BookStats, the three year-old industry statistics program that was the result of an agreement between the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group, will not have a fifth year, at least not in its present form.Last week the BISG board voted against renewing the agreement.
In a statement, BISG executive director Len Vlahos said while the agreement with AAP had produced work that "has gone a long way to helping stakeholders in and out of publishing better understand our industry," in the BISG's view "the lifecycle of BookStats has run its course."
BISG said it will "explore other options for conducting industry-wide research" and pointed to three studies-- Digital Books and the New Subscription Economy, Student Attitudes toward Content in Higher Education Volume 4, and Faculty Attitudes toward Content in Higher Education Volume 3—all scheduled for release in the next two weeks. BISG noted it will work with partners to create new research products that take a holistic and global view of book industry data.
The two organizations had long created their own statistics, which usually differed on the size and growth of the book market. BookStats is the most comprehensive statistics program developed by the industry to date.
The 2013 edition of BookStats should be released this week. AAP said that it will continue to collect industry data, including its monthly StatShot program that captures actual data from over 1,200 companies in a variety of industry categories. AAP said it will also work to develop a new annual statistics program with more details to be released at a later date.
