-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: KAPPA Map Group LLC - umbrella - map publishing
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:50:32 -0700
From: timross <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]>
Russell,
excellent summary! This is very useful for those of us who still
actively purchase trade maps for our collections and/or receive queries
from students and the general public re the best travel maps.
Best,
Tim Ross
Angie Cope, American Geographical Society Library, UW Milwaukee wrote:
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: KAPPA Map Group LLC - umbrella - map publishing
> Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:31:59 -0400
> From: Russell Guy <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> A few more bits on map publishers:
>
> Kappa is finally getting their multiple map lines integrated into a
> single product listing after sorting through competing titles from their
> various imprints and reducing duplication. As part of that, some titles
> are going away - a lot of American Map and ADC titles for instance.
> Kappa is keeping the various imprints such as ADC and Mapsco on the
> appropriate maps, while using Kappa as the publisher name. Kappa is
> beginning to update many of the maps that American Map and Universal had
> let go out of stock. For instance, in January Kappa released 88 new
> editions plus 25 new editions in February. A listing of these will be in
> our next new arrivals listing.
>
> Rand McNally continues to have a significant trimming of their printed
> map line. From a high of over 1000 map titles a few years ago, RM are
> now down to 475 titles in their 2012 product list. This list is expected
> to continue to shrink. Paper maps of smaller cities have been the bulk
> of the titles discontinued, but laminated "Easyfinder" maps and
> spiral-bound "Streetfinder" atlases are also being discontinued.
>
> Hema Maps of Australia has closed their US office and warehouse. They
> have also discontinued most of its international map to concentrate on
> producing their very popular line of maps of Australia. Hema have a
> great series of outback maps of the center of Australia,, plus route and
> regional maps for eastern Australia, as well as city, state, and country
> maps for Australia, New Zealand, and parts of the South Pacific.
>
> Borch, Nelles Verlag, and Freytag/Berndt continue to let slow-selling
> titles go out of print. For instance, Nelles is not reprinting/updating
> their popular China regional series.
>
> Freytag has introduced a tourist-friendly line of country travel maps.
> These are printed on waterproof paper and include several city insets on
> each map, general facts about each country, tourism information, etc. To
> date nine titles have been released for this new series.
>
> Gizimap, the Hungarian map publisher, continues to produce one or two
> new titles each year. She specializes in north Africa, Central Asia and
> Middle East titles., but she is beginning to expand beyond that with
> recent titles covering St. Lucia and St. Helena. Other new titles
> include Yemen, Sudan/South Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan/Kabul, and
> Pakistan..
>
> Collins/Bartholomew have discontinued all of their non-UK map titles,
> including the very popular continental map series. They are
> concentrating on providing map data and digital maps for books and
> atlases. They continue to publish a variety of road and city maps for
> Ireland, Scotland, and the UK. It is a shame to see the famous
> Bartholomew name and map line falling by the wayside.
>
> The British Ordnance Survey, which is required to be self-supporting and
> receives no government funding, has discontinued their very popular
> single-sheet and 9-sheet regional series of the UK. This leaves only the
> AA nine-sheet series of maps or the Michelin four-sheet series as the
> only reasonable coverage of the UK. A recent UK government decision is
> forcing OS to provide their topographic data to commercial publishers at
> very reduced rates, so watch for 1:25,000 and 1:50,000
> topographic/hiking maps by AA to hit the market in the next few months.
> With less and less revenue coming in from map sales, I expect to see the
> OS map line continue to shrink unless the UK government realizes that OS
> cannot be tasked with collecting/collating/verifying the map data and
> then give it away for very reduced prices and still be self-supporting.
>
> Rough Guides has discontinued their country road map line, which were
> all Reise Know-How maps in a Rough Guide cover.
>
> National Geographic Maps is greatly expanding their "Adventure Travel
> Map'" line, with well over 50 new titles planned for 2011-2012. Nearly
> all of these titles are based on Reise Know-How cartography and
> updated/rebuilt in NGS's traditional map style.
>
> ITMB continues to produce new maps at a significant rate, as well as
> updating many of their existing maps. Recent new titles include
> "Canada-USA border", "USA Pacific Coast", "Route 66 road atlas", "Chile
> South and Patagonia", etc. ITMB is also re-issuing many of their city
> maps as a double-sided map with a city map on one side and a regional
> map on the reverse, making them much more useful for a traveler. These
> include such titles as Cuzco/Southern Peru, Jerusalem/Israel North, and
> Tokyo/Central Japan.
>
> Cheers
> Russell Guy
> Omnimap
>
> At 09:38 AM 3/13/2012, you wrote:
>
>> We don't hear a lot about what's going on in the map publishing world.
>> I'm cataloging a map I recently purchased for my library and see that a
>> number of publishers have combined under an umbrella company KAPPA Map
>> Group, LLC.
>>
>> Here is their website: https://kappamapgroup.com/t-companyhistory.aspx
>>
>> "Kappa Map Group, LLC was formed in early 2011 to provide a single
>> umbrella over our growing family of map brands Universal Map, American
>> Map, Mapsco, Hagstrom, and ADC."
>>
>> Also, Eastview Cartographic purchased Map Link's stock and website.
>>
>> http://www.evmaplink.com/
>>
>> A few people from Map Link are offering maps from their new company:
>> http://www.ritemap.com/
>>
>> There was a brief discussion of this on Maps-L about 2 years ago (search
>> Maps-L archives for 'map publishing' archives are here:
>> http://www.listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=maps-l&X
>> <http://www.listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=maps-l&X>=- ).
>>
>> Angie
>> AGS Library
>
>
>
> **************************************************************************************
>
> Russell Guy [log in to unmask]
> Omnimap.com http://www.omnimap.com
> <http://www.omnimap.com/>P.O. Box 2096 Tel.: 800-742-2677 (USA only)
> 1004 South Mebane St. Tel.: 336-227-8300 (International)
> Burlington, NC 27216-2096 USA Fax: 336-227-3748
>
> Past President (1996) and Member, International Map Trade Association
> **************************************************************************************
>
--
Tim Ross, Map & Reference Librarian
Koerner Library, Univ. of British Columbia
1958 Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z2
Phone: (604) 822-6191 Fax: (604) 822-9122
Email: [log in to unmask]
|
