Service Engineering for Publishers: Systematic Development of New Services in the Publishing Field

In most industry nations there is a shift of employment and added value from production industry to service industry. In Germany in 1998 64% of all employees worked in the service sector and achieved 68% of added value . This trend can be observed in the publishing field as well. It influences the future expectations of the management. In 1999 about only 6% of the publishers in Germany expected an increase of importance of bookand newspaper-market, but 30% expect an decreasing importance. Optimists and pessimist are balanced in the matter of the magazine market. 80% of the interviewed are expecting an increasing importance for services, multimedia and internet, but publishers do have problems to attune to this challenge. High specialised in the publishing market they feel save and unassailable, but the new technology has become a opportunity and a threat for them. The huge technologic development is not pushed by the publishers, in many cases they even cannot keep pace. To get new competitor profiles without relying only on technology, an alternative could be to offer services around the traditional products. This presumption is supported by an analysis of traditional service markets. Expenses, product quality, or technology are not critical product features but rather the offer of really innovative services, characterized through recentness, continuous improvement, and proximity to customer.