History of EM Field
"The development of modern practices in textbook publishing in the USA was concomitant with the rise of mass education, characterized by graded organization of formal schooling into classes." (Watt 2007, 4)
"Several surveys conducted in association with a report on textbooks issued in 1931 indicated that procedures for selecting authors, their role, and the methods they applied were well defined at this time. Commentators reporting on textbook publishing in the 1950s and 1960s depicted an industry in which the publishing process and the roles of authors, editors and sales people had been institutionalized for many years. However, the textbook publishing industry of that time was faced by the challenges of integrating new technologies in printing and new media for presenting materials. Commentators writing in the 1990s were more concerned to analyze changes in the textbook publishing industry occurring in response to globalization. Mergers and takeovers, resulting from reductions in profit margins faced by many textbook publishing companies, led to the incorporation of textbook publishing activities within multinational media, communications and entertainment conglomerates, whilst small emerging textbook publishing companies filled a vacuum in the marketplace as niche publishers." (Watt 2007, 5)
1880
Pointed as the year when the publishing industry arose in the USA in response "to greater uniformity in local education systems resulting from immigration and industrialization." (Watt 2007, 9)
until 1930s
"Within a decade, McGuffey's Eclectic Readers had penetrated this market, selling at a rate of two million copies each year, and eventually exceeded sales of over 122 million copies before their use declined in the 1920s. In 1841, Smith brought out the partnership, and the company’s name changed several times before it merged with other publishers in 1890 to form the American Book Company, which established a monopoly controlling most of the textbook market across the USA in the first decades of the twentieth century. This monopoly prevailed until rivalry from smaller companies opened up the publishing industry to greater competition after World War I and sales of McGuffey's Eclectic Readers declined because of changing values and new curricular demands." (Watt 2007, 4)
National Society for the Study of Education in 1931 elicited that publishers "selected manuscripts for textbooks by applying three main criteria: judging whether there was a need for a new material; judging whether the material was innovative; and judging whether the author was competent."(Watt 2007, 5)
1940 - 50s
"The textbook publishing industry was characterized by being almost entirely controlled by private enterprise, small-scale in its operations, modest in its growth, limited to approximately 75 companies, general rather than specialized, and subject to constant changes resulting from interactions between authors, publishers and teachers. An analysis of data published by the American Textbook Publishers Institute for the years 1939, and 1946 to 1952 indicated that approximately half of the income from sales was expended on production costs, and the prevailing low margins were decreasing. The economics during this period shifted with a decline in the market for college textbooks and an increase in the market for elementary school books. This shift increased the costs involved in marketing, because a greater number of sales people needed to be employed, and depositories had to be maintained in some states. The greatest cost in marketing, however, was that lost in capital tied up in unsold books, although this may have been lessened by the seasonal nature of sales over a period of several years." (Watt 2007, 7)
"Bierstedt (1955) discussed the role of textbook authors in transmitting knowledge and culture. Financial benefits, rather than associational involvement or increased status, offered by publishers to prestigious members of the education community should be recognized as the main reason why authors write textbooks." (Watt 2007, 6)
"Innovations were unlikely to increase, unless brought about by new technological advances in printing or diversification in the media of products. The main technological factor affecting production in the 1950s was the widespread use of machine typesetting, which was cost effective for large runs suitable for national editions, but inefficient for producing small editions, or presenting illustrations and color." (Watt 2007, 7)
"An important problem that confronted the publisher of the time related to determining the best ways of integrating different media within the publishing enterprise to produce multimedia materials." (Watt 2007, 7)
"Brammer (1957), managing editor of the American Book Company, reported on the textbook publishing industry in the USA in the 1950s. It was competitive, and required large expenditures on editorial departments and promotional staffs for servicing schools. [...] Authors were usually chosen by publishers, and offered contracts stipulating royalties in exchange for all other rights. Writing involved a cooperative process between publishers, authors and editors. Greater attention to production techniques at that time had increased the costs of producing materials, and led publishers to employ designers, art editors and production experts. Publishers also maintained large forces of promotional staff for selling, distributing and demonstrating new materials, although their activities were controlled by regulations governing adoption at the state and local levels. Brammer concluded that textbook publishing in the USA, in contrast to many other countries, was controlled almost entirely by private publishing enterprise with little involvement by federal and state governments." (Watt 2007, 8)
1960s
Curriculum Reform Movement and changes in technology has main challenges to publishers: "The federal government funded curriculum development projects to produce materials in a range of media, which influenced publishers to match this change by producing products using various media. Technological improvements in printing, such as the introduction of rotary presses, offset printing, new techniques in binding paperback books, setting type photographically or electronically, and electrostatic printing, stimulated publishers into producing high quality products in terms of design." (Watt 2007, 9)
"Publishers generally coordinated the development of textbooks to the cycles of state-level adoption states, especially Texas and California, as success in these states was likely to pay for the developmental costs. This situation created a vicious circle in which market resistance to innovation led publishers to produce conservative and uncontroversial textbooks. The high cost of publishing textbooks and the low profit margin also militated against publishers promoting innovation." (Watt 2007, 11, citing Broudy 1975)
1980s
"Presenting an analysis of the key factors transforming the materials' marketplace in the 1980s, Westbury (1990) argued that the textbook publishing industry acquired a de facto role as a national curriculum authority, because of the failure of the states to define a common curriculum. Whilst an attempt was made by governmental agencies to define a new curriculum through projects initiated during the curriculum reform movement in the 1960s and early 1970s, their products failed to be taken up by school systems. Since that time, the textbook publishing industry became dominated by a small number of major companies, because of the high investment involved in developing, manufacturing and distributing textbooks." Watt 2007, 11, citing Westbury 1990)
late 1980s - 1990s
"By analyzing current financial characteristics of large publishing companies, Squire and Morgan (1990) found that increasing operating costs and declining profits have meant they are now dominating the textbook publishing industry, and aiming their products at a national market. They identified that the process used by large publishing companies to develop textbook programs was dependent on preparing a rationale in advance or a detailed specification of the philosophy for the design and key features of a textbook. Often, market research was undertaken, and portions of the text were piloted. Authors worked with experienced editors in evaluating this research, and marketing personnel studied textbook programs, as they were developed to interpret likely acceptance by teachers." (Watt 2007, 12)
These decades were marked by the rise and fall of many small and medium companies focused on niche markets such as materials focused on current topics or new content; materials based on innovative pedagogy; materials aimed at specific populations; materials with innovative formats; and materials aimed at local or regional markets. Some were also efficient in covering holes left by big companies in relation to the effects of the education reform movement. However, big market barriers, such as intricate networks, and difficult to respond to different minority markets, in addition to difficult adaptation to technology in order to improve products pushed many companies to bankruptcy or to buyouts.
Thus, this was a time marked by merges and acquisitions. The impacts of globalization and the need for cost efficiency led the market to be concentrated into five large publishing houses - Macmillan; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; Silver Burdett and Ginn; Houghton Mifflin; and Scott, Foresman. The consequence was great internal restructuration and financial resources concentration to which some observer attributed the consolidation of a less competitive business environment:
"Whilst these publishing companies dominated the national market, a few, middle-sized, regional publishing companies established preeminence in particular subject areas, but small publishing companies were usually restricted to publishing supplementary materials. The restriction of the marketplace to fewer competitors was also matched by the increasing cost of producing a national textbook program across the elementary grades, estimated to be as high as $40 million. Whilst this outlay may realize margins of 10 to 20 percent, it was likely to take many years to recover." (Watt 2007, 14)
The control of networks and the high costs of marketing guaranteed the perpetuation of market share in the hands of the big five companies, that started strategies towards one-stop-and-shop solutions:
"Large publishing companies apply several strategies to control the relatively small number of volume buyers. They use the School Division of the Association of American Publishers to lobby state selection committees in large adoption states to obtain lucrative markets. They acknowledge the requirements of state standards of large adoption states in the content of textbooks. They attempt to satisfy the preferences of pressure groups, thereby homogenising the content of textbooks. They have replaced the use of authors by a writing-for-hire production system to reduce costs. Since large publishing companies are responding to these pressures, they are no longer involved in deciding the content of textbooks." (Watt 2007, 14)
Thus, until the 90s evolutionary selection mechanisms acted in favor of market concentration and homogenization. The buying power of states such as Florida (where many companies tested products, before national distribution), Texas and California, in addition to national tendencies of curriculum reform printed a content determinism that did not took into consideration niches or minority necessities. The motivations of authors related to payments and not professional acknowledgment, and the evolution of the role of the author from high-profile and high-connected scholars in the beginning of the 1990s to professional consultants and textbook writers guaranteed that the quality of content was not in the first place of the priority list of problems faced by the publishing industry.
The hope was that this reality "was likely to be reversed by political leaders, educators and parents calling for education reforms, including raising curricular quality through textbook improvement." (Watt 2007, 14) However, the pressure was not heard... As mentioned by Sewall, "the textbook industry, instead of responding to ample and well-considered complaints--not from cranks but from leading historians and book critics--has become increasingly hermetic and unyielding." (Sewall, Textbook Publishing, 2005)
Bibliography
- Broudy, E. 1975. 'The trouble with textbooks'. Teachers College Record, 77(1), 13-34.
- Sewall, G., 2005. 'Textbook Publishing'. Phi Delta Kappan, 498-502. Available at: http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k_v86/k0503sew.htm [Accessed May 6, 2009]
- Watt, M.G., 2007. 'Research on the Textbook Publishing Industry in the United States of America'. IARTEM e-Journal, 1(1). Available at: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED498713 [Accessed May 9, 2009]
- Westbury, I. 1990. 'Textbooks, textbook publishers, and the quality of schooling'. In: Woodward, A. and Elliott, D.L. (eds.) Textbooks and Schooling in the United States (Eighty-Ninth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, part I). Chicago, IL: National Society for the Study of Education, 1-22.
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