Xerox, Bertelsmann Team Up to Address Book-on-demand Market — Digital book technology goes mainstream with partnership - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Oct 18, 1999

Xerox Corporation Thursday announced a partnership with Bertelsmann Arvato AG, one of the world's leading international book producers, that will help transform the economics of printing small quantities of books. At a press conference at the annual Frankfurt Book Fair, the companies announced that they will work together to deploy digital print-on-demand technology worldwide.

Bertelsmann Arvato's addition of more on-demand production to its traditional offset production capacity is expected to drive the digital "book-on-demand" market as other major book producers follow Bertelsmann to take advantage of the economics of digital production. (In contrast to offset printing where the cost per book starts high and declines as the number printed increases; the cost per copy with digital printing remains constant.)

The partnership will develop a state-of-the-art digital book printing infrastructure that will allow Bertelsmann to use the power of Xerox' industry leading digital book publishing solutions for cost-effective short run books, review copies, reprints and out-of-print books.

"This represents a major milestone for the digital book industry," said Pierre Danon, president of Xerox Europe. "When a company like Bertelsmann takes a direction like this, it not only signifies the maturity of digital books as a technology but also as a commercial imperative."

Until now, digital book production has been a specialized market. It accounted for only about 5 percent of the total global book publishing and printing market, which in 1998 reached $54 billion (US$) -- an increase of 4.5 percent over 1997, according to Charles M. Corr, director of On Demand Publishing & Printing Service for CAP Ventures, a leading worldwide document technology strategy and consulting firm.

"We believe this partnership will greatly accelerate growth in digital book production, and that its share of the total market could reach as much as 30 percent in 2003," Danon said.

"Our decision to embrace digital on demand printing is driven by the growth of the Internet," according to Edwin Eichler, member of the board of Bertelsmann Arvato AG and CEO of Mohn Media: "The web is changing the way books and other media products are sold and marketed to an increasingly global market. Xerox technological leadership in digital publishing and experience in providing solutions integrating third party software development and finishing devices was compelling. Combined with the know-how within Bertelsmann, the intention of this partnership is to develop existing digital book publishing technologies further in a joint effort."