In a new report prepared for the Book Industry Study Group, industry analyst and digital transformation expert Bill Rosenblatt has now gathered unprecedented quantitative evidence showing just how rights management is remaking the publishing value chain.

"There was a lot of anecdotal evidence floating around. We started asking questions of the form, ‘What is your business case for improving your rights management processes?’ and the only answers we really got were anecdotal,” he recalled.

“I thought that there was a real opportunity to educate the industry by coming up with quantitative stories about how rights management systems and processes have improved publishers businesses,” said Rosenblatt, president of GiantSteps/Media Technology Strategies, and co-author with Steve Sieck of Positioned for Growth: The Return on Investment in Rights and Royalty Management Solutions.

In confidential interviews with executives, Rosenblatt and Sieck identified common themes for adopting rights management solutions including legal risk mitigation and efficiency through automation of manual paperwork processes. Important new themes emerged, too, especially the value of data.

“Having lots of data about rights deals at your fingertips leads to better decisions on where to focus sales efforts and how to get the best prices,” Rosenblatt recently wrote in a CCC blog post.