Development Research Report on the Development of China's Private Book Industry

Author: Yu Min, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-11-01
Features: After the reform and opening-up, the private book industry has rapidly grown. The number of distribution outlets in the private book industry has far exceeded those of state-owned book outlets, and its share in the national book market has been increasing year by year, becoming an important force in China's book distribution industry. Compared to the state-owned book industry, the greatest advantage of the private book industry lies in its institutional characteristics. Most private book industry enterprises have clear property rights, emphasize efficiency in operations, pursue benefits, and are in good business health. However, further research indicates that the institutional characteristics of the private book industry are essentially rooted in the close proximity and direct interaction between its productive factors and productive relations, allowing the productive relations to effectively influence the human elements within the productive forces, thereby achieving a better ratio between input and output. Before the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's private book industry had already achieved significant development. After the 16th National Congress, the private book industry entered a new round of development. Regardless of its current scale or emerging momentum, the private book industry has become and is becoming an irreplaceable force in the development of China's book industry. However, there are also many factorsing its development, such as the underutilization of its institutional advantages, policy difficulties it faces in development, and several pressing issues it still needs to address.
The China Publishing Research Institute, based on the task requirements proposed by Director Shi Zongyuan of the General Administration of Press and Publication at the national press and publication leaders' meeting at the beginning of the year—"relaxing the channels for private capital to enter the publication market, encouraging, supporting, and guiding the non-state-owned economic development of the publishing industry"—drew upon relevant research personnel to form the "Research Team on the Development of the Private Book Industry." The team conducted in-depth research on the private book industry through methods such as seminars, field investigations, individual interviews, high-level forums, official-civilian dialogues, and online data collection, systematically studying and deeply reflecting on the history and current state of the private book industry, the challenges and opportunities it faces, its development prospects, and countermeasures. For some key issues affecting the development of the private book industry, the team organized collective efforts to tackle them, forming the basis for this research report.
This report elaborates on the private book industry as a product of the reform and opening-up, its inevitability and rootedness in development, and its irreplaceability in the ownership structure. It provides valuable references for the government in formulating development policies for the private book industry and for private book industry operators in formulating business strategies and development directions. The research also points out that due to a lack of proper understanding of the status and role of the private book industry, there remains certain discrimination, resulting in generally smaller business scales, scattered operations, low management levels, and poor social credibility, all of which constrain its development. To accelerate the growth of the private book industry, the report first proposes some urgent issues from a policy perspective, as follows:
—Granting private capital the same "national treatment" as Xinhua Bookstore;
—Establishing a fund for the development of small and medium-sized bookstores to support the construction of small-scale book distribution outlets;
—Selecting one or two large-scale, highly reputable private book and periodical distribution enterprises as pilot units for national book and periodical distribution reforms, providing policy attention and support;
—The private distribution industry itself must focus on corporate culture and internal management;
—For private capital's involvement in topic planning, editing, and other work, adhere to the principle of pragmatism, recognizing its legitimacy based on the conditions it already possesses for topic planning and editing;
—Strengthen training for management personnel in the private book industry.
The main features of this research outcome are:
(1) Using authoritative statistical data for necessary quantitative analysis; the report employs the latest statistics released by the Planning and Finance Department and the Distribution Department of the General Administration of Press and Publication in 2002, conducting comparative analyses in terms of scale and structure;
(2) The researchers adopt a high-level perspective to deeply process the issues, ensuring the quality and significance of the analysis. When examining the operational advantages of the private book industry, the study reveals that the essence of these advantages lies not in private ownership but in the scientific nature of the interaction space between productive forces and productive relations;
(3) This research outcome aligns with the service mission of the China Publishing Research Institute to serve the development of publishing management and the publishing industry.