Managing rights: The core of every future publishing business?

A surprisingly large proportion of publishers believe that their businesses will move over the next five years from the creation, marketing and distri bution of physical products toward the management of rights and royalties. Neither the industry nor individual publishers are ready for such a transit ion. Although publishing is and has been a rights business, few publishers methodically manage the rights that they own or control in ways that fully reflect this. If the future lies in rights management, publishers' systems will need to develop rapidly to accommodate new demands that this will plac e on them.