“Publishing Beyond Publishers” presents an overview of a rapidly expanding universe of publishing models from around the world, which lead beyond the traditional value chain of authors approaching publishers (as gatekeepers and producers for their work) to reach audiences through separate B2B and B2C vendors.

Instead, content can be created and disseminated in an unlimited diversity of formats (print, digital), media (books, audio, movies, games), distribution channels (communities, platforms, streams) and business models (sales of products, subscriptions, streaming, freemium, paid models) in mostly digitally defined supply and marketing chains.

The research aims at mapping exemplary cases of such models and adding evidence based indicators for assessing the scale of sectors and sub-sectors.

A first presentation of preliminary findings at the Readmagine conference in June 2023 can be watched on video. The full report is available here.

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The research project builds on insights from the analysis in the Global 50 Publishing Ranking 2022 and the CEO Talk at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2022 with Ashleigh Gardner of Wattpad WEBTOON Studio and Michael Tamblyn of Kobo Rakuten.