Selling sponsorships in books is not a new idea. In fact it was common for books to be published in serial form and accompanied by advertisements in the early 1900's. By the 1960's ads for cigarettes, alcohol and health and beauty products were commonly found in paperback novels. But this form of promotion was never that successful and couldn't compete with magazines, TV etc as these platforms could be targeted to a specific sector and delivered in a timely manner.

But times have changed....

Mobile computing, interactive touch screen tablets, the iPad are without doubt the most strategic developments in the world of book publishing. The vast majority of issues that faced the traditional sponsorship of books have all but disappeared. Publishers must now re engineer their business and see books as content no longer as books!!

This transition is not easy, we have seen the music industry go through turmoil with some major structural changes in that industry.

It was with these major changes that Diamond Media Solutions was formed. It recognises that the tradinal business model for book publishing is going through unprecedented change, that building sales teams for book sponsorship is not a skill that they presently have. The ever changing technology is always going to be an opportunity and a threat but with our assistance we can ensure it a success.

The founders of Diamond Media Solutions are well placed to assist publishers in their business change.

Steve Markwell

Steve, proir to forming his own publishing business, spent some years in IT sales and marketing as well as in management consultancy where he was head of business development for Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC). With no prior experience of publishing he was able to take his consultancy skills and look at a publishing opportunity without any traditional experiences. This approach developed a very successful business model where single publications and reports were sponsored rather than the traditional display advertising. The business achieved sales in excess of £6m

Steve, also had to re engineer his business with the advent of the web and loss of print distribution. The model was a web centric business and replaced the print business. Steve sold the business in 2008 to the National Computing Centre a membership and publishing organisation.

Keith Vooght

Keith founded and ran a software solution company for ten years and amongst the products that were developed and sold were registry and timetabling systems, Keith previously worked for McDonnell Douglas in the technical marketing group launching the URICA Library system in the united Kingdom. Keith for the last ten years has been working in the Mobile Device Solutions Systems area, providing clients with complete solutions for Management, Security and enabling field force automation.

If you would like to discuss how Diamond Media Solutions can benefit your business use the contact page now .