The Hindu Business Line : Publishers' body to start certificate course

WITH the GATT regime to bring in a host of foreign publishers, the Rs 7,000-crore domestic publishing industry is moving fast forward to become more professional and competitive. Despite the spread of the electronic and information technology media, it is growing by 15-20 per cent every year.

However, it finds a lack of trained personnel in the industry and scant interest taken by youngsters to make publishing a full time career. To remedy the situation, the publishing industry today introduced the first certificate course in publishing science in the country.

Under the aegis of the Federation of Publishers' and Booksellers' Associations (FPBAI), the 3-month course, to be conducted at the Jamia Millia University premises in New Delhi, will have stalwarts of the industry such as Mr Tajeshwar Singh of Sage, Ms Urvashi Butalia of Kali for Women, Mr David Davidar of Penguin associated with it. Dr N. Subrahmanyam, Managing Director, Tata McGraw-Hill will be the Chairman of the Academic Council and Mr Sridhar Balan of Oxford University Press, the course director.

The course will consist of three modules - Editorial, Production and Marketing - and will be targeted at graduates of any discipline and publishing professionals who have entered the arena recently. Structured to include both theory and practical training, the course will also cover communication, finance, organisation structure, legal framework, international marketing, rights management, distribution and customer service.

Though the publishing industry together produces 70,000 titles annually, out of which 40 per cent are in English, it feels that " to keep pace with the global scenario, there is an acute need for young professionals who would be better equipped to handle global competition.''

The course, to be run by the FPBAI School of Publishing Science is to initially be an introductory one. Specialised courses in editorial, production and marketing are to be added later and will be conducted in other metros as well, said Mr Sukumar Das, President FBAI, as he revealed that the course would cost Rs 18,000 and would have a built-in evaluation and an end module test.

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