Recently selected director of the University of Wisconsin Press Dennis Lloyd plans to increase revenue and decrease cost while aiming to publish the right combination of research material and trade books to appeal to wider audiences.
Lloyd, the former deputy director of the University Press of Florida will take over in May for interim director Lea Jacobs, according to a UW statement.
UW Press publishes general interest books and peer-reviewed academic journals in the humanities, social sciences and medicine.
Lloyd’s vision for the UW Press is to come in and see what needs to be improved and what is working well, rather than making changes straight away, he said.
“I’m thrilled, absolutely delighted and looking forward to moving to Madison and joining the staff at the press,” Lloyd said. “I’m actually looking forward to experiencing seasons after eight years in Florida, as horrible as it may sound to you.”
Lloyd said he would like to help address problems that are facing all university presses these days. Shrinking monograph sales, the detailed written studies university presses publish, present a challenge in making good research available to a broad audience, Lloyd said.
“Primarily, what we’re going to be looking at is to increase revenue, decrease cost whenever possible and to continue to publish the best books for Wisconsin and the world,” Lloyd said.
In the changing publishing industry now, companies are not just competing with other books and magazines but social media as well, Lloyd said. With the rise of tablets, smart phones and computers everything is integrated and digital editions of books have more competition, he said.
The challenge is to figure out the right combination of academic books that have a wide enough appeal that you can make your business work and then some combination of trade books that will appeal to wider audiences, Jacobs said.
“It’s hard to continue to provide interesting work and content to capture people’s attention in that environment,” Lloyd said. “It’s another of the challenges facing all of us.”
He is coming to UW with 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, acquisitions and management at the University Press of Florida, according to the statement.
Lloyd is both excited about books and hard-headed about managing the business of publishing, which is a great combination, Jacobs said.
“He’s really willing to think about how publishing is changing,” Jacobs said. “He’s very practical but he’s also thinking really hard about how to make the business work in the new environment.”
