Analysis of the textbook market in Mexico
Summary
The present Research Work on the current textbook market aims to offer a more or less specialized panorama of a transcendent publishing genre for the world of book publishing in the country.
The repercussion of the national economic crisis, as well as the restrictions that –for it- the publishing companies and the budgets of the Argentine family had to face, make up the focus of this article, which, from another perspective, provides an analysis of the changes in the consumption of texts, an impregnable fact to approach the competitive scenario of our activity with perspective.
Introduction
They were born as teacher aides, progressively taking an important place in primary education. The dynamics of reading and the strong drive of technological media such as television and the Internet, forced them to become much more attractive products and even led them to become an undisputed trigger for classroom activities. However, the economic reality of the country and the new cultural trends linked to reading play a trick on them today.
The current scenario of textbooks and its impact on the publishing sector is directly linked to the future of our children. A shocking fact: 40% of students do not have textbooks.
Sales of this publishing genre fell in half in 2002, and, even without knowing the final figures for the current annual period, the forced drop in prices did not reverse the trend, which was demonstrated in the existence of fewer print runs per issue, both as for the shortage of novelties 2003.
What is happening in the publishing market for texts? Three decades ago, a leading textera in Argentina sold about 4 million books a year. Today, when the number of students multiplied, the almost 35 companies in the sector sell a total of 2 million copies, as confirmed by the head of the Group of Textbook Editors of the Argentine Book Chamber (CAL), Osvaldo Cesarini.
These 30-odd publishers that produce school books manage a market that is around 100 million pesos - and that by 1999 was 120 million a year. However, a group of strong companies (Santillana, Puerto de Palos, Estrada, Aique, Kapelusz and Az Editora), most of which belong to multinational groups, account for almost 80% of sales.
Up and down
In 2003, textbook prices fell between 15 and 25% compared to 2002. The data served to face the CAL campaign in order to cope with the sharp drop in sales of the previous year, also facilitated by the substitution of books for photocopies. This cooperative action launched from the Chamber is based on how accessible texts are today: a book of 15 or 30 pesos is equivalent to 1.60 or 3.30 pesos per month (dividing its use in the 9 months of the school year), it is that is, they are between 5 and 11 cents per day.
What led them to carry out this campaign is the evident change in the consumption of texts: the narrow pockets of the parents (and the need for teacher education), found in the photocopies of the books a "good" substitute. It follows that for every 3 pesos spent on photocopies, only 1 is invested in books. Thus, the copying market raises $ 235 million a year, while the text market is 5 times less.
For more references, 95% of school managers in the city of Buenos Aires acknowledge photocopying books or using partial photocopies for teaching classes, even when they want not to.
The campaign against photocopies, which, on the other hand, is based on the Copyright Law (11,723) –among other protective regulations-, is to sensitize parents, students and teachers about the role of books in education. In this the CAL invites with a "Give your son a future, give him a textbook today".
Lowering prices was another of the ways that publishers found to deal with substitute products and come within range of family budgets. This takes away, is due to an entrepreneurial effort to adapt to the economic possibilities of the parents, so much as to lift the poor sale of last year.
In this sense, Editorial Estrada lowered its prices in the line of school texts between 10 and 20%. The manual "Come with me" for EGB1 costs 21.50 pesos (before 25). And they also kept the other prices at 2002 values. Santillana, meanwhile, lowered the PVP - retail price - of EGB1 reading books to 20%. The EGB2 Manual costs 40 pesos (before 53). The biáreas 26.80, and those of area (the novelty 2003), 18.70 pesos (before 24).
Kapelusz released books for EGB1 at 26.50 pesos (before 31), and area EGB 3, 30 pesos (before 44).
Book value
The decrease in sales (or rather in the demand for textbooks) is due to several factors with different levels of incidence. According to CAL, in recent years there has been a cultural change that has prompted a change in consumption: many parents do not buy books and teachers do not ask for them because they no longer give them value. This was confirmed by teachers and librarians of Buenos Aires public schools of different levels of EGB: “Two years ago, the teachers of this school did not ask for texts. We work with the books that the students have at home or get, and with the material that the library owns. Sometimes we photocopy some parts. ”
Other teachers trusted that while half the students could buy a new book, "what do we do with the other 50%… how will they feel if they can't have it?" In addition, the teachers of the last years explained that many times the contents of the texts do not catch their groups of students, and that then they prefer to assemble their materials themselves to approach the educational program, and give the children the possibility of investigating with what's in the library or what they get from information outside of school. They even indicated that the essential content base is the same in previous editions as in the current ones, which helped them to stop requesting new textbooks; something like going to the "generic" book.
The problem of the low demand for school texts cuts across several sectors and is not exclusive to the poorest. There are expensive schools where books are not ordered either. "There is a social hypocrisy: it is said that the books are good, but that someone else buys them," warned the head of a renowned publishing label.
In general, the private school teacher did not stop requesting texts, although he does have fewer claims.
It is known that the lower demand is also sharpened with the school years. Parents purchase more text in the first three grades and less in later grades.
Another aspect of the problem that varied the type of consumption - outside the recession exacerbated by the "devaluation of the pocket" - is the belief of the parents that the Internet can replace school textbooks.
The CAL in its fight also shot at the Ministry of Education, which last year did not buy books for schools: "The government has not yet made any of the text purchases it announced and that it was going to allocate to the poorest schools", they said.
The same data worried CONABIP, but CONABIP was luckier. The National Protective Commission for Popular Libraries, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, obtained from the Ministry of Education 1.6 million pesos to equip the 1600 popular libraries throughout the country, which thus received 111 books each (including texts, dictionaries and reference books for EGB and Polimodal). And in this, the publishers contributed 300 thousand pesos in book donation, corresponding to the editions that the teachers request.
2001, 2002 and 2003
For school textbook publishers, 2002 was a year to banish from memory. The devaluation, the increases in costs and the generalized economic crisis caused a resounding drop in sales that reached 70% in some publishing labels and in the majority was around 50%. Everything, after a difficult 2001, in which the invoicing had already been reduced by 30%, and where - due to the devaluation - the imported paper came to them with an increase of up to 100%, being able to transfer less than 30% of that increase.
The crisis that made us bottom out with the devaluation in early 2002 had dissimilar effects, but all of them marked restrictions on these companies: it found the largest publishers indebted in dollars and with all the production to sell. This, added to the fall in sales and the cost gap, generated layoffs and dwindling business structures. Many publishers reduced their design and editing (pre-production) areas in anticipation of 2003 without many releases and with fewer runs per title (industrial production). Adjusting their costs in this way, the texteras foresaw the drag of an exacerbated economic crisis, the characteristic of which placed it far from being able to wipe itself out in a single fiscal year.
It is evident that 2003 carries on its back what happened the previous year, which was only the culmination of an unbearable recession that blew up 1 to 1 (peso-dollar), and with it our pockets and that of companies. But, as said, that's not all. The editors have their version of what happens in the activity, and they tell something of what they did and do to improve their performance.
In AZ they affirm that “in 2002 the fall was very strong in the use of texts. Teachers do not ask for them, some ask for the same as the previous year or they are photocopied. Sales fall because fewer books are consumed. ”
From CAL, Cesarini explains that “the deterioration of the economy was added in 2002 by the devaluation of the importance of studying with books. They don't ask for books in the poorest schools because the parents don't even have enough to buy food, but they don't ask for it in many schools where high fees are paid either. ”
For the leading publisher in the genre –Santillana-: “The drop in the purchase of school texts was 35% in 2002. If in 2001, 77 out of 100 boys bought textbooks, in 2002 50 out of 100 did " And –according to statistics- in 2003, 40 out of 100.
In Kapelusz (and not only there), they thought to reduce prices for 2003 to facilitate sales: “The products comply with the restrictions. We created 'Equipo K' in 2002, a modular book system that teachers can purchase according to their areas of interest. They are cheap and they sold a lot. ”
Aique also made changes to its product lines. They launched the "Requetelibros" (EGB 1) with three elements: book, dictionary and activity notebook. For 2003 they decided to put everything together in one book, to make it cheaper. Estrada will do the same in EGB 1 and 2 (the segments with the highest sales). In 2002 they billed 10% more than in 2001, thanks to "Vamos Juntos", the best-selling book on the market for 1st cycle, which compensated for the fall of the rest of the lines.
Although during 2002 the publishers estimated to start their rebound from the news and with a rise in the prices of the texts that reached 30%, it was evident that the majority bet hopefully on the 2003 releases (although with fewer titles and prices lower), estimating that the recovery of the textbook publishing market will only become visible around 2004. This was confirmed by Cesarini, the authorized voice of texteras: “The reactivation of the sector will only be seen in 2004”. And he proposed alternatives: “One way out is a return to the library. With a not very large investment, many schools could update it and have a good quantity of books for their students ”.
The million dollar question: Could it be that given the downward trend in private sales, added to the great learning activity carried out in school libraries, publishers are inclining to sell to Cooperating Associations, to the Secretaries of Education provincial or the Ministry itself?
Book per student
In a brief tour of the educational field, too many figures come to light that can overwhelm us as citizens, parents or publishers.
What to say if Argentina has the almost lower average number of books per student in the Latin American region ?: Of an enrollment of 8 million students in initial and secondary education, in 2002 there was an average of 0.47 new books per student. In Brazil, with 37 million children in school, the average number of books used amounts to 3.3 per student. In Mexico and Peru, 75% of students have at least one textbook. In Chile, 64%. In Panama, 48%, and Costa Rica, 45%. Argentina, with 40%, only surpasses Colombia, where only 37% of boys use books in educational institutions.
In the 1980s, 2.5 books per student were used in Argentine classrooms. Towards 2002 the average fell to 0.7 specimen per student, but in that year, as stated, it was 0.47 - data confirmed by UNESCO.
Recent research shows that books have a direct impact on student learning: children with limited availability of books at home would have a 70% greater chance of achieving good performance if the situation were to reverse, as the Ministry claims of Education.
From UNESCO they emphasize that the result of a school without books is a poorer, more fragmented, poorer quality education. "It is true that television decreased the habit of reading… It may be that in some countries the use of copies decreases due to the advancement of modern technology, access to the internet and electronic books. But that is not the cause of the decline in Argentina. In our case, the reason is impoverishment ”, they stated.
Gender outlined
It is evident that the text publishers are going out of their way to provide more subsidiary services to teachers: 0800 (free consultation line), web, texts for teachers on and off line, booklets for the provinces, courses, talks, among others. Even the main publishers have a battalion of promoters in the schools to get the adoption of their textbooks.
Needless to say, the number of changes that have been made to these editorial products in recent years: Innovations forced by the audiovisual bombardment suffered by children (video clip type from the TV screen, internet…), the new designs with drawings in full color, infographics, photos, cartoons and entertaining proposals to make in class. All revealing the change in the habit of reading.
In fact, when designing a book there are many factors that are taken into account: provide an affordable price, adapt the content to the curriculum, that the number of pages and the binding are adequate and provide a specific service to teachers, such as for example, proposals for activities of various types, since this is (or perhaps was) one of the main demands at all levels.
For some years now, the binarized format (two areas per book) has gained relevance, and lately the trend has been towards area books, although the manuals are still in force.
But, if we talk about the materially observable changes in the textbooks, we should also know something less visible about this publishing genre: They are stationary sales products that occur most strongly from mid-March to mid-May, when more than 50% of the sales of each school year are produced. As it is understandable, the strong promotions in schools point to the "sale by adoption", that is, to the teacher asking their students for "that book" and not another.
Until a few years ago, modifications to released titles (or the release of new ones) occurred every 2 or 3 years; Today publishers make changes (more or less profound) every year, in order to lower the use rate per copy, generating higher sales flows. In fact, they succeed: at used Buenos Aires fairs (such as those at Primera Junta or Parque Centenario), used textbooks are hardly sold anymore. It happens that in schools (at least this is the case in public schools), students barter or sell their used cars from one year to the next. And for the next school year, as there is a new edition, these stores end up selling new texts trying to match the discounts from the bookstores.
The Editorials, for their part, make about 30% of commercial discount to the Bookstores, and between 35 and 45% to the Distributors, who in turn give a 30 to 35% discount to the bookstores (always on the PVP). This depends on the negotiation capacity of both parties, factors such as the purchase of large volumes, the type of sale (firm or concession), or the strategic alliances with distributors or bookstores that publishers make, when not, come into play. -although in few cases- they have bookstore chains within the business group to which they belong.
Today, several texting publishers get to give a 50% discount to the teacher in the books of their subject or specific areas; and even 30% in the entire editorial fund (they are unit sales, not group sales).
Community sales to school Cooperators, are usually not made from the same publisher, but through bookstores, which give them a discount of between 15 and 20%. The discounts that can be managed with the Ministry of Education or its provincial namesakes are not publicly known.
It is also not possible to appreciate the edition runs of each textbook title, since many do not have that information in their preliminary or subsequent pages, presumably because it is a number that, due to “scarce” or due to its high strategic significance towards competition, have preferred to omit. Only a few editions indicating runs of between 5,000 and 20,000 copies (which could be set as annual runs) can be noted, although it may be conjectured that some publishers print larger numbers. When we talk about school texts for Primary we are referring to the system established -almost definitely throughout the country- of Basic General Education: EGB1 cycle (level or grade 1, 2 and 3); EGB2 (with 3rd, 4th and 5th); and the 1st level of EGB3 (previously 7th of Primary, today integrated with 8th and 9th of Middle education);being left out the Polymodal system with the 3rd, 4th and 5th years in the different directions of the Secondary.
Bibliography:
Web page of the Argentine Book Chamber (www.editores.com).
Guide to the 29th Book Fair; Buenos Aires, Argentina, April-May 2003. (www.el-libro.com.ar).
On-line search engines of the Argentine newspapers Clarín (www.clarin.com.ar), La Nación (www.lanacion.com.ar), and Los Andes, from Mendoza (ww.losandes.com.ar).
Surveys in Buenos Aires primary schools; in textbook publishers and in points of sale (used fairs and bookstores in the city of Buenos Aires).
Download the original file
