22/12/2020

Kathy Bail is the Chief Executive Officer of UNSW Press, a member of the APA's Trade Publishing Committee and was recently re-elected to the International Publishers Association's Executive Committee. We spoke with Kathy to learn more about her role in this global organisation and where Australian publishers may wish to turn their ear to the IPA's activity. 

How did you first come to be elected to the IPA’s Executive Committee? And then re-elected recently? Have you always wanted to work with the IPA?

I joined the IPA’s Executive Committee in October 2019, after being nominated to complete the final year of Louise Adler’s term when she resigned. The organisation is based in Geneva and holds its General Assembly in Frankfurt each year. This gathering provided an opportunity to meet many of its members and delegates. Even though my schedule at the book fair was even busier than usual with this round of events, it was a privilege to meet some exceptional publishers and other book industry representatives from all over the world and get an understanding of their issues and concerns. As it turned out, those face-to-face meetings were precious. Since then, all of our meetings have of course been online – and often in the middle of the night for me.

The APA endorsed my nomination for another term and I was honoured to be elected by the delegates at the 2020 General Assembly, conducted online for the first time in November. 

The activities, research and advocacy of the IPA relate to my work as a book publisher, director of a university press and member of the Library Council of NSW. My experience as a journalist and editor in past decades also made me aware of the critical role international entities such as the IPA play in promoting and protecting publishers, as well as providing resources and high-level research. 

Across trade and educational publishing and bookselling, I am engaged at a practical level with core issues such as copyright, the freedom to publish, book pricing and distribution, accessibility and the promotion of literacy and reading – all strategic areas for the IPA.

What is your role as an elected member and what has been the focus of your involvement?

The Executive Committee is the governing board of the organisation and works with Secretary General José Borghino and his team to oversee the work of various committees. These include Copyright, Freedom to Publish, Membership, Educational Publishing and Inclusive Publishing. It’s essential to have representation from different regions and I look forward to communicating current views from Australia and our region to the members of these groups and continuing to learn about their perspectives and experiences. 

You’ve contributed this international perspective pre-COVID-19 and now during the pandemic. Has the pandemic shifted the focus of the IPA’s work? Is there a new focus for the IPA in 2021 and beyond?

Like all of us, the IPA had to react quickly to adapt to the changing needs of the industry. On a purely operational level, the IPA has always conducted many of its committee meetings via teleconference as the only practical way of bringing people from so many different countries together. The two major physical meeting places for IPA and its members are London and Frankfurt and obviously neither of those happened. Also, the IPA should have held its 33rd International Publishers Congress in Lillehammer, Norway in May. That was also cancelled. The secretariat had to adapt from its engagement with members at London and Lillehammer, to providing support for the many publishers in countries whose book industries were being decimated by lockdowns.

The IPA stepped up its engagement with members, checking what challenges they faced, offering support with governments, collating various initiatives in different countries. This started with two statements around World Book Day and World Intellectual Property Day underlining the value of publishing to society and how publishers had stepped up to make research, educational resources and book readings available, often free of charge. These statements were important tools for many publishers’ associations around the world but also underlined how the core pillars of IPA – Copyright and Freedom to Publish – still needed to be promoted as governments and other organisations used the pandemic as an opportunity to undermine these vital values.

The IPA also published a series of video interviews with publishers’ associations from around the world, including APA President Lee Walker. IPA published the Moscow Call for Action to list concrete policies governments could adopt to support publishers. In the background, IPA also conducted a series of interviews for its comprehensive From Response to Recovery report which gives a clear view of the impact of the pandemic in different regions and in markets at different stages of development. 

So, in some ways, IPA’s core focus of copyright and freedom to publish won’t change. On the other hand, IPA is already preparing its follow up to the From Response to Recovery report and creating an action plan to help our industry recover. 

2021 will mark IPA’s 125th anniversary. It will also be the first time IPA’s President and Vice President have been women with Bodour Al Qasimi (Kalimat Group, UAE), who was the driver behind the From Response to Recovery report, taking over as President, and Karine Panse (Girassol, Brazil) just elected as Vice President. 

What have you learnt about the Australian publishing industry in collaborating with delegates from other countries?  

It has made me think even more about our First Nations, as well as shifting demographics and diversity in the Australian population. Given our history and immigration patterns, we have links to cultures – and potential readers – in many parts of the world. While all publishers face financial and political obstacles at times, in some countries, they are extreme. We are very well placed in Australia to make cultural connections, share our resources and contribute to informed global dialogue and collaborative projects. 

To what extent do you feel Australian publishers should be across IPA activity? How can our members be more engaged with and perhaps supportive of the IPA’s activity?

Like any international association, not all of the IPA’s work will be relevant to the day-to-day operations of a publisher. However, it is important that they know the IPA exists and is promoting their interests in fora far away from home like the World Intellectual Property Organisation. There is pressure to introduce international agreements with exceptions for educational uses, like those that had a terrible effect in Canada.

(Sarah Runcie represented the APA at a 2019 WIPO meeting and reported on it here.)

The Freedom to Publish is an essential area of work. We may not feel that our freedom to publish is threatened in Australia but we see that it can take many different forms, whether that be defamation laws, social media pressure, as well as repressive governments. 

Finally, the IPA is also leading work on Sustainability and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is an area which interests many publishers in Australia, as well as universities such as UNSW Sydney, where I am based.