The transition follows a root-and-branch review of the PTC's strategy and positioning. Our products and services are evolving to meet the changing needs of newcomers and veterans alike, so we felt it appropriate to create a new entity that reflects this broader offer which can become a focal point for help and support across the industry.
Publishing needs a body that helps individuals learn and develop – something the PTC has always done – while also helping them navigate complex careers in an industry facing significant challenges.
Much of our work will remain unchanged. Flexible learning in core editorial skills will stay central to our mission. However, we will broaden how people engage with learning and provide more individualised support, including mentoring, networking, conferences and other industry events. We also intend to deepen discussion about how industry changes affect careers. These activities would have fallen outside the PTC's traditional remit.
Over time, the Institute of Publishing will become a hub for developing individual skills and supporting career progression.
Institute of Publishing’s mission is to champion high standards – especially editorial – across mainstream publishing and allied industries, offering individuals and companies best-in-class learning and development opportunities. It aims to ensure that the public benefits from published work that is clear, reliable and trustworthy. In an era of ‘fake news’, misattributed and AI-generated content, trust and quality are more important than ever.
What is striking is how similar at heart the industry remains to the one I joined 35 years ago and left nearly 20 years ago. The "How" has changed enormously – for example, through production and distribution technology, management and use of data of all descriptions and authors' ability to manage their profiles through social media and so on. But the "Why" remains fundamentally the same: enabling the effective transmission of knowledge – or “content” – between people and communities, just as monks were doing back in medieval monasteries when they created illuminated manuscripts.
I retain a concern that a combination of digital technologies, commercial pressures and the rise of self-publishing (about which I am a fan), has led to core editorial skills being undervalued. Websites, blogs and modern books too often contain typos, grammatical problems and a fundamental misunderstanding of the meaning of words (uninterested/disinterested, anyone?). The resulting loss of clarity matters. The Institute of Publishing has a public-benefit remit, so ensuring content is understandable and trustworthy remains central to our work.
It goes without saying that the biggest challenge is the advent of AI, particularly in this context, large language models. When I joined the PTC in early 2023, there were the initial rumblings about the latest ChatGPT release, but little clarity about what it might mean in practice. Although clarity remains elusive (anyone claiming to have "the answer" is either lying or trying to sell something) the impacts – good, bad and downright ugly – are available for all to see. Although I’m old enough to remember when the pocket calculator was seen as “disruptive”, it’s clear that this disruption on a larger scale even than the advent of the dotcom era.
A career in publishing isn’t possible without being profoundly curious – sceptically curious, but curious nonetheless – about what AI can and might do: being alive, as it were, to the challenges and opportunities of AI - not just dangers and risks. Use it, play with it, understand it; never kid yourself that you’ve mastered it, but equally, don’t be afraid of it.
Publishers will not only need an understanding of technology but they will need to retain an open mind to change, and be ready to adapt and evolve, to keep their eyes and ears open to what’s going on and grab opportunities. That’s not really new – it’s what I’ve always referred to as having “gumption” – but is especially important in unstable environments.
That said, traditional editorial skills – by which I mean the ability to shape content so that it communicates as effectively as possible with its intended audience – remain absolutely vital if we are not to descend into chaos.
Master the basics but always keep learning. Do not be in too much of a hurry. Get involved in new projects and be prepared to fail. Network, network, network.
Also – and this is something you can easily do now that was significantly harder when I started: follow industry voices (on Substack, LinkedIn, wherever). Seek out those you trust: not just the usual suspects (they know who they are!) but find people whose experience and perspective you value and who you might wish to emulate.
