Sales figures from publishers?
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    I am working on a large paper that deals with the influence of major publishers and the content of their hymnals.

    Does anyone know where I can find figures on how many copies sold, or how many parishes use a particular hymnal or misallete?

    If I contacted the publishers directly, do you suppose they'd share this information?
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    As privately held companies, they would probably only give you whatever they'd use in public audience marketing - that is limited and cherry-picked. Any information of competitive value would likely not be shared.
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    Thanks Liam.

    I'm not meaning to compare or create competition with the figures, merely demonstrate their large influence on Catholic culture, by means of their widespread use.

    Would this be a well-recieved request?

    Of course I can always just ask them, but I want to frame the question correctly from the start. It would ruin my research if I got "blacklisted" (they dont want to communicate further) by asking the wrong question... Or even the right question, but worded in the wrong way.
    Thanked by 1PurpleSquirrel
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    My experience of observing reps from these companies participate in blog discussions is that they are not going to cooperate more than is going to be a help to their companies, and will not cooperate with anything they have reason to suspect could put the companies in a bad light. And that's their legal responsibility to their companies under the civil law.... Unlike a publicly-traded company, which has certain public disclosure obligations, business data of privately-held companies is owned by the owners of the company and cannot be shared unless it furthers the interest of the owners.
  • Mike R
    Posts: 106
    My guess is that you would get more accurate figures with an independent study that surveyed parishes across the country. I doubt that any such study has been done recently enough that it would still be relevant post-Roman Missal.
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    So, Liam, do you think it best that I explore other ways to prove their influence, rather than their secretive sales figures?
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    Well, even so, "proving" will be difficult once you realize that correlation and causation are not the same thing.
  • BachLover2BachLover2
    Posts: 330
    GIA is a privately owned by a family (not sure they're Catholic). They will not disclose their books. OCP is a non-profit, and has to give you last year's books by law.
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    J.S. Paluch Co., Inc. (WLP's parent company) is family-owned, I believe.
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    Thanks everyone. This is all actually very helpful/useful.
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