Publishers are cutting their trade show budgets way back, as evidenced by these announcements at Making Information Pay, a BISG conference.

Trade Shows Targeted in Cost Cutting, Along with Catalogs and More Speaking at yesterday’s Making Information Pay conference, Sterling ceo Marcus Leaver declared, “I’m not going to Frankfurt. I’m going to send a very reduced team to Frankfurt. The trade show is over.” Though he enjoyed visiting relatives while in London for the recent book fair, “I’m not sure what I achieved.” Overall he reported that the company has “taken about $1 million out of our trade show, exhibition and sales conference budget” and in turn has “increased our title-by-title marketing spend 33% in a year.” In the preceding speech Sourcebooks ceo Dominique Raccah indicated that she, too, has reduced her trade-show budget by $250,000 and eliminated in-person sales conferences entirely as part of a larger revamping to “create the next iteration of business as usual.” In an earnings interview yesterday, Simon & Schuster ceo Carolyn Reidy expressed similar sentiments, saying that “we have definitely looked at our participation in trade shows” and are “cutting back dramatically our booth and participation at Frankfurt.” She says their presence at this year’s London Book Fair was already curtailed and, though “our booth at BEA was already paid for” this year, participation there is being scrutinized as well. Source: Publishers Lunch Email

What is the takeaway for independent publishers?

• Big trade shows and aren’t working for mainstream publishers anymore, so they are even less likely to work for independent publishers (if they ever really did).
• Paying for placement at a trade show is a an even bigger gamble than it was previously.
• Paper catalogs and Advance Review Copies (ARCs) will start disappearing and will be replaced with digital catalogs and PDF ARCs at a faster rate.