Publishers Association president Mandy Hill speaks at the association’s annual reception at Parliament. Image: PA
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also:
UK Publishers Association: 2024 Audiobooks Up 31 Percent
UK Publishers on AI’s Threats: ‘A Marathon, Not a Sprint’
Publishers Association’s Dan Conway on an AI Transparency Disappointment
‘To Redefine Reading for Pleasure in the Age of AI’
Last week in London, the United Kingdom’s Publishers Association staged its annual reception at Parliament—a chance to focus parliamentarians on the economic and cultural impact of book publishing in the British market.
In welcoming the assembly, Publishers Association president Mandy Hill—managing director of academic publishing at Cambridge University Press and Assessment—said “Fundamentally, we’re a hugely important economic driver worth £11 billion (US$14,9 billion) in gross value added to the UK and making a significant contribution to the government’s all-important growth mission.
“Publishing matters far beyond those numbers. Whether you’re a children’s book publisher helping to enrich the lives of the next generation, or an academic publisher like my own at Cambridge University Press—and everyone in between—the work we collectively do matters and arguably now more than ever.”
Hill stressed the higher education and research sectors as essential to publishing’s value. “We invest to ensure that innovations and breakthroughs are built on the solid foundations of rigorously peer-reviewed and published research,” she said. “We’re supporting the research community and helping UK research reach farther globally.
“From highlighting technological advances possible in elite women’s football to addressing the overestimation of the cost of the green energy transition and analysis of historical events that can help inform our future, we share and amplify cutting edge research to ensure it can shape the nation’s development.”
‘The Technological Landscape Is Shifting’
Baroness Gail Rebuck speaks at the Publishers Association’s 2025 annual reception at Parliament in London. Image: PA
As Publishing Perspectives readers know, the Publishers Association provided a strong leadership voice to the UK creative industries’ push for legislation that would protect copyright holders against generative artificial intelligent systems from hoovering up content without permission or payment for the training of large language models. While these protracted efforts earlier this year didn’t succeed, the association’s CEO, Dan Conway, told the press, “The level of engagement the bill received in both houses of parliament is a huge achievement for our industry and we are truly grateful to representatives in the Commons and the Lords for their support.”
In reference to the AI debate, Hill at the reception said, “The technological landscape is shifting in a way that that means society needs rigorously peer-reviewed research. We need critical thinkers, informed readers, and responsible guardians of knowledge and truth. That’s what we as publishers enable and will continue to do so for as long as we have the policy and legal backdrop to support us.”
Baroness Gail Rebuck, a member of parliament who sponsored the September 9 reception, referenced the UK’s upcoming national “year of reading” in 2026, and a need to overcome barriers to reading for pleasure, outlining upcoming partnerships and plans for “a very ambitious project”, saying, “Our aim [is] to redefine reading for pleasure in the age of AI—the importance of reading or listening critically—in a concentrated way.
“I really do believe that we are at this moment in time,” Rebuck said, “when we have a chance to change the narrative on reading and transform behavior, helping a generation to fulfil its potential.”
Mike Berners-Lee
Also speaking was Mike Berners-Lee, a professor in practice at Lancaster University and the youngest brother of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, if the name is ringing a bell for you. Mike Berners-Lee’s books include the March release, A Climate of Truth: Why We Need It and How to Get It (Cambridge University Press), and he’s the founding director of Small World Consulting. His research at Lancaster includes supply-chain carbon modeling, sustainable food systems, and the environmental impact of information and communication tech (ICT).
“In an age when there’s so much information out there,” Berners-Lee said, “sometimes of questionable quality, the book has an important role to play.”
Books, he said, have the ability to engage and inspire the general public—including encouraging them to take positive action and making a real and lasting impact.
At Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19), the Publishers Association will be in Hall 6.0, at Stand D73.
At the Publishers Association’s 2025 annual reception at Parliament. Image: PA
More from Publishing Perspectives on artificial intelligence is here; more on copyright and international book publishing is here; more on the United Kingdom’s market is here, and more on the UK’s Publishers Association is here.
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