-------- 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


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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
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