There’s plenty in the report of the Book Industry Strategy Group, released today to have newspaper publishers pricking up their ears… and perhaps moving to the front foot against a plethora of government interference (writes Peter Coleman).

Australian innovation minister Senator Kim Carr says the government will give “detailed consideration” to the 21 recommendations, which while pitched at dealing with dramatic change in the book industry, have knock-on implications for other publishers.

In fact, Carr has announced immediate establishment of a printing and publishing network’ as part of the ‘enterprise connect’ within his department… whatever that means. It doesn’t, for example, say it only means printers and publishers of books.

That “printing and publishing are distinct industries” is recognised in today’s statement, which follows publication of the report over the signature of chairman and former federal minister Barry Jones.

But both are on the block in Australia and other markets, in what Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood calls “post classified” publishing. That’s after the cash cow which once funded bulky issues of metropolitan broadsheets has slipped the paddock.

Though it is fairing much better than in countries such as the USA, newspaper printing here is substantially depressed as a result of the same digital revolution which affects books. Additionally, newspapers currently find themselves under siege by a government dangerously influenced by minority politicians.

But, hey, let’s worry about book printers, instead.

Jones’ report advocates that either GST on books be abolished (unlikely), that GST is charged on books bought from overseas (impracticable, we’re told)… or that the government props up booksellers via other ideas from the BISG report.

These include $5 million to make local digital retailers more competitive, and $10 million for university publication subsidies, marketing, distribution and printing infrastructure. There’s more cash-shuffling too, in the refocussing of the funds which go for learning materials

Industry representations when the ‘tax on knowledge’ was introduced in 2000 had already returned part of the GST moolah to the printing industry via a variety of schemes, a sop if I recall, to ensure the Democrats’ support.

A better idea is in recommendation 3: At the report launch, Barry Jones told how he had received a 10 kg parcel of books from the UK. Delivered by airmail, the postage had cost A$42.60.

“I asked Australia Post what it would cost to post the parcel back to the UK, and the answer was $237.50, a 557 per cent differential,” he says.

He also cites examples of how Australian books can be cheaper when bought from overseas.

Example? ‘The Cook's Companion’, by Stephanie Alexander (published by Viking Penguin) was A$130 at Readings in Lygon Street, Carlton, but only A$92.83 from the Book Depository in England, including airmail postage.

The report suggests the government “initiate negotiations with the Universal Postal Union to secure amendment of the appropriate postal treaties to provide more equitable and competitive pricing for print post delivery”, but that smacks of making global postage rates more expensive – so that Australian retailers are not disadvantaged – rather than making Australia Post’s PrintPost service cheaper and more effective.

Newspapers and other publishers (including GXpress Magazine) use PrintPost as an essential part of their business, but rather than the ‘first class service at secondclass rates’ I recall as part of the Royal Mail offer in the UK, publishers get  the increasingly expensive and ordinary service they have come to expect from the local monopoly.

Currently, Australia Post gives itself two to seven days to deliver PrintPost items outside the metropolitan area of the state in which they were posted, and anecdotal evidence suggests it often takes more.

A variety of initiatives in other countries – Switzerland is a good example – take advantage of variable data digital printing technology to deliver personalised publications and other items by the national mail service. It couldn’t happen here without will (rather than whingeing) from postal managers.

GST-free newspapers – despite the fact that e-books may be tax free – is an unlikely reform. But viable and functional distribution… now that’d be something.