
Frannkfurter Buchmesse’s Business Club in Hall 4 is the setting for the 2019 IPDA International Publishing Distribution Forum on October 17. Image: FBM, Bernd Hartung
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘To Promote Commercial Opportunities’
Our colleague José Miguel Anta, the Madrid-based managing director of the International Publishing Distribution Association (IPDA), has announced that the organization—which brings together professionals in Europe, the Americas, and Asia—will for a third year collaborate with Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16 to 20) to stage the International Publishing Distribution Forum.
Set for 10 a.m. on Frankfurt Thursday, October 17, the event is set in Hall 4 at Buchmesse, at the Business Club. The forum is a B2B event with an emphasis on networking.
Anta tells us, “After a keynote and some short introductory remarks on stage, we’ll open the floor for individual talks, networking, and matchmaking in order to promote commercial opportunities between publishers and distributors at the international level.”
Last year’s event drew more than 120 attendees, and it is, again, free of charge to those who are looking to open new business channels while at Frankfurt this year.
Advance registration is requested here.

The UK’s Emerald Publishing Opens Its ‘Insight’ Research Platform
The academic publisher Emerald Publishing, based at Howard House in Bingley, has announced that its redesigned Emerald Insight digital research platform has gone live, following what the company is describing as “a significant investment in technology and many months of development in partnership with software development consultancy 67 Bricks.”
Emerald Insight comprises more than 340 journals, 2,000 books, 1,700 case studies, and a growing collection of open access content. In is media messaging, Emerald says the platform “has been reimagined and rebuilt in collaboration with 12 leading international universities across six continents to ensure that the design makes scholarly communication easier and more engaging.”
According to announcement material from Bingley, the platform now offers “a simpler and more rewarding experience to discovering social sciences research.
“It has an intuitive design which enables fast, accurate searching and content filtering making it easier to pinpoint what is most relevant … and has been built to support a wide variety of outputs including multimedia, data and expert briefings and opinion.”
Emerald has transformed its digital operations in order rapidly respond to user feedback, and make use of leading analytics and data technologies so that the platform can continuously evolve to meet changing behavior and needs.
Last year, the publisher launched its Emerald Open Research platform, which supports rapid publication of open access content with an open peer review process.
In a prepared statement, marketing director Harriet Bell is quoted saying, “Our size and commitment to driving change in publishing enables us to be agile, close to our customers, and challenge conventions.
“The launch of the platform is another step our journey to play our part in creating the conditions for social sciences research to reach new audiences, mobilize knowledge and have impact.”
There’s no additional cost to customers for the upgrade to the platform, which can be accessed here.
Some will find that one of the platform’s most useful elements is its publication site map, that parses the sources onboard and quickly links a user to a given publication.
More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, and more from us on open access and research is here. More from our Industry Notes series is here.