With a long history in publishing and sharing his visions for the division, Dennis Lloyd, a finalist to become the newest director of the University of Wisconsin Press, spoke at Memorial Library Thursday.

Lloyd currently serves as deputy director of sales, marketing and acquisitions at the University Press of Florida. Before this, he had a long career history which started not in publishing, but in clarinet performance as an undergraduate.

Lloyd said his wide array of experiences and positions with different university publishers is one of the things that would make him an ideal leader of UW’s 78 year-old publishing division. He said the first thing he learned when he started in publishing was to remember the importance of the work.

“I’ve always encouraged interns, student workers, entry level staff, to take the time to learn why your work is being done and to ask questions, instead of simply trying to get something done as quickly as possible,” Lloyd said.

Other valuable skills he said he had gained during his career included honesty and idea sharing. Lloyd has spent time in the marketing divisions of university publishers in Alabama, Kentucky and Pittsburgh before his current position in Florida.

Publishing market research Lloyd and others conducted at the University of Alabama showed him that one of the largest obstacles facing university publishers is the ingrained reputations they tend to develop with readers, scholars and other publishing organizations.

“We learned that perception would long outlive reality,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd laid out a variety of ideas and visions he had for UW Press, but noted that current employees know the most about the organization. He said he would keep this in mind and take existing staff’s advice seriously.

Lloyd said his ideas were not a list of things that need to change immediately, but suggestions he hoped he could one day implement when he was more familiar with the organization.

“A publishing program is like a tapestry,” Lloyd said. “Pull one loose string from one spot, and something else may unravel completely.”

Lloyd said his main goal for the organization would be to increase revenue and lower costs.

Lloyd said he is cautious about putting all publications into digital. For example, he said he was hesitant to rely too strongly on digital for poetry, as its normal audience still very much prefers physical copies.

But, Lloyd said he is not hesitant to take publications out of print when they are no longer providing enough revenue.

“This tends to be an emotionally charged issue,” Lloyd said. “Some people say ‘you can’t kill those books’. I tend to think of it as thinning the herd.”

Lloyd’s final point rested on the dream of self-sufficiency for the UW Press. He said he would try to make it possible for the publishing division to give back to the university, revenue-wise.

He said he would work closely with the entire division, and horizontal integration of the organization was a must in the digital world.

“The staff makes the train go, my job is to clear the tracks,” Lloyd said.

The next finalist will speak Monday and the selected director will take over for current interim director Lea Jaccobs.