Faber & Faber is a large independent UK publishing house that has successfully adopted a digital strategy. It has diversified into areas like e-books, apps, online courses, and social media platforms. While revenue increased significantly in 2013, past financial reports showed decreasing profits. However, investments in digital appear to be paying off. To remain competitive, Faber & Faber must continue innovating digitally, expand into new markets, and address issues around intellectual property with new technologies.

1. Case
Study
Student No. 12068131, Sabrina Gutierrez
Oosthuysen
U65025 Publishing In The Digital Age
Case Study
FABER & FABER Ltd

2. 1
CONTENTS
Executive summary ...........................................................................................2
Introduction and Main Issues................................................................................3
Business Model and Strategy ................................................................................4
Business Case ..................................................................................................4
Competition....................................................................................................4
Digital strategy ................................................................................................5
Readership and the Market..................................................................................8
Conclusion......................................................................................................9
Strategy Recommendations .................................................................................9
Reference..................................................................................................... 11
Appendix...................................................................................................... 13

3. 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report examines the business model, business and digital strategy of Faber & Faber Ltd.
Managing a range of digital platforms, the publishing house has successfully gained prestigious
recognition amongst digital innovation with their website Faber Social which has been shortlisted for
the FutureBook Innovation Awards 2013. Their leading interactive strategy with their market and
readers pioneers the theoretical criticism of how publishers would remain competitive and profitable:
through networking (Tagholm, 2013). In addition, initiating the year with a record breaking profit
turnover, operated up to 273% above last year’s top-line turnover (Book 2 Book, 2013), suggests
evidence of profitability and market growth. In a time where publishing slowly evolves to the
marriage of content and technology (Anderson, 2013), and digital advancements begin to mature,
Faber has successfully focused on ways to distribute content, instead of the past main focus of
creating technologies (Gutierrez, 2013). However, for further creativity and innovation to happen
digitally, there has to be constant renewalof author contracts,intellectual property rights, and
copyright clauses (Hargreaves,2011). With the next attempt to create online content sharing, there has
to be contracts,rights, and laws which encourage new digital technology systems for creative
industries (Hargreave,2011).

4. 3
INTRODUCTION AND MAIN
ISSUES
Faber & Faber is the UK’s largest independent publishing house, dating from 1925 and pioneering in
the publishing industry. Faber publishes fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books alongside its
ornamented lists of poetry, drama, music and film. Faber owns three imprints: Faber Finds, Faber
Social, Faber Academy and an up-and-coming imprint partnered with The Guardian: Guardian Faber
(Faber & Faber, 2013). It is a long running company with continuous success by diversifying their
business strategy, product and embracing the digital market. Yet,within the continuum of the
evolutionary digital age, key issues can be appreciated.
1. How will F&F remain competitive?
2. How will F&F keep and inherit their prestigious and historical company value to their
products/content?
3. How will F&F expand their market and readership? (In terms of discoverability).
4. How can digital content and virtual spaces make F&F more/less profitable?
5. What will the role of the publisher/publishing house entail?
Through discussions, researching the company’s website, reports, and relevant articles, this report
assesses how the implementation of digitisation at Faber and their approach and use of it in
publishing, affects their business in the competitive and constantly regenerating industry.

5. 4
BUSINESS MODEL AND
STRATEGY
With evidence in the new word marque, Faber has objectified a new long term business model (Book
2 Book, 2013). With the announcement of the record breaking annual top-line turnover of the
company, CEO Stephen Page declared that the company is thriving in the transforming industry
across publishing, digital and service businesses, and creative writing (Jones, 2013). Continuously
“investing for the future” for a “successfultwenty-first-century incarnation of Faber & Faber” (Jones,
2013).
BUSINESS CASE
By comparing figures from 2011 – 2012, there is a decrease in the company’s gross profit. However,
according to this year’s top-line annual turnover, Faber has seemed to profit up to 273%, suggesting
that high expenditure on capital investment in digital technologies has, this year, broken-even (Book 2
Book, 2013).
From 2011 to 2012, Faber has invested in all liability and company assets,including:
o Number of employees: from 100 to 107 from 2011-2012 (Factiva, 2012).
o Total Assets and Current Assets (Factiva,2012).

6. 5
DIGITAL STRATEGY
Strategically Faber has created an entire new digital company –with a growing e-book list, a new
print-on-demand service from Faber Finds imprint, an award-winning application (The Waste Land
App available on Apple Store) by Faber Digital, having an online creative writing school (Faber
Academy),and as well as Faber Social –illustrates Faber’s rebirth and expansion with the digital
support (Faber & Faber,2013). As of October, the prestigious FutureBook Innovation awards has
shortlisted the Faber Social website by Faber under the category Best Publisher Website (Jones,
2013).
Virtual channels F&F manages are their company website, an online blog which can be
accessed on their website named ‘The Thought Fox’ discussing books and culture, and social media
including Facebook (8,043 Likes), Twitter (44,970 Followers), YouTube (584 Subscribers), Flickr
(877 Photos), and Pinterest (888 Followers) (Gutierrez, 2013). Actively networking with their market
and readers,finding and helping authors to stylistically publish quality literature, are amongst the
digital strategies which have helped Faber and attended to content discoverability.
Faber’s reading lists, title catalogues, and contact details are all now given online, hence
facilitating information communication with every component of the market.
DISTRIBUTION OF E-
BOOKS
2012 E-book Market Value: £216 million
Expected 2013 E-book Market Value for 2013: £300 million
(Oliver, Mintel, 2013)

7. 6
The e-book market is expected to increase by 5.4% in value from 2012 to 2013 (Oliver, Mintel, 2013).
Therefore the distribution channels of e-books are crucial for company development. Faber does not
sell e-books (apart from Faber Finds) directly from their website, however their e-books are sold
through the following UK booksellers (Faber & Faber, 2013):
1. Amazon
2. Waterstone's
3. Kobo
4. WHSmith
5. Blackwell's
6. Foyles
7. The Book Depository
8. Apple iBookstore
9. Nook
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
-Variation of e-book formats
can be read on more devices
and applications.
-Selling through the most
popular retailers (Mintel, 2013)
Weaknesses
-Faber has very well developed
websites and access to its Spring
2014 catalogue, hence not
selling on their own website
may potentially reduce sales.
Opportunities
-Market expansion: products
can be bought through readers
favourite retailers online and
in-store (see Appendix).
Threats
-Heavy discounting on the RRP
(mainly through Amazon) thus
less profitability.

8. 7
COMPETITION
Faber distinguishes itself through their successfulrange of backlist, featuring a dozen Nobel Laureates
authors and severalBooker-Prize winners (Faber, 2013). Considered in the elite of the industry, they
primarily remain competitive with their historical brand, the quality of their product, and their
valuable reputation. However,by examining in digital aspects key competitors, through the shortlist
of the FutureBook Innovation Awards; HarperCollins,Penguin RandomHouse and Goodreads lead
with best virtual platforms, they are digital trendsetters,and marketing experts.
Faber offers e-book epub and mobi format (most popular formats), however Faber limits their
applications to only Apple devices and for Apple store, hence there is no supply for Play Store and
Android users (Faber & Faber,2013).
 Competitors (Direct and Indirect)
o Amazon retails for a larger percent of all book and e-book sales (Oliver, Mintel,
2013).
o As publishing becomes more peripheral and involves other variation of publishing
products, direct competition is the biggest threat (Hughes, 2013).
 Trade-book publishing companies and retailers: Amazon, Penguin Random
House, Google Play applications (applications for Android devices).
At the Frankfurt Book Fair 2013, Sasha Lobo from SoBooks expressed that the key element of books
are that they are meant to be shared, just like the internet (Anderson, 2013). Social action is therefore
the key to book discoverability, book sales, and profitability. This is the main concept of companies
such as Goodreads,and which is encouraged on Faber Social.

9. 8
READERSHIP AND THE
MARKET
With Faber’s variety of lists and imprints in trade publishing, it allows them to diversify their market
and expand to different readerships. The expansion of readerships has grown through digital
development and management of social media websites and blogs, however with their increasing and
improving digital strategy, the readership in the UK tend to expect free content digitally (Hargreaves,
2011).
Faber manages also international sales, and advantageously, digital and electronic
communication facilitates the global market. However,with over half of the population yet to have
direct internet connection, the global digital revolution has still to blossom (Hargreaves,2011). This
conflicts with rights and licensing, including Intellectual Property (IP) rights and Copyrighting,
becoming a barrier nationally and internationally in the creation of new and improved internet based
services (Hargreaves,2011).

10. 9
CONCLUSION
By addressing the key issues, Faber’s digital strategy has proven to be effective. Yet because of the
growing digital content and market, it is important for copyright and intellectual property rights to
allow for business development (Hargreaves,2011). Current European and UK copyright laws have
no room for future technological change (Hargreaves,2011). Publishers are no longer gatekeepers but
shepherds of content, and as consumers continue to increase demand for e-books, which prove to be
more successfulwith low pricing, publishers must peripherally attend to all components and support
systems to promote their content in a growing publishing industry due to self-publishing opportunities
(Oliver, Mintel, 2013).
STRATEGY
RECOMMENDATIONS
The focus should be on linking actual readers to prospective readers (Pathan and Gutierrez, 2013). By
linking reading communities Faber would be expanding markets, stimulate sales, and stimulate
content discovery.
o Pricing
 Start high RRP less VAT.
 Watch Amazon for discounting.
o Promotion
 E-mail/direct marketing/social media campaigns.
 Through digital platforms i.e. social media platforms, for readers to promote
as well between themselves.
What Faber has to consider:
1. Where are we competing? How are we competing?

11. 10
a. High quality content across severalgenres and lists.
b. High quality, relevant, innovative, and market and consumer-leading
products/technologies.
c. Building on reputation of our current and prospective assets (content and
authors).
2. What do we want to become? What do we want to achieve? How will we get there?
a. Become a peripheral content and service provider.
b. Create and cater reading communities.
c. Network.
d. Find new ways to develop interactive content.
e. Follow trends and set trends.
f. Inter-business networking/collaborating, creating liaisons with other content
providers.
Word Count: 1,298

12. 11
REFERENCES
1. Anderson, Porter. (2013). At CONTEC: Content, Technology, And… Questions. Publishing
Perspectives. Available at: http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/10/at-contec-content-
technology-and-questions/ (Accessed:31 Oct. 2013).
2. Book 2 Book. (2013). Faber & Faber announce successful turnover. Available at:
http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/49934 . (Accessed:29 Oct. 2013).
3. Book 2 Book. (2013). Faber & Faber New World Marque. Available at:
http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/49734 (Accessed:29 Oct. 2013).
4. Davies, Paul. (2013). Digital Trends Autumn. Mintel. Accessed via Mintel 10 Nov. 2013.
5. Faber & Faber. (2013). Faber.co.uk. Available at: http://www.faber.co.uk/ (Accessed 05 Nov.
2013).
6. Gutierrez, Sabrina. (2013). “Buchmesse!”. Morning Cup of Publishing: Publishing in the
Digital Age. Available at: http://morningcupofpublishing.weebly.com/publishing-in-the-
digital-age.html (Accessed 01 Nov. 2013)
7. Hargreaves,Ian. (2011). Digital Opportunity:A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth,
Outsell, (Accessed via Outsell 10 Nov. 2013)
8. Hughes, Sally. (Lecture:2013). “Children’s Publishing in the Digital Age”,U65025 Publishing
in the Digital Age,Oxford Brookes University, Unpublished Audio. 22 Oct. 2013.
9. Jones, Dow. (2013). Factiva Company Report: Faber & Faber. Factiva. (Accessed via Factiva
29 Oct. 2013).
10. Jones, Philip. (2011). Charting Global E-book market exclusive data. Futurebook.net.
Available at: http://futurebook.net/content/charting-global-e-book-market-exclusive-data
(Accessed 5th Nov 2013).

13. 12
11. Jones, Philip. (2013). FutureBook innovation award shortlist. Available at:
http://futurebook.net/content/futurebook-innovation-awards-shortlists (Accessed 29th Oct
2013).
12. Oliver, Michael. (2013). Books and E-books – UK – September 2013. Mintel. Accessed via
Mintel 10 Nov. 2013.
13. Pathan, Sophia, Sabrina Gutierrez (2013). Discussing Faber & Faber. Oxford Brookes
University. Unpublished Audio. 31 Oct. 2013.
14. Tagholm, Roger. (2013). Publishers more relaxed as Digital matures. Buchmesse Blog.
blog.book-fair.com. Available at: http://blog.book-fair.com/2013/10/11/publishers-more-
relaxed-as-digital-matures/ (Accessed 13 Oct. 2013)
15. Williams, Charlotte. (2013). Guardian and Faber launch imprint. Available:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/guardian-and-faber-launch-imprint.html (Accessed 28th
Oct 2013).

14. 13
APPENDIX
Figure 1: Book buying and reading habits, July 2013. Base: 2,000 internet users aged 16+.
“Which, if any, of the following have you done over the past 12 months?” (Oliver, Michael.
(2013). Books and E-books – UK – September 2013. Mintel. Accessed via Mintel10 Nov. 2013).