May 13, 2022 • 18 mins
Cevin Bryerman returns to Westchester Words to discuss the 2nd Annual US Book Show, PW's 150th anniversary, and other thoughts about the current state of the publishing industry.
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Nicole Tomassi (00:07):
Welcome to Westchester words, education ed
tech and publishing I'm NicoleTomassi, and today I'll be
speaking with Cev Bryerman, CEOand publisher of Publishers
weekly.
Cev's been on the podcastseveral times before to talk
about a number of things thatare taking place within the
publishing industry.
Welcome back Cev.
Cevin Bryerman (00:25):
Well, glad to be back in, Nicole always enjoyed
our conversations.
So I am looking forward to, uh,answering some more questions.
Nicole Tomassi (00:32):
Well, thank you for coming in for another
grilling.
I'll try to go easy on you.
okay.
So to dive in, we're recordingthis at the beginning of May and
later this month, uh, you guysare going to be putting on the
second annual US Book Show.
Do you wanna talk a little bitabout it as far as keynotes and
how the event's gonna unfold?
Cevin Bryerman (00:51):
Sure.
Um, this is our second yeardoing it.
Uh, last year it was highlysuccessful with over 3,500
people coming into the eventfrom librarians to book sellers,
to media, to industry people.
We had great speakers last year,including Oprah Winfrey this
year back by some comments we'veheard from, um, our research.
We extended a half a day forpeople to spend more time at the
(01:12):
booths.
Um, the virtual booth, it is avirtual show.
Uh, we have some new guests thisyear.
We have, uh, Mo Willems.
We have John Grisham, we haveCeleste Ng, so a whole new
lineup, and we continue to dobuzz panels.
We continue to do industryevents, industry sessions.
Um, we've added some sponsoredcontent this year.
Also, we made it free to every book s eller and librarian i n, i
(01:35):
n north America.
Attendance i s way up and duringthe US Book Show, u m, we'll
have our first live celebrationfor our 150th anniversary.
I f so, u m, looking forward tothe US Book Show and great
speakers a nd great content.
So hopefully everybody can joinin, go to u s b ook s how and, u
m, sign up and register for theevent.
Nicole Tomassi (01:54):
We'll make sure to include a link to that.
Um, on our website, when we dopost this episode, is it
USBookShow.com?
Cevin Bryerman (02:01):
It's usbookshow .com
Nicole Tomassi (02:03):
Uh, get in there and sign up.
Now, remind me, what are thedates again?
Cevin Bryerman (02:06):
It's may, uh, 23rd,through 26th.
It's opens up at, uh, Mondayafternoon and then full days on
Tuesdays and Wednesdays andThursday.
There'll be children's panels.
There'll be industry panels.
Again, there'll be graphicnovels panels across all
sections of publishing.
There'll be panels for everybodyto enjoy.
It's on demand, So if you can'tattend that particular hour that
(02:29):
session's going, you can go backwith your registration ticket
and, um, do it at 11 o'clock atnight or two months after.
It's on demand, m ost of it'sprerecorded, lot of live Q a nd
a it's.
It's an opportunity to be withthe industry in a virtual event.
Next year, we'll do roughly t hesame timeframe in terms of may
(02:49):
and have some type of hybridevent for the US Book Show.
Nicole Tomassi (02:53):
You said that there's gonna be a half day
that's specifically for thevirtual booth so that people can
go in and focus more on that.
So that's gonna be completelyseparate from the panels.
Cevin Bryerman (03:02):
The booths are open always throughout the show,
but Monday afternoon from 11o'clock, they open up.
So there's more interaction withthe sponsors at the booths and
the people with who want toattend and see what people are
doing.
Nicole Tomassi (03:14):
Nice.
I think the sponsors willprobably really appreciate that.
Cevin Bryerman (03:18):
You know, virtual conferences are, are
tough for engagement, and wefelt, uh, with the feedback that
we got from the industry, um,sponsors wanted more time with
people to come in and chat withthem or show what kind of books
they're doing or whateverbranding opportunity they want
to do.
So it gave the librarian andbooksellers and media more time
(03:39):
with, with the booths becauseduring the two other days, it's
packed full of, um, conferences,libraries, information, and so
on
Nicole Tomassi (03:47):
So much content and so little time, but it's
good that you're also making itavailable for a long time
afterwards.
I seem to recall last year, youguys kept it up for about two or
three months post event.
Cevin Bryerman (03:57):
We we're aware of people who have jobs during
the day or booksellers orlibrarians who are managing the
stores or the libraries, andthey want to go to some
particular session.
So it's, it's, they can go backa week later, two weeks after
the show closes a month, or ifyou missed something that you
wanna revisit it and see, again,all those recordings are
prerecorded in advance.
Nicole Tomassi (04:18):
Excellent.
So one of the keynotes is gonnabe Jamie Raskin.
Cevin Bryerman (04:21):
That is correct.
Cause uh, one of the big topicsthat we're having is about ban
on books and Jamie reskin hasbeen a big proponent of not
having ban on books for, forschools and libraries.
So yes, Jeremy Rakin is I thinkhe's the closing speaker of the
show.
Nicole Tomassi (04:37):
I'm sure the librarians and the bookstores
will definitely wanna be tuningin to hear what he's gotta say
on this.
A couple of minutes ago, youmentioned the fact that you're
gonna be looking at a hybridevent next year and you know,
hybrid certainly seems to be theword of 2022 and was something
we talked about a little bitduring the webinar that was
co-hosted with PublishersWeekly, back in March about the
(04:59):
return to office and, um, comingin a couple of days a week and
working remote the rest of thetime, that sort of thing.
Is that what you're hearing frommost of the industry that
they're looking at doing more ofa hybrid model as we edge
forward?
Cevin Bryerman (05:13):
Yeah, I think people are, um, feeling it out.
You know, a lot of publishinghouses want people to start
coming back.
Maybe not full time.
I know at Publishers Weekly, ouroffice is open, you know, every
day of the week, but it's up tothe department manager and
yourself, people are starting toreturn in whatever direction
each company wants the employeesto come back in.
But, uh, we were talking beforewe got onto this thing as I was
(05:36):
watching CNBC this morning.
And it seems like, you know,real estate office space is
starting to perk up again,people starting to come back to
the office.
So I think it depends on thepublishing house on what their,
their plans are, but I knowpeople are looking forward to
having people come back to theoffice.
I think you lose a lot ofcreativity and colleagues being
together and brainstorming.
(05:56):
And I think that came up an hourwebcast that we did a couple of
months ago with, with, you know,people want to come back in and
we need to get back to somenormalcy and maybe it's not five
days a week, but maybe it's twodays a week, three days a week.
But again, it depends upon thepublishing house and what
they're doing.
Nicole Tomassi (06:13):
There's something to be said for both.
I mean, you know, there's, theremote aspect can be good in
certain ways because it givesyou a little more time to focus
on certain things.
But there's also something to besaid for the spontaneity that
can only happen when a group ofpeople are in, in the same
setting and not in a screen.
Cevin Bryerman (06:29):
Yeah.
I tell you, and there's a lot ofpeople that relocated to
different states now that, uh,they want, you know, some people
who lived in New York didn'twant to be in New York because
of their living situation and,and, you know, New York was a
hot center for COVID.
So it's, it's really comes downto people's comfort level.
We try to make our offices verysafe.
We downsized our office space,but we gave enough space for
(06:51):
people are not on top of eachother.
So it all depends.
As you said on, people's comfortlevel, you know, we're really
requesting at least two times aweek that you come in on certain
days, we have allocated officedesk space for people.
It's almost like a Weworksituation where it's open and
you can just plug in when youcome into the office, you can
reserve conference rooms.
So we we're to make itconducive.
(07:12):
We're we're not on top of eachother, cuz we have 44 employees
and our employees commute onsubways or the Long Island
railroa and it's just a matterof comfort level.
You know, we're excited havepeople back, I go into the
office at least once or twice aweek for meetings or lunches or
just pick up my mail or talk to,you know, talk to people.
I think that's what people missis talking to each other.
Nicole Tomassi (07:31):
Yeah, I think you're right about that.
There's only so much screen timeyou can do.
Uh, we actually had an eventlast week where several of the
employees got together and itwas the first time a lot of us
were seeing each other in twoyears.
It was nice to be face to faceand you know, talk over dinner.
Cevin Bryerman (07:47):
We have once a week, we have once every couple
weeks happy hour where peoplecan come in, it's around a theme
like next week is openenrollment for benefits.
So, you know, we invited peoplein to come to learn about the
benefits.
And then after that there's alittle small happy hour.
People can socialize and have adrink together or just, you know
, say hello to each other.
So we try to make it more of anenvironment where people come in
(08:09):
and learn new things or justhaving to see each other.
Cause we don't see each other.
It's only on zoom.
Nicole Tomassi (08:15):
And speaking of seeing each other, people are
starting to go back out as theircomfort level increases to
things like trade shows.
I mean, London book fair wasprobably the testing ground this
year, so far.
What are your thoughts goingforward into, you know, the
summer and fall in terms oftrade shows?
Cevin Bryerman (08:33):
Well, I, I'm excited to go back to the trade
shows cuz uh, I missed thenetworking.
I was at PLA this year in, uh,Portland, Oregon, it was safe.
It was great to see four or5,000 librarians.
They, they want to talk to eachother.
They want to pick up collateral.
People had to have vaccinationcards approved before, they had
to have wearing mask.
(08:53):
If anything, with uh, TLA, um,people were excited to get back
together.
Again, I did not go tointernational shows this year
and did not go to London and notgo below yet.
But um, I, we starting up goinginternationally for Frankfurt
book fair and the Sharjah bookfair, which is later in the
year, as you said, it's howcomfortable you are going to
trade shows being around 20,30,000 people.
(09:15):
You just have to be smart.
But I think it's time, at leastfor me and some team members to
be back in front of people.
There's nothing about, you know,walking down an aisle and having
a casual conversation and ideasperk up.
It's very, very difficult.
Um, doing it virtually or onzoom events.
I think people are tired ofzoom.
So I think trade shows willstart coming back.
(09:36):
I think now with the vaccinationand the booster shots and you
know, people have to be aware oftheir own situation, but um, I
think it's time to come back.
Will they come back the samelevel attendance?
I'm not sure cuz I know theattendances for London and, and
TLA and PLA were down.
People are testing the watersand I think people really wanna
get back to going to trade showsmore often in networking and
(09:59):
creating deals.
I've created a couple of deals,you know, being in, in London,
and Sharjah, you know, we do PWand Spanish.
Now that's Seville that camethrough a trade show
conversation.
We do PW and Arabic, uh, whichcame through conversations at
their trade show.
So it's more about doingbusiness together and we're in a
business that are people topeople.
Nicole Tomassi (10:20):
Do you think, even though the attendance may
be lower, it's probably peoplewho are really wanting to be
there.
So it might actually be betterwith it being a little bit
smaller.
What do you think?
Cevin Bryerman (10:31):
Yeah, I, I think , um, people who realize that
they have to do business at theshows, they're gonna go to the
shows and maybe it's more, youknow, directed.
And when they get theirmeetings, they come in and do
this.
I know there are less partiesand events after the trade show.
Cause a lot of people went totrade shows, uh, for the
business purpose, but thenthere's always celebrations at
night and people doing parties.
(10:52):
I think that's been scaled backa little bit, but I, I, I think
people just wanna get back anddo business.
And again, I think trade showsis a perfect place.
You know, I, you know, I go tooverseas a lot and I haven't
seen in my overseas colleaguesand, and you lose that
communication even though we tryhard with zoom events and
corresponding, it's not thesame.
So people who are serious aboutbusiness and get their business
(11:14):
done and spend their time.
But I, I think people are alsolooking at the expenses.
They realize that spending a lotof money, is it, do you really
need to beat that show or not atthat show?
Nicole Tomassi (11:25):
Right.
And you know, do you need tosend as many people as you had
in the past?
So those are the decisions.
I think every company is gonnahave to look at a little more
carefully.
You were saying a minute agothat PW now publishes in Arabic.
When did that happen?
Cevin Bryerman (11:38):
Actually it happened two years ago.
Ahmed who's the chairman ofSharjah book fair, He realizes
that the, the value of PW'sbrand and sending a message
about Arabic and translation andyou know, from there they built
the children's festival.
So I believe he's one of thelargest book fair and probably
in the world.
It's two weeks and there's overa million people coming, buying
(12:01):
and selling books.
There's a professional program.
He's done a really phenomenaljob, um, at the book fair and I
have to commend him, you know,because he started this six,
seven years ago and now he has alibrary part of the, of the show
, um, you know, has aprofessional show.
He is a consumer show.
So he's done a phenomenal job in, in building a nice book, fair,
just like, you know, Bologna hasa phenomenal book, fair and, and
(12:23):
Frankfurt has a good book.
Fair us book show is a goodbook.
Fair.
So we've learned from there.
And then from being in theSharjah event I met Enrique from
Lantia and he's always dreamedof having, uh, Publishers Weekly
in Spanish.
And we started that about a yearago and it's doing very, very
well and it's growing for LatinAmerica, Mexico.
So PW is in Spanish and PW'S inArabic and we're looking at
(12:46):
other countries to do PWadditions and different
languages.
Nicole Tomassi (12:50):
You, you kind of stole the next question out of
my head there.
I was wondering if you werelooking at other regions,
Cevin Bryerman (12:56):
I think PW's a conduit for the world.
So if I can find another countryto work with, um, we're happy to
open it up.
Nicole Tomassi (13:05):
That sounds really exciting.
Um, do you notice anydifferences in terms of, you
know, just the level of interestor the engagement with reading
or is it pretty much the sameeverywhere?
People just want interestingcontent to read?
Cevin Bryerman (13:20):
I, I think everybody wants interesting
content to read.
I think they want diversity in,in, in content.
Uh, I just think there'll,there's people who enjoy reading
and, and as the, the famouswords, the written word of the
Sharjah book fair.
So it's translation it's right.
It's just the whole ecosystem.
And I think there's the highlevel of interest.
Nicole Tomassi (13:42):
That's awesome.
Anything else you wanna sharebefore you?
Cevin Bryerman (13:46):
No, just now this is, as I said before, we
were talking, um, publishersweekly celebrating its 150th
anniversary.
We had a special edition of 276pages.
We went back into the archivesof the company and we did the
last 25 years of the history ofpublishing and how the industry
has changed over time from CDsto eBooks, to printed, to
(14:07):
audiobooks.
And so it's, it's great to goback in the history and I gotta
compliment the staff over theyears.
Now, we've been around again 150years.
We've never missed a singleissue since we've published and
we've gone through wars, we'vegone through super Sandy storms.
So it was the dedication of, ofeverybody at the company to
continue that even when we weresold 11 years ago, we had to be
(14:32):
out of our office and publishthe magazine within 30 days and
assemble a whole staff and team.
So a lot of, a lot of greatpeople throughout the years have
contributed to the success ofpublishers weekly.
And we continue to maintainthat, that history, and I
encourage people to go and pickup an issue of publishers weekly
(14:53):
to read or go back to theanniversary.
We've pulled out a lot ofcontent from our archives about
the history of publishing in thelast 25 years.
There were a lot of great namesare there to read about their
careers and the history ofpublishers weekly.
We are the history of publishingand people who wanna know more
about publishing should pick upat least that issue or pick up a
subscription to the magazineand, and learn about what's
(15:15):
going on.
It's it's been a greatmilestone.
I've been with the company 30years in different capacities to
see it transition from alldifferent levels.
It's, it's exciting.
And, and it's exciting as tocontinue on that tradition of of
150 years of publishing thehistory publishing is there.
Nicole Tomassi (15:32):
It is.
And I actually did go into theoffice for the first time in a
couple years, and it was therewaiting for me and I did thumb
through it.
And it's just like you said,it's, it's a walk through
history really, and thepublishing history and some of
the names from the last 25, even50 years, there's still a force
in publishing today.
A lot of them and hats off to,to the entire staff at
(15:54):
publishers weekly, it was areally great issue.
So if you can't get your handson the print, one, definitely
look it up.
Um, on the website, there's justso much great stuff to read in
there.
Cevin Bryerman (16:04):
Well, it's also, you know, it's not only just our
hundred 50, there's a lot ofother publishing houses that
celebrated their own milestones.
And it's also good to see thingsthat are going on, from the
consolidations of publishinghouses.
The, the growth of independentpublishing the growth is
self-publishing and PW is, hasbeen recording the history of
it.
So if you ever wanna get into inyour history buff about
(16:25):
publishing, wanna learn moreabout it.
It's a great reference tool.
Nicole Tomassi (16:29):
I agree.
And, and here's to the next 150years, wherever it might take
us.
Cevin Bryerman (16:34):
That's correct.
Nicole Tomassi (16:35):
Well, thank you for being a steward of it for,
you know, for the past 30 yearsand, and hopefully for quite a
while to come.
And we'll definitely check outthe us book show in a few weeks
and we'll see what else is inthe offing for publishers
weekly.
So I wanna thank you again, kefor coming on and sharing
Cevin Bryerman (16:54):
Well, thank you.
And also, you know, PW has agreat relationship with
Westchester publishing services.
We've done a lot of good eventstogether and I wish, and you
guys celebrate your hundred 50thone day.
Nicole Tomassi (17:04):
I hope we will do that too.
I probably won't be here for it,cuz I'm just a little,
Cevin Bryerman (17:09):
Maybe Tyler, maybe Tyler will be,
Nicole Tomassi (17:11):
Maybe you never know.
I mean, maybe they'll come outwith some really cool gene
therapy thing and I'll be hereto rattle some cages.
Time will tell.
Cevin Bryerman (17:20):
Appreciate your, and again, um, thank you for
this conversation about PWS andits history and its 150th
birthday.
Nicole Tomassi (17:29):
Congratulations, and many more years of success
ahead, Cev.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of Westchester words.
If you're looking for previousepisodes or want to read
additional content that has beenshared by some of our guests,
please visit our websites.
Westchester publishing servicesdot and Westchester education
(17:50):
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out our sister podcast,Westchester words, UK and
international available on theWestchester education UK
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We love hearing from ourlisteners and welcome your
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(18:17):
Tell us what you enjoy hearingon our podcast or suggest topics
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Speaking of future episodes, Ilook forward to having you join
us for the next episode ofWestchester words, when we'll be
having another engagingconversation about a topic of
interest to the education attech and publishing communities
until then stay safe, be welland stay tuned.
Welcome to Westchester words, education ed
tech and publishing I'm NicoleTomassi, and today I'll be
speaking with Cev Bryerman, CEOand publisher of Publishers
weekly.
Cev's been on the podcastseveral times before to talk
about a number of things thatare taking place within the
publishing industry.
Welcome back Cev.
Cevin Bryerman (00:25):
Well, glad to be back in, Nicole always enjoyed
our conversations.
So I am looking forward to, uh,answering some more questions.
Nicole Tomassi (00:32):
Well, thank you for coming in for another
grilling.
I'll try to go easy on you.
So to dive in, we're recordingthis at the beginning of May and
later this month, uh, you guysare going to be putting on the
second annual US Book Show.
Do you wanna talk a little bitabout it as far as keynotes and
how the event's gonna unfold?
Cevin Bryerman (00:51):
Sure.
Um, this is our second yeardoing it.
Uh, last year it was highlysuccessful with over 3,500
people coming into the eventfrom librarians to book sellers,
to media, to industry people.
We had great speakers last year,including Oprah Winfrey this
year back by some comments we'veheard from, um, our research.
We extended a half a day forpeople to spend more time at the
(01:12):
booths.
Um, the virtual booth, it is avirtual show.
Uh, we have some new guests thisyear.
We have, uh, Mo Willems.
We have John Grisham, we haveCeleste Ng, so a whole new
lineup, and we continue to dobuzz panels.
We continue to do industryevents, industry sessions.
Um, we've added some sponsoredcontent this year.
Also, we made it free to every book s eller and librarian i n, i
(01:35):
n north America.
Attendance i s way up and duringthe US Book Show, u m, we'll
have our first live celebrationfor our 150th anniversary.
I f so, u m, looking forward tothe US Book Show and great
speakers a nd great content.
So hopefully everybody can joinin, go to u s b ook s how and, u
m, sign up and register for theevent.
Nicole Tomassi (01:54):
We'll make sure to include a link to that.
Um, on our website, when we dopost this episode, is it
USBookShow.com?
Cevin Bryerman (02:01):
It's usbookshow .com
Nicole Tomassi (02:03):
Uh, get in there and sign up.
Now, remind me, what are thedates again?
Cevin Bryerman (02:06):
It's may, uh, 23rd,through 26th.
It's opens up at, uh, Mondayafternoon and then full days on
Tuesdays and Wednesdays andThursday.
There'll be children's panels.
There'll be industry panels.
Again, there'll be graphicnovels panels across all
sections of publishing.
There'll be panels for everybodyto enjoy.
It's on demand, So if you can'tattend that particular hour that
(02:29):
session's going, you can go backwith your registration ticket
and, um, do it at 11 o'clock atnight or two months after.
It's on demand, m ost of it'sprerecorded, lot of live Q a nd
a it's.
It's an opportunity to be withthe industry in a virtual event.
Next year, we'll do roughly t hesame timeframe in terms of may
(02:49):
and have some type of hybridevent for the US Book Show.
Nicole Tomassi (02:53):
You said that there's gonna be a half day
that's specifically for thevirtual booth so that people can
go in and focus more on that.
So that's gonna be completelyseparate from the panels.
Cevin Bryerman (03:02):
The booths are open always throughout the show,
but Monday afternoon from 11o'clock, they open up.
So there's more interaction withthe sponsors at the booths and
the people with who want toattend and see what people are
doing.
Nicole Tomassi (03:14):
Nice.
I think the sponsors willprobably really appreciate that.
Cevin Bryerman (03:18):
You know, virtual conferences are, are
tough for engagement, and wefelt, uh, with the feedback that
we got from the industry, um,sponsors wanted more time with
people to come in and chat withthem or show what kind of books
they're doing or whateverbranding opportunity they want
to do.
So it gave the librarian andbooksellers and media more time
(03:39):
with, with the booths becauseduring the two other days, it's
packed full of, um, conferences,libraries, information, and so
on
Nicole Tomassi (03:47):
So much content and so little time, but it's
good that you're also making itavailable for a long time
afterwards.
I seem to recall last year, youguys kept it up for about two or
three months post event.
Cevin Bryerman (03:57):
We we're aware of people who have jobs during
the day or booksellers orlibrarians who are managing the
stores or the libraries, andthey want to go to some
particular session.
So it's, it's, they can go backa week later, two weeks after
the show closes a month, or ifyou missed something that you
wanna revisit it and see, again,all those recordings are
prerecorded in advance.
Nicole Tomassi (04:18):
Excellent.
So one of the keynotes is gonnabe Jamie Raskin.
Cevin Bryerman (04:21):
That is correct.
Cause uh, one of the big topicsthat we're having is about ban
on books and Jamie reskin hasbeen a big proponent of not
having ban on books for, forschools and libraries.
So yes, Jeremy Rakin is I thinkhe's the closing speaker of the
show.
Nicole Tomassi (04:37):
I'm sure the librarians and the bookstores
will definitely wanna be tuningin to hear what he's gotta say
on this.
A couple of minutes ago, youmentioned the fact that you're
gonna be looking at a hybridevent next year and you know,
hybrid certainly seems to be theword of 2022 and was something
we talked about a little bitduring the webinar that was
co-hosted with PublishersWeekly, back in March about the
(04:59):
return to office and, um, comingin a couple of days a week and
working remote the rest of thetime, that sort of thing.
Is that what you're hearing frommost of the industry that
they're looking at doing more ofa hybrid model as we edge
forward?
Cevin Bryerman (05:13):
Yeah, I think people are, um, feeling it out.
You know, a lot of publishinghouses want people to start
coming back.
Maybe not full time.
I know at Publishers Weekly, ouroffice is open, you know, every
day of the week, but it's up tothe department manager and
yourself, people are starting toreturn in whatever direction
each company wants the employeesto come back in.
But, uh, we were talking beforewe got onto this thing as I was
(05:36):
watching CNBC this morning.
And it seems like, you know,real estate office space is
starting to perk up again,people starting to come back to
the office.
So I think it depends on thepublishing house on what their,
their plans are, but I knowpeople are looking forward to
having people come back to theoffice.
I think you lose a lot ofcreativity and colleagues being
together and brainstorming.
(05:56):
And I think that came up an hourwebcast that we did a couple of
months ago with, with, you know,people want to come back in and
we need to get back to somenormalcy and maybe it's not five
days a week, but maybe it's twodays a week, three days a week.
But again, it depends upon thepublishing house and what
they're doing.
Nicole Tomassi (06:13):
There's something to be said for both.
I mean, you know, there's, theremote aspect can be good in
certain ways because it givesyou a little more time to focus
on certain things.
But there's also something to besaid for the spontaneity that
can only happen when a group ofpeople are in, in the same
setting and not in a screen.
Cevin Bryerman (06:29):
Yeah.
I tell you, and there's a lot ofpeople that relocated to
different states now that, uh,they want, you know, some people
who lived in New York didn'twant to be in New York because
of their living situation and,and, you know, New York was a
hot center for COVID.
So it's, it's really comes downto people's comfort level.
We try to make our offices verysafe.
We downsized our office space,but we gave enough space for
(06:51):
people are not on top of eachother.
So it all depends.
As you said on, people's comfortlevel, you know, we're really
requesting at least two times aweek that you come in on certain
days, we have allocated officedesk space for people.
It's almost like a Weworksituation where it's open and
you can just plug in when youcome into the office, you can
reserve conference rooms.
So we we're to make itconducive.
(07:12):
We're we're not on top of eachother, cuz we have 44 employees
and our employees commute onsubways or the Long Island
railroa and it's just a matterof comfort level.
You know, we're excited havepeople back, I go into the
office at least once or twice aweek for meetings or lunches or
just pick up my mail or talk to,you know, talk to people.
I think that's what people missis talking to each other.
Nicole Tomassi (07:31):
Yeah, I think you're right about that.
There's only so much screen timeyou can do.
Uh, we actually had an eventlast week where several of the
employees got together and itwas the first time a lot of us
were seeing each other in twoyears.
It was nice to be face to faceand you know, talk over dinner.
Cevin Bryerman (07:47):
We have once a week, we have once every couple
weeks happy hour where peoplecan come in, it's around a theme
like next week is openenrollment for benefits.
So, you know, we invited peoplein to come to learn about the
benefits.
And then after that there's alittle small happy hour.
People can socialize and have adrink together or just, you know
, say hello to each other.
So we try to make it more of anenvironment where people come in
(08:09):
and learn new things or justhaving to see each other.
Cause we don't see each other.
It's only on zoom.
Nicole Tomassi (08:15):
And speaking of seeing each other, people are
starting to go back out as theircomfort level increases to
things like trade shows.
I mean, London book fair wasprobably the testing ground this
year, so far.
What are your thoughts goingforward into, you know, the
summer and fall in terms oftrade shows?
Cevin Bryerman (08:33):
Well, I, I'm excited to go back to the trade
shows cuz uh, I missed thenetworking.
I was at PLA this year in, uh,Portland, Oregon, it was safe.
It was great to see four or5,000 librarians.
They, they want to talk to eachother.
They want to pick up collateral.
People had to have vaccinationcards approved before, they had
to have wearing mask.
(08:53):
If anything, with uh, TLA, um,people were excited to get back
together.
Again, I did not go tointernational shows this year
and did not go to London and notgo below yet.
But um, I, we starting up goinginternationally for Frankfurt
book fair and the Sharjah bookfair, which is later in the
year, as you said, it's howcomfortable you are going to
trade shows being around 20,30,000 people.
(09:15):
You just have to be smart.
But I think it's time, at leastfor me and some team members to
be back in front of people.
There's nothing about, you know,walking down an aisle and having
a casual conversation and ideasperk up.
It's very, very difficult.
Um, doing it virtually or onzoom events.
I think people are tired ofzoom.
So I think trade shows willstart coming back.
(09:36):
I think now with the vaccinationand the booster shots and you
know, people have to be aware oftheir own situation, but um, I
think it's time to come back.
Will they come back the samelevel attendance?
I'm not sure cuz I know theattendances for London and, and
TLA and PLA were down.
People are testing the watersand I think people really wanna
get back to going to trade showsmore often in networking and
(09:59):
creating deals.
I've created a couple of deals,you know, being in, in London,
and Sharjah, you know, we do PWand Spanish.
Now that's Seville that camethrough a trade show
conversation.
We do PW and Arabic, uh, whichcame through conversations at
their trade show.
So it's more about doingbusiness together and we're in a
business that are people topeople.
Nicole Tomassi (10:20):
Do you think, even though the attendance may
be lower, it's probably peoplewho are really wanting to be
there.
So it might actually be betterwith it being a little bit
smaller.
What do you think?
Cevin Bryerman (10:31):
Yeah, I, I think , um, people who realize that
they have to do business at theshows, they're gonna go to the
shows and maybe it's more, youknow, directed.
And when they get theirmeetings, they come in and do
this.
I know there are less partiesand events after the trade show.
Cause a lot of people went totrade shows, uh, for the
business purpose, but thenthere's always celebrations at
night and people doing parties.
(10:52):
I think that's been scaled backa little bit, but I, I, I think
people just wanna get back anddo business.
And again, I think trade showsis a perfect place.
You know, I, you know, I go tooverseas a lot and I haven't
seen in my overseas colleaguesand, and you lose that
communication even though we tryhard with zoom events and
corresponding, it's not thesame.
So people who are serious aboutbusiness and get their business
(11:14):
done and spend their time.
But I, I think people are alsolooking at the expenses.
They realize that spending a lotof money, is it, do you really
need to beat that show or not atthat show?
Nicole Tomassi (11:25):
Right.
And you know, do you need tosend as many people as you had
in the past?
So those are the decisions.
I think every company is gonnahave to look at a little more
carefully.
You were saying a minute agothat PW now publishes in Arabic.
When did that happen?
Cevin Bryerman (11:38):
Actually it happened two years ago.
Ahmed who's the chairman ofSharjah book fair, He realizes
that the, the value of PW'sbrand and sending a message
about Arabic and translation andyou know, from there they built
the children's festival.
So I believe he's one of thelargest book fair and probably
in the world.
It's two weeks and there's overa million people coming, buying
(12:01):
and selling books.
There's a professional program.
He's done a really phenomenaljob, um, at the book fair and I
have to commend him, you know,because he started this six,
seven years ago and now he has alibrary part of the, of the show
, um, you know, has aprofessional show.
He is a consumer show.
So he's done a phenomenal job in, in building a nice book, fair,
just like, you know, Bologna hasa phenomenal book, fair and, and
(12:23):
Frankfurt has a good book.
Fair us book show is a goodbook.
Fair.
So we've learned from there.
And then from being in theSharjah event I met Enrique from
Lantia and he's always dreamedof having, uh, Publishers Weekly
in Spanish.
And we started that about a yearago and it's doing very, very
well and it's growing for LatinAmerica, Mexico.
So PW is in Spanish and PW'S inArabic and we're looking at
(12:46):
other countries to do PWadditions and different
languages.
Nicole Tomassi (12:50):
You, you kind of stole the next question out of
my head there.
I was wondering if you werelooking at other regions,
Cevin Bryerman (12:56):
I think PW's a conduit for the world.
So if I can find another countryto work with, um, we're happy to
open it up.
Nicole Tomassi (13:05):
That sounds really exciting.
Um, do you notice anydifferences in terms of, you
know, just the level of interestor the engagement with reading
or is it pretty much the sameeverywhere?
People just want interestingcontent to read?
Cevin Bryerman (13:20):
I, I think everybody wants interesting
content to read.
I think they want diversity in,in, in content.
Uh, I just think there'll,there's people who enjoy reading
and, and as the, the famouswords, the written word of the
Sharjah book fair.
So it's translation it's right.
It's just the whole ecosystem.
And I think there's the highlevel of interest.
Nicole Tomassi (13:42):
That's awesome.
Anything else you wanna sharebefore you?
Cevin Bryerman (13:46):
No, just now this is, as I said before, we
were talking, um, publishersweekly celebrating its 150th
anniversary.
We had a special edition of 276pages.
We went back into the archivesof the company and we did the
last 25 years of the history ofpublishing and how the industry
has changed over time from CDsto eBooks, to printed, to
(14:07):
audiobooks.
And so it's, it's great to goback in the history and I gotta
compliment the staff over theyears.
Now, we've been around again 150years.
We've never missed a singleissue since we've published and
we've gone through wars, we'vegone through super Sandy storms.
So it was the dedication of, ofeverybody at the company to
continue that even when we weresold 11 years ago, we had to be
(14:32):
out of our office and publishthe magazine within 30 days and
assemble a whole staff and team.
So a lot of, a lot of greatpeople throughout the years have
contributed to the success ofpublishers weekly.
And we continue to maintainthat, that history, and I
encourage people to go and pickup an issue of publishers weekly
(14:53):
to read or go back to theanniversary.
We've pulled out a lot ofcontent from our archives about
the history of publishing in thelast 25 years.
There were a lot of great namesare there to read about their
careers and the history ofpublishers weekly.
We are the history of publishingand people who wanna know more
about publishing should pick upat least that issue or pick up a
subscription to the magazineand, and learn about what's
(15:15):
going on.
It's it's been a greatmilestone.
I've been with the company 30years in different capacities to
see it transition from alldifferent levels.
It's, it's exciting.
And, and it's exciting as tocontinue on that tradition of of
150 years of publishing thehistory publishing is there.
Nicole Tomassi (15:32):
It is.
And I actually did go into theoffice for the first time in a
couple years, and it was therewaiting for me and I did thumb
through it.
And it's just like you said,it's, it's a walk through
history really, and thepublishing history and some of
the names from the last 25, even50 years, there's still a force
in publishing today.
A lot of them and hats off to,to the entire staff at
(15:54):
publishers weekly, it was areally great issue.
So if you can't get your handson the print, one, definitely
look it up.
Um, on the website, there's justso much great stuff to read in
there.
Cevin Bryerman (16:04):
Well, it's also, you know, it's not only just our
hundred 50, there's a lot ofother publishing houses that
celebrated their own milestones.
And it's also good to see thingsthat are going on, from the
consolidations of publishinghouses.
The, the growth of independentpublishing the growth is
self-publishing and PW is, hasbeen recording the history of
it.
So if you ever wanna get into inyour history buff about
(16:25):
publishing, wanna learn moreabout it.
It's a great reference tool.
Nicole Tomassi (16:29):
I agree.
And, and here's to the next 150years, wherever it might take
us.
Cevin Bryerman (16:34):
That's correct.
Nicole Tomassi (16:35):
Well, thank you for being a steward of it for,
you know, for the past 30 yearsand, and hopefully for quite a
while to come.
And we'll definitely check outthe us book show in a few weeks
and we'll see what else is inthe offing for publishers
weekly.
So I wanna thank you again, kefor coming on and sharing
Cevin Bryerman (16:54):
Well, thank you.
And also, you know, PW has agreat relationship with
Westchester publishing services.
We've done a lot of good eventstogether and I wish, and you
guys celebrate your hundred 50thone day.
Nicole Tomassi (17:04):
I hope we will do that too.
I probably won't be here for it,cuz I'm just a little,
Cevin Bryerman (17:09):
Maybe Tyler, maybe Tyler will be,
Nicole Tomassi (17:11):
Maybe you never know.
I mean, maybe they'll come outwith some really cool gene
therapy thing and I'll be hereto rattle some cages.
Time will tell.
Cevin Bryerman (17:20):
Appreciate your, and again, um, thank you for
this conversation about PWS andits history and its 150th
birthday.
Nicole Tomassi (17:29):
Congratulations, and many more years of success
ahead, Cev.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of Westchester words.
If you're looking for previousepisodes or want to read
additional content that has beenshared by some of our guests,
please visit our websites.
Westchester publishing servicesdot and Westchester education
(17:50):
services.com for aninternational perspective, check
out our sister podcast,Westchester words, UK and
international available on theWestchester education UK
website, Westchestereducation.co.uk or wherever you stream
podcasts.
We love hearing from ourlisteners and welcome your
emails at Westchester words atWestchester ed SV, cs.com.
(18:17):
Tell us what you enjoy hearingon our podcast or suggest topics
that we can cover in futureepisodes.
Speaking of future episodes, Ilook forward to having you join
us for the next episode ofWestchester words, when we'll be
having another engagingconversation about a topic of
interest to the education attech and publishing communities
until then stay safe, be welland stay tuned.
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