An Inspired round-up of 2023

Talking Top Trends and predictions for what’s going to be big in 2024!

What a year we’ve had! We’ve won two more awards, attended several events and successfully placed hundreds of brilliant candidates from entry level to C-Suite. With Inspired nearing the end of its 24th year, we are looking ahead to 2024 as we turn 25! Watch this space as we’ll be hosting lots of events across the year both in person and online and will be talking with experts to bring you the latest tips and trends when it comes to who, what and when to hire as well as what areas you need to be upskilling in to make sure you’re standing out from the crowd.

If there is one thing that the last 24 years has taught us, it’s that publishing doesn’t stand still! Quite the opposite in fact; it is always changing and, in some ways, we think that 2024 could be the most impactful year yet, especially when it comes to hiring. Why? – because the landscape is changing more and more. People working in publishing are calling for change more than ever before and, for the first time in over 10 years, we feel the most positive we have done that it is going to happen! 

Diversity & inclusion

With millennials climbing the ladders in publishing and taking up management and leadership roles, and Generation Z nipping at their heels, we are seeing really positive action happening and every event we have been to in the last 6 months has called for impactful change. Here at Inspired, we’ve partnered with Hachette to bring in fresh, more diverse talent, where we completely dropped the requirement for a background in publishing. This initiative was so energising and exciting to be part of! We’ve talked on panels with the FLIP (Female Leadership In Publishing) and are very excited about the impact they are going to be making next year! 

Abigail Barclay has published a white paper on Female Leadership, hosted a breakfast and continued the conversation through the year, flying the flag for greater diversity at board level. We’ve seen high profile female leaders shining a light on menstruation, menstrual health and menopause in the workplace  and we were delighted to be invited to the launch event earlier this year hosted by BSI on their new Standard BS30416. 

The call for greater diversity across the workforce has not stopped there and we are seeing more employers put dedicated resource behind creating more inclusive workplaces and improved equitable hiring processes to allow anyone to thrive, without discrimination against age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage & civil partnership, pregnancy & maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. 

Going into 2024, publishing will be increasingly looking holistically at diversity and inclusivity, celebrating and championing the breadth of demographics, backgrounds and experiences that enrich our workforce, author range, readership and society. With the European Accessibility Act coming in the following year, this effort and energy will also be embedded into the DNA of many of our products. 

For more advice on how to ensure you are making your business accessible to all please read our advice here . 

Audio

This has been one of Inspired’s busiest areas this year and looks set to be even busier next year with audio publishers, platforms and consumers all on the rise! We attended the Futurebook conference recently where there was of course a major focus on Audio with Spotify having recently entered the market.  From the events we’ve attended and publishers we are talking to, it’s clear to us that there are a huge amount of ideas and creativity behind Audio, as publishers consider new markets to explore, new audiences to engage with as well as new products. This goes hand in hand with our drive as an industry to be more accessible to more people and the investment that we’re seeing in Audio is a truly wonderful step to bringing our stories to people who otherwise many not be able to consume or access the written content. 

Investment in its truest form is lively in this market; there has been more money invested from VCs and PE firms so we’re thinking this is going to continue to be a big growth area in 2024! 

AI 

It was early on in this year, at the February IPG Conference, when the spotlight was really shone on AI and in particular Chat GPT for us.  Seeing and hearing the possibilities that these platforms can present sent us through a whole spectrum of emotions all at the same time: we were terrified, intrigued, curious, excited, concerned, enraptured, suspicious the list goes on… was this new technology going to end publishing as we know it or even worse, the world as we know it!! 

The jury is definitely still out when it comes to finding a way to use AI in content creation and when it comes to copyright law and legislation it remains a very complex arena. However, one thing we feel very positive about following our recent attendance and sponsorship of the SYP Conference this month, was that AI is not going to be taking away jobs, but rather enhancing them. In fact, right now, AI is looking hugely positive in our eyes as taking away elements of admin, repetitive parts of jobs and allowing us all more time to be creative, strategic and human! 

If you’ve ever tried to use AI – with Chat GPT for example, you’ll know it’s no where near as good as you are when it comes to writing authentically and interesting content. It’s an aggregate of what already exists, rather than the original thought that the human brain can so beautifully spark. However it has a fantastic use as brainstorming tool, generating content and ideas to be inspired by. It will all continue to evolve though, and rapidly, so we’re predicting AI will be the centre of many conversations in 2024! 

Indeed, it will certainly be the centre of the conversation at one of our first events of 2024. We are excited to be bringing you a talk with two really high-profile industry leaders in January to talk things AI so stay tuned for more information on how to access that! 

For us, AI in recruitment has been a topic of discussion for a number of years. We are yet to find an AI technology platform that we are happy to use for the actual selection process though, owing to case studies from the wider recruitment market where algorithms can be prone to prejudice and bias. We will continue to research this area and remain in conversation with the REC about developments in this space. 

Sustainability

It was great to see sustainability being talked about so widely this year and the Inspired Team have been lucky to be present at events such as The Sustainable Futures event hosted by SYP recently where we were able to gain valuable insights into this huge trend and issue publishers are facing right now.

Overall, there seems to be a very positive engagement and commitment to want to do more to work towards a more sustainable future in publishing and the conversation isn’t just between publishers, print partners and distribution teams. It is also a key topic in recruitment and talent as candidates are placing and increasing importance in a company’s sustainability policy when choosing an employer. 

Any business needs to be seriously conscious of its footprint these days. Any human does too but organisations in particular will face financial implications taking into consideration the world-wide paper shortage creating increased prices, so it is essential that publishers are looking at new ways to produce their content. As we learned at the FutureBook Conference, a Chat GPT search can have up to 30 times the environmental impact than a regular Google search and so the potential friction between technical advancement and environmental sustainability is something for us all to work through. 

The key trends don’t stop there. Social media has played a huge role in marketing this year – especially in exciting genres like YA where we’ve seen the rise of fans for authors and book launches! If you’re not on BookTok you need to be! The rise of fandom is part of a wider trend back to in-person events which is wonderful to see! We have enjoyed so many this year including IPG, LBF, FBF, SYP and ALPSP. Interestingly, something to note with these is that there is demand for these to take place earlier in the day as we are all ‘living life earlier’ these days. So if catching worms is something you love to do, you’re not alone! 

We must also acknowledge that the landscape itself has changed significantly this year. Even this week we’re seeing Mergers & Acquisitions being announced. It’s been a very acquisitive year across all sectors seeing more consolidation but we’ve also seen a number of exciting new companies enter the market! 

So as you can see, 2023 has laid the groundwork for an exciting year ahead in 2024 for publishers as it is – and that’s without the likelihood of a general election. 

Loved reading this blog? Have a look through some of our other top blogs of 2023 for more inspiration:

Skills families: 

Award winning recruiters