April release of Experience of a Lifetime, another volume in the very active Centenary History Programme publishing enterprise. Nicola describes its 16 chapters as an interrogation of the traditional narrative of the First World War as a total disaster and a waste of millions of young lives.

It’s followed in June by the first volume of The New Zealand Land & Food Annual, a punchy collection of pieces on issues facing New Zealand’s agricultural and food sector. “This book expresses the core mission of the Press,” says Nicola. “Agricultural science is pivotal to Massey’s DNA given it began life as an agricultural college. The university has worked in lock step with the nation’s farmers, foresters and horticulturalists for over 80 years.”

“Massey University sees itself as part of shaping our nation and taking the best of New Zealand to the world,” Nicola continues. “Our publishing will reflect that and will tap into the depth of its experience and expertise in agricultural science, food research, veterinary science, public health, Māori Studies, security and international studies, the humanities and social sciences, education, business and social work. For me as a publisher it’s a wonderful opportunity to publish serious and important books. When I left Random House at the end of 2014 I’d decided that that would mark the end of my time in publishing.  I intended to seek new directions. But this new role has so much potential that I am very pleased I changed my mind.”

Nicola continues to be deeply involved in other initiatives that support New Zealand literature and publishing. She is chair of the New Zealand Book Awards Trust and deputy chair of the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival Trust.

Sam Elworthy, Auckland University Press, Auckland, New Zealand

The shortlist for The London Book Fair International Excellence Awards 2016 has been announced, with China leading the shortlists with five nominations and the USA and Australia not far behind with four each.
The awards, which are held in partnership with the UK Publishers Association (PA), celebrate success in 14 categories, representing the best publishing ambassadors, cutting edge publishing, and ground breaking initiatives in the industry.
We congratulate Sam Elworthy and the team at Auckland University Press for being a finalist for the SSP Scholarly Kitchen Academic and Professional Publisher Award category. Also vying for this award are finalists Higher Education Press (China) and Teseo (Argentina).
Stephen Lotinga, Chief Executive, The UK Publishers Association, said: “These awards are going from strength to strength and demonstrates that excellence in publishing has no geographic boundary. This shortlist shows how, from the USA to China, Argentina to Turkey via France, New Zealand, Poland and of course the UK, there are no shortages of exciting developments in the book and publishing industry.”

The PANZ Conference Committee is delighted to announce that Sir Ray Avery GNZM, renowned pharmaceutical scientist, inventor, social entrepreneur and inaugural New Zealander of the Year in 2010 will be the guest speaker at the Penguin Random House dinner on Thursday 30 June.

Sir Ray has kindly donated signed copies of his autobiography Rebel With a Cause for all dinner guests.  For conference delegates dinner will included in your package and we will be offering tickets for the dinner only as we expect great interest in this inspirational speaker

PANZ International Conference 2016: local publishing, global thinking will be held from 9.30 am Thursday 30 June until 1pm Friday 1 July in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 128 Albert Street, Auckland. The Programme will be issued in April when registrations will open.

REMINDER: We have secured rooms at a preferential rate for PANZ Conference delegations BUT there are a limited number of rooms available at this rate and the hotel will release the rooms if our delegates don’t require them.

Follow the link below to secure the conference rate of $195 a night for standard rooms at the Crowne Plaza hotel.

Publishers Association of New Zealand