Earlier this month, the Book Industry Study Group hosted a talk with John Crumbaugh, senior project manager at HP, who has extensive experience in the paper market. The cost of paper increased during the pandemic when the supply chain was tight across all industries; in the last year or two, production costs for book publishers have been responsible in part for declining profits.
Crumbaugh said that the paper market experienced a steep rebound in 2022, followed by the worst decline in history in 2023. He said, “If this happened in any other industry, it would be national news.” Between 2018 and 2023, 50 percent of North American capacity in producing graphic arts paper (used for books) has vanished. That paper capacity is now being used to manufacture packaging and specialty products (e.g., shipping boxes for Amazon). While the paper market has been stable this year for the US, Europe is about to go through a similar shift as the US, with 75 percent of capacity disappearing between 2023 and 2028.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
