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Publishing

BERR has commissioned two studies of the publishing industry in the last year. Both were done in partnership with UK Publishing Media (the alliance of the four main publishing trade associations) and the wider publishing industry. The results of these studies have been turned into a joint Government and industry action plan, to promote the success of the future of publishing in the UK.

Publishing in the Knowledge Economy: A Competitiveness Analysis of the UK Publishing Media Sector

This BERR-sponsored study was launched in June 2002.

The scope of the project was wide ranging, including books, national and regional newspapers, magazines, journals, newsletters, business information, directory and database publishing and Internet publishing.

E-Commerce Business Opportunities for Publishers: e-commerce impact assessment of the UK publishing media sector

This study was done in parallel with the Competitiveness Analysis and looked at the impact of e-commerce on the development of the publishing industry.

Publishing Competitiveness in Europe

In September 05 the European Commission established the Task Force For Co-ordination of Media Affairs, whose aim is to focus on Europe's media industry and contribute to consistent policy-making for the media across all Commission policies. It forms part of the Lisbon strategy and more details can be found from its website .

One of its first tasks was a look at the publishing industry, responsibility for which has now been allocated to DG Information Society and Media. A consultation exercise was set up on September 22nd that would consider the competitiveness of the publishing industry across the twenty-five Member States. The paper that was published sought to stimulate a debate in Europe on the state of the publishing sector, providing relevant data to support this. Responses were sought from all relevant parties to feed in to a discussion Summit in Dec 05.

The UK Department of Trade & Industry encouraged the UK publishing industry to respond to the consultation exercise and also submitted its own response to the Commission (below).

e-Recruitment

In March 2005, BERR developed and published the first edition of a best practice guide to e-recruitment projects for HR managers in the public sector.

Following publication of this guidance, BERR received positive feedback from other government departments that also requested advice about the best ways in which to engage in an ongoing debate with the private sector on a wide range of e-recruitment best practice issues.

In response to this, BERR hosted a successful one-day e-recruitment best practice workshop on 5 April 2006 between the public and private sectors in partnership with the Digital Content Forum (DCF). The key objectives for the day were:

• to improve the decision making process within the public sector
• to maximize best value recruitment in HR processes

A copy of the agenda and summary of key outcomes are given below with a report evaluating the effectiveness of the workshop by representatives from both sectors. 

E Recruitment Best Practice Seminar - Agenda and Summary of Key Outcomes 5 April 2006 (130KB)

E-Recruitment Best Practice Seminar Feedback Summary (9KB)

Presentations from the Best Practice Workshop 5 April 2006:

Presentation: E-Recruitment Best Practice Workshop (34KB)

Presentation: UK online recruitment overview (351KB)

Presentation: Contract consideration discussion points for the DTI/DCF workshop (4785KB)

Presentation: Ten Do's and Don'ts of online response (7404KB)

Following the workshop, BERR is considering what the best options are for moving forward in terms of: 

• Building on all the good contacts that were made during the workshop, for example, through more sharing of e-mail addresses and the development of an online community between both sectors to keep in touch.
• Deepening connections across the public sector  to make best use of  the learning points from the workshop to avoid pitfalls in the future.  Evaluations of users’ experiences should make a valuable contribution.
• Thinking creatively about how to get all the good points from the workshop into the mainstream of Whitehall thinking.

Please send enquiries for further information to erecruit@berr.gsi.gov.uk

BERR also undertook research to investigate emerging issues in e-recruitment best practice in the private sector to help in developing the best practice agenda across the public sector.