The North - South Divide

As someone just starting out in publishing one of the key barriers I have noticed is geography. The publishing industry is very London-centric, leading to a rather elite network of London or Southern based professionals and students, with a few others from outside the commuter belt who are able to afford travel and accommodation costs. Whether it is attending a conference, a networking event or finding work experience London, it seems, is the place to go.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the number of publishers and publishing services based in the South compared to the rest of the country. London alone is home to 326 publishers, Oxford 32 and Cambridge 14, whilst Edinburgh hosts a meagre 11, Birmingham 7 and Manchester 6 (not including specialist localised magazines etc.). The number of publishing services present in UK cities follow suit, with London and Oxford on top. (publishersglobal.com)

Publishing is therefore a very southern enterprise (as well as being white and fairly middle-class), a fact that New Writing North’s Claire Malcolm bemoans, stating in The Bookseller that more diversity is needed.

And why shouldn’t regional diversity be addressed as strongly as class or ethnic diversity? After all the same argument stands; people like to read stories they can connect to, and this more often than not comes from reading books by, and about, those from similar backgrounds.

The Spare Room project, supported by the Publishers Association, launched earlier this year in an attempt to tackle regional diversity by helping students and graduates from outside London to find accommodation in the city. An admirable policy perhaps, but limited. Whilst it undoubtedly helped some young people in organising work experience by reducing costs, each placement only lasted one week and was only available in July and August. As a pilot scheme the project couldn’t really be expected to solve all the problems overnight, so here’s to hoping it is re-introduced next year with a wider remit.

Enabling more young people to access work experience with publishers is great, however, it can be argued this only treats the symptoms of a London-centric industry and not the cause. To really even the playing field for aspiring publishers in the North and Midlands a broader perspective is needed. Publishing isn’t the only industry to suffer under the North-South Divide and in order for publishers, especially the big five, to consider investing in projects north of the M25, a fair distribution of investment is needed from all areas.

However, publishers should not look to politicians to help address regional diversity as the North-South Divide has flummoxed Westminster for decades, a state of confusion which isn’t likely to change without severe pressure and perhaps someone with a sharper mind than theirs (and mine) telling them exactly what to do.



Image from The Spectator

Education could be the way forward. As a publishing student I recently researched Masters courses offered in the UK and surprise, surprise most were situated in the south. UCL, Kingston and UAL in London, Brookes in Oxford, Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge, Bath Spa, and Plymouth. Scotland had Edinburgh Napier and Stirling whilst the Midlands and the North had Derby and Central Lancashire (not necessarily a comprehensive list).

(Due to the increased likelihood of work experience placements I chose Oxford Brookes – Derby was far to close (I grew up down the road), Edinburgh too far and London too big and city-ish).

The University of Derby’s publishing course will welcome its first students this month, hopefully opening up the publishing industry to new students who would not have considered entering the industry before due to the cost of living in the south (Oxford and London remarkable more expensive than the Midlands and the North) or distance from home. With programme leader Alistair Hodge a key proponent of the Spare Room Project his students will be able to balance out the advantages gained by studying nearer the publishing heartland.

Although publishing is a London-centric industry, it is hardly the only one and cannot really be expected to redress regional diversity on its own. There are bigger economic, political and social divides between the North and South than even publishing, as a key guardian of social opinion freedom of speech, can realistically tackle. That’s not to say publishing should not play a role, we’ll never get anywhere if each industry simply sat back and waited for someone else to do all the hard work for them.

What we need is more investment in projects which look to improve diversity; whether through financial, cultural, voluntary or political investment, any attempt at opening up publishing to new talent can only be beneficial in the long-term, for individuals and the industry as a whole.

Sources: The Bookseller, The Spectator, The Financial Times, publishersglobal.com, University of Derby, Publishers Association