StreetLib is the publisher behind The New Publishing Standard, and while TNPS is not a StreetLib promotional vehicle and we don’t routinely carry StreetLib news, StreetLib’s global expansion clearly falls within the TNPS global publishing industry news remit.

As ever on such occasions, we re-print the StreetLib Press Release in full below without further TNPS commentary, although on this occasion this is a join StreetLib-TNPS venture, so more from me below.

[Press-Release] StreetLib launches “Publish Africa — the digital advantage”, a bi-weekly B2B newsletter for the Pan-African publishing industry
Nairobi, Kenya, June 15th 2019

On June 27 the first edition of a new B2B (business-to-business) newsletter will go out to subscribers as Italy-based global gateway distributor and publishing facilitator StreetLib continues its mission to advance a truly global, truly inclusive publishing industry.

StreetLib CEO Giacomo D’Angelo, speaking at the IPA Regional Seminar in Nairobi, said,

“In a global publishing industry worth over $143 billion, the $1 billion we can attribute to African publishing is clear example of the way African publishing has failed to keep up with the digital transition that has transformed publishing economies elsewhere.

With few exceptions, Africa’s publishers and publishing stakeholders have not embraced the digital advantage to develop a hybrid digital-print business model.

Wonderful as the traditional ink-on-paper book is, the logistics of production, warehousing and distribution present insurmountable hurdles to the development of a Pan-African publishing industry interacting on even terms with the rest of the world.

It needn’t be that way.

A hybrid digital-print model can help publishers reach new audiences, open up new markets and create new revenue streams.

But “hybrid” is the key here. This is not an either/or debate.

Digital is a complimentary option to the traditional publishing model, not the enemy of traditional publishing, and an option that is transforming publishing markets around the world, across all sectors.

At the 2019 IPA Nairobi Seminar the many facets of the digital advantage have been explored in detail, and African publishers and stakeholders have been enthused by the possibilities.

But as we leave the IPA Nairobi Seminar in the rearview mirror there’s a danger that enthusiasm will wane as African publishers return to survival mode.

At StreetLib we’re committed to keeping that enthusiasm fired up, and so, on Thursday June 27 we’ll be publishing the inaugural edition of Publish Africa — the digital advantage, compiled by Mark Williams, Editor-in-Chief of StreetLib’s global publishing industry journal The New Publishing Standard, and himself a resident of The Gambia, West Africa.

Publish Africa — the digital advantage will be a bi-weekly review of the Pan-African publishing scene across all formats, but with an unashamed tilt towards the digital opportunity unfolding.

Mark Williams explained,

“Like The New Publishing Standard (TNPS), Publish Africa — the digital advantage will be not so much publishing news as insights into Africa’s publishing opportunity as the continent transitions to a hybrid print and digital model.

There are currently over 474 million Africans online — that’s more than in North America, Latin America or the European Union — that could be benefitting from digital reading, and that’s expected to rise to 800 million within the next decade.

But for myriad good and bad reasons most African publishers are way behind the curve, in terms of awareness of, as well as engagement with, the digital opportunity.

Publish Africa — the digital advantage, with its unashamed tilt towards the digital opportunity unfolding, will help ensure African publishers are able to make informed choices about what paths they follow during the digital transition.

We are witnesses to, and can be participants in, a Global New Renaissance quite unprecedented in human history. A Renaissance in which publishing plays a leading role, and one that can encompass everyone, anywhere on the planet, in their preferred language.

That’s the hybrid print and digital opportunity unfolding. Don’t let it pass you by.

To subscribe to Publish Africa — the digital advantage click here.

Email: publishafrica@streetlib.com.