Copyright Agency awards Publisher Fellowship

Published by: Copyright Agency | 3-May-2019
The Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund has awarded a $15,000 Publisher Fellowship to Justin Ractliffe of Hachette Australia at the Australian Book Industry Awards in Sydney.
Copyright Agency CEO Adam Suckling says, "The Publisher Fellowship supports the pursuit of innovation and professional development from global experiences that can deliver benefits to the Australian publishing sector."

The Fellowship is one of many supported annually by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund, which provides about $2m annually to creative organisations and individuals in the publishing, media and visual arts sectors.

Justin Ractliffe will travel to the biggest book market in the world, the United States, to research how publishers can gain greater consumer insights through digital data. He will specifically visit New York and the Netflix headquarters in Los Gatos, California.

Ractliffe says he is delighted and honoured to be the recipient of the Copyright Agency Publisher Fellowship.

"The Copyright Agency does such great work to protect and champion the rights of all Australian creators. I'm very excited about my chosen research project as I believe it will be invaluable in helping me to not only shape my thinking, but assist the local industry in formulating and developing its consumer-insight strategy, platforms and programs," he says.

"I would encourage anyone interested in furthering their professional development to take advantage of the grants offered by the Cultural Fund. It is a great opportunity."

Mr Ractliffe's project is to define what is best practice for consumer research for trade publishers. This intel will enable publishers to better understand how to use technology and behavioural science to measure consumer reaction to books, and collate data that not only empowers them to make more informed publishing decisions, but shifts the focus from business-to-business to direct-to-consumer.

As the successful Fellow, Mr Ractliffe is required to prepare a comprehensive report on his activities, which will be published on the Copyright Agency's website and shared with the broader publishing industry.

Judges for the Publisher Fellowship were CEO HarperCollins Australia and New Zealand, James Kellow, CEO Australian Society of Authors, Juliet Rogers, and UQP Publisher Aviva Tuffield.

The Copyright Agency's Fellowship programs provide unprecedented financial support to authors, publishers and visual artists in recognition of their creative endeavors that enrich and promote Australia's literary and arts communities. This funding is in addition to the payment of more than $100 million in copyright licence fees to publishers, writers, visual artists and surveyors every year.

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