Helen Kogan, managing director of Kogan Page, and her father Philip, who founded the company 50 years ago. ‘The Industrial Training Yearbook 1967-1968’ was the independent publisher’s first release. Image: Kogan Page

As we hear from Kogan Page’s leadership today about the rights landscape in this independent house’s business and management specialty, we also have several titles the company is presenting for rights sales. You can find those at the end of this story.—Porter Anderson

By Roger Tagholm | @RogerTagholm

Chinese Rights Sales Now Leading

Founded by Philip Kogan in 1967, it has remained independent throughout its half-century, and it’s run today by Philip’s daughter Helen Kogan, who’s managing director.

The company recently made industry headlines with the timely acquisition of two cyber-attack titles, announced in the same week as the global ransomware attack. Both of these titles are scheduled for spring 2018:

• Cyberwars: The Hacks that Shook the World is by former Guardian technology editor Charles Arthur and will look at the dramatic inside stories of some of the world’s biggest cyber-attacks including the Clinton election campaign as well as recent global events.
• Cyber Risk Management, is by Richard Benham of the UK’s National Cyber Skills Centre and will, according to promotional copy, offer “vital guidance on how to evaluate threats and communicate a cyber-security strategy to help prevent the trillions of dollars that are lost globally each year.”

Publishing Perspectives spoke to Helen Kogan about how the company has managed to remain independent, its current rights activity, and how the world of business publishing is changing.

‘Discoverable Anywhere in the World’

Publishing Perspectives: As Kogan Page enters its sixth decade, how is business?

Helen Kogan. Image: Roger Tagholm

Helen Kogan: We’re having a great year. We’re almost at the end of our financial year and we’re seeing double-digit growth across all revenue streams. We’ve also won two transformational publishing contracts with the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and the Chartered Institute of Banking for both academic and professional development titles.

We’re about to launch a searchable digital platform for B2B customers and we’re also about to launch our first online courses. It’s been a really exciting breakthrough year following four years of refocus and development of our value proposition.

PP: Is there a particular focus to your rights activity?

HK: The growth and further growth of Beijing Book Fair has been particularly good for us, and the sale of Chinese rights is now our most successful territory.

However, we have our titles translated into 50 different languages now and, interestingly, this isn’t just confined to our more popular general business titles. We’ve had success with some of our more specialist titles too, in the field of logistics and human resources.

We’ve always been internationally-focused and currently sell our titles into 90 countries with key territories being North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia, India, and China.

We have offices in the US and India and a wide network of agents globally. We’re fortunate to publish in English–the international language of business–and that business and management is a global subject. We’ve really taken advantage of global supply chains in recent years and, through the development of digital bibliographic and marketing feeds, now have the fantastic ability to make our titles discoverable anywhere in the world. 

‘A Very Crowded Marketplace’

PP: What are the main issues facing business and professional publishers?

“We’ve always been internationally-focused and currently sell our titles into 90 countries with key territories being North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia, India, and China.”Helen Kogan

HK: A major issue is that we’re now surrounded by content producers.

It’s no longer just traditional publishers that disseminate business content, and it’s a very crowded marketplace. Training companies, member organizations, business schools and management consultancies are just some of the serious non-traditional competition we need to think about. However, we’ve spent the last three years defining our value proposition and points of difference and think we still have a compelling and competitive business with significant opportunity for further growth.

PP: How much of a threat is open access? The ‘knowledge should be free’ camp can be very persuasive. Does it create an environment in which students are more reluctant to pay for content?

HK: I think it’s very difficult to persuade students to pay for content when they’ve been used to ‘free’. We really need the educational institutes to support us in this and to make the case that at the end of the line is an author who has created the book and should be compensated accordingly.

As much as “free” is a challenge I also think that the threat to non-linear narrative, through other media formats, is problematic. We’re looking at how we can offer a much more three-dimensional and interactive experience in the future to compete with changing consumer reading habits.

PP: How has Kogan Page managed to stay independent?

HK: Bloody-mindedness, resilience, opportunism–all those things and much more.

PP: How many staff members do you have and what’s your turnover?

HK: We have 35 staff and growing. Our turnover is £4.5 million (US$5.6 million) but in the next financial year this will grow to over £5.5 million (US$7.2 million) through organic growth and the addition of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development’s list. We had to take a hit on our top line in the last few years as we refocused part of our activity on specialist areas but this year we’re seeing the fruits of that work and expect to have 12-percent growth.

Benefitting From a Weak Pound

PP:  What effect do you think Brexit will have?

“I hope that sanity will prevail and the threat hanging over our European colleagues’ right to stay in this country will be dealt with swiftly rather than using it as a bargaining chip.”Helen Kogan

HK: It’s hard to say at this point. We have to hope that we won’t have to deal with tariffs as this will clearly have some impact. Costs of materials may also be an issue and we’ll need to keep an eye on this. We hold English-language world and digital rights to the vast majority of our list so this should mitigate having to compete with US editions in Europe (a growing concern amongst other publishers).

I hope that sanity will prevail and the threat hanging over our European colleagues’ right to stay in this country will be dealt with swiftly rather than using it as a bargaining chip.

On the plus side, we’ve certainly benefited from the weakness of the pound against the dollar.

PP: Where do you sell most of your books?

HK: Seventy percent of our sales still go through the traditional supply chain–bookshops, online retailers, wholesalers, and so on. However, our Web site sales are growing and we have a thriving B2B sales activity for member organizations, author networks, and corporates.

PP: What’s the split between digital and print in your business? 

HK: Digital accounts for 25 percent of revenue with the balance of this being delivered from digital licensing to academic library suppliers, aggregators, and corporate content suppliers. Our ebook business has stayed fairly stable at about 8 percent of overall revenue.

‘A Fantastic Time To Be in Business Publishing’

PP: Are there any specific changes in the world of business that are reflected in your list? Perhaps the rise in books on coding, for example?

“I hope that sanity will prevail and the threat hanging over our European colleagues’ right to stay in this country will be dealt with swiftly rather than using it as a bargaining chip.”Helen Kogan

HK: It’s a fantastic time to be in business publishing. Digital disruption affects all areas of business, and so we’ve got books on this covering customer experience, cyber management, fin-tech [financial technology], agile leadership, digital skills, and plenty relating to working in a VUCA world [volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity].

PP: Is online coaching, via YouTube and such, a potential threat to your business? Some foreign language teachers say they’ve noticed this.

HK: I don’t see this necessarily as a threat. More as an opportunity. We’ll be launching our first course on Thursday (May 25), and we’ve developed it to support a Market Research Society qualification. We’ll also be launching courses to support continuing professional development on softer skills, too. As publishers, we need to look at how we can offer content on a range of platforms and formats supporting our readers’ learning preferences. 

PP: What’s your own background? Was there a ‘before’ Kogan Page?

HK: I joined the company in 2000, although spent many of my school summer holidays working in the warehouse packing books. I d spent the previous 15 years as a journalist editing a trade journal and then as a freelancer writing on workplace issues when my children were small. I first oversaw digital content development at Kogan Page and then moved over to publish the HR and logistics lists. I became managing director in 2006.

“Training companies, member organizations, business schools and management consultancies are just some of the serious non-traditional competition we need to think about.”Helen Kogan

My father is chairman and owner of the company. He attends board meetings and is fully in contact with the progress in the company. His advice is still immensely useful and much of what we’ve been creating in the last four years really goes back to our roots.

He was early to recognize the importance of direct marketing and engagement with readers and the opportunity of getting to grips with specialist areas of interest. Our investment in a CRM system which now holds 150,000 names is testament to this approach.

PP: How do you see the next three years shaping up?

HK: We’re feeling very upbeat at the moment and everything points to continued growth for the foreseeable future. Kogan Page’s publishing in specialist vocational areas will continue to grow and we’ll develop further content tools to support member organizations.

Our trade list has some spectacular titles coming out on digital disruption, skills, and leadership, and we’ve made significant in-roads into academic channels. We have more growth opportunity in international markets, too. It all looks pretty good for the next three years onward.

Several books this season are being highlighted by Kogan Page’s head of rights Amy Joyner. Here’s a quick listing:

• People With Purpose (February) by Kevin Murray “shows leaders how to create a valuable framework that integrates purpose, values and goals on a single page in order to articulate their organization’s unique vision to employees and stakeholders.” Rights have been sold in Turkish and Polish. 
• Myths of PR (April) by Rich Leigh “uses popular myths about the theory and practice of public relations as a vehicle for helping startup owners, brand marketers, communications practitioners and students to distinguish between fads and tried-and-tested PR practice.” Vietnamese and audiobook rights were sold prior to publication. 
  
• Content: The Atomic Particle of Marketing (publishing June 3) by Rebecca Lieb. “Content, in all its forms, is the single most critical element of any marketing campaign. Finding a successful equilibrium between content marketing and content strategy is difficult, but essential.” Chinese rights have been sold pre-publication via the Andrew Nurnberg Agency Beijing.
• Financial Management for Technology Start-Ups (publishing August 3) by Alnoor Bhimani “concentrates on what is important in financial terms for technology-based and innovation focused entrepreneurial businesses.” Chinese rights were sold pre-publication via the Andrew Nurnberg Agency Beijing.
• The Mindset of Success (Second Edition) by Jo Owen: “Updated with new research, targeted business advice and guidance on how your mindset must change as you move through your career.” Italian and Vietnamese rights have been sold.