Dear All
For several weeks rumours have circulated over plans by the British Film 
Institute to sell off its publishing arm to an external partner. These are 
now confirmed in a letter from the BFI's director, Amanda Nevill. This 
explains the reasoning behind the plans to take publishing outside the 
Institute. You'll see that questions also remain over the future of the 
BFI Library. 

BFI Publishing has of course played a vital role in establishing and 
advancing film and media education, both in Britain and internationally. I 
post this message for three reasons:
a) For your information, below is the full text of Amanda Nevill's letter 
which outlines the BFI's position
b) If you would like to engage in discussion around the BFI's plans, visit 
the blog which Professor Pam Cook at the University of Southampton has set 
up: http://bfiwatch.blogspot.com/
c) To offer my personal opinion on the BFI's plans regarding pubishing. In 
the Royal Charter they give their objectives as:

'The objects of the Institute shall be to encourage the development of the 
arts of film, television and the moving image throughout Our United 
Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and 
manners, to promote education about film, television and the moving image 
generally, and their impact on society, to promote access to and 
appreciation of the widest possible range of British and world cinema and 
to establish, care for and develop collections reflecting the moving image 
history and heritage of Our United Kingdom.'

Surely the loss of BFI Publishing would represent a pulling back from the 
commitments to 'promote education about film, television and the moving 
image generally, and their impact on society' and also 'to promote access 
to and appreciation of the widest possible range of British and world 
cinema'. Maybe BFI Publishing will have a future life in the hands of an 
external partner, however does not the letting go of publishing represent 
the Institute partly pulling back on the commitments of its Charter? 

Paul McDonald
University of Portsmouth, UK 

Amanda Nevill's letter read:

Dear Colleague
I am writing to tell you of some forthcoming changes at the BFI which I 
would like you to know about, hopefully in advance of your hearing if from 
other sources. 

Following a review in 2003, we set a new strategic direction - a dynamic, 
ambitious and inspiring plan which led to a much needed increase in 
funding. The plan focussed on:

*The BFI National Archive and Collections - nurturing and nourishing the 
greatest collections on film in the world - both physical and intellectual 
engagement 
*Sustaining an international focus for film exhibition in this country - 
through BFI Southbank and the London Film - to build the case for a Film 
Centre 
*Deliberately intervening to ensure the widest diversity of film and 
knowledge about film is available to everyone in the UK - recognising that 
eventually most distribution will be done digitally 

Explicit within these goals was an expectation that we aspired to remain 
an international cultural authority - and be recognised as such at home 
and abroad. Critically to achieve any of this we needed to lift the 
perceived value of the BFI and what it delivered. We have delivered on all 
fronts with some really, really stunning achievements. 

The profile and commitment to the Archive is completely different. We have 
provided national leadership through the emerging National Film Archive 
Strategy, invested in the organisational and physical care of the archive, 
plus made real steps forward in reaching out to new audiences through 
broadcast, innovative event screenings and the design and programming of 
the Mediatheque. New monies have been brought in to further our aims. Of 
course, it is nowhere near enough, the Archive is a life work, but as a 
result of the new, high profile commitment to the Archive, new funding 
opportunities are presenting themselves - opportunities which simply would 
not have been there before. 

We have changed the face and profile of the BFI and all its activities by 
opening a new front door at BFI Southbank. Again a really important step 
in showing the world in a much more comprehensive way, the value of all 
our activities, and our determination that the international legacy of the 
world renowned cultural programme is sustained into the future - and in a 
way which responds to today’s audience expectations. As a direct result of 
building the case for BFI Southbank, significant funding for a feasibility 
study for the Film Centre was forthcoming along with the stunning 
alignment of key stakeholders supporting the potential for a longer-term 
project. 

There is a soaring ambition for the Festivals - particularly the LFF where 
admired programming, together with critical relationship building and the 
marketing additionality of the headline sponsor, has attracted renewed 
interest which brings with it the potential of new funding support in the 
future. 

Some stunning new initiatives have brought our distribution of film and 
knowledge to a large number of new audiences, from the real successes of 
co-productions in Mitchell & Kenyon and Friese-Greene, the archival shorts 
initiative. Furthermore the availability online of the legendary BFI 
filmographic database has resulted in a groundbreaking commercial deal 
which will lead to the BFI knowledge and brand being an integral part of 
all portable video players into the future.

The digitisation of archive material for the Mediatheque and the 
production of education materials for this and ‘Screen-on-line’ 
contributed to our national profile, manifest in our leadership of the 
National Film Education Strategy. Looking forward the horizon is very 
complex - and uncertain. There are real opportunities for much needed 
capital investment, but some very, very real challenges with expectations 
of a significantly reduced operational budget. There are also decisions we 
made three years ago that we have yet to carry out. The Governors re-
affirmed the strategic direction last June (2006) - whilst acknowledging 
the likely challenging financial context going forward, namely:

- an uncertain commercial climate for books, DVDs and Stills sales
- higher than anticipated utilities costs 
- a continued requirement to top up our pension fund (£7-800k per annum)
- uncertainty about our grant in aid from Government - it has been the 
same for 4 years (with no inflationary link). Whilst we expected this to 
be the case for the first three years, we could not plan for a standstill 
grant this year or going forward without significant change across the BFI 
in order to live within a smaller budget framework. It is now clear that 
this is the most likely scenario although confirmation will probably not 
be received until late autumn 2007 - hence our critical need to re-think 
and re-align now. These are set against the opportunities presented as a 
result of the work achieved in the last three years:

- stronger cohesive organisation with an influential and supportive Board
- changing perception of the BFI across broad stakeholder group (with 
still masses more to do) 
- potential capital funds for the Archive 
- potential funding for the Festival 
- potential support and funding for the Film Centre 

So the challenge is to push ahead with our strategic direction, adhere to 
the integration of our cultural values whilst explore alternative ways to 
work within a significantly reduced financial framework. We are taking a 
phased approach. An outline of the first phase is attached for your 
information. As you can see, we are determined wherever possible to 
protect areas of critical cultural roles but find creative ways to deliver 
them differently.

We will need to implement this first phase in the next six months. As you 
are aware, a feasibility study was undertaken two years ago under the 
guidance of a committee compiled of representatives of the British 
Library, HEFCE, BUFVC, AHRC and MeCCSA looking at the future investment 
needs of the Library. The recommendations of the report reinforced the 
original decision to look to a partnership. We are now pushing ahead with 
the plan to seek a formal partnership for the Library for investment and 
greater engagement by the research, academic and filmmaking communities. 
In order to live within a reduced financial framework, there will be 
further changes to come later in the year. As soon as they are formulated 
I will write again. 

Above all we need your support. It is very important to all of us that we 
don’t undermine the good work achieved over the last three years. As a 
special friend of the BFI, I hope therefore that if you have any concerns, 
queries or suggestions that your first port of call would be ring or email 
me directly as I would be very delighted to discuss any area in more 
detail if wished.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely
Amanda Nevill 
Director 

An outline of the first phase 
- We propose to remove BFI Book Publishing from the direct management and 
responsibility of the BFI whilst retaining the imprint and close 
association between BFI books and the overall cultural programme. This 
will be effected by a sale, merger or outsourcing arrangement. 
- The Footage sales operation has grown significantly over the past three 
years. We now want to develop the operation further. 
- We believe that the Film Sales operation will perform best if it is 
contained within an organization that has greater critical mass in this 
area of work. We propose to seek tenders from third parties to take over 
the film sales on behalf of the BFI. 
- The Stills collection we propose will revert to a research only facility 
and we will no longer engage in sales activity. Eventually, it is 
anticipated that the Stills collection will move to Berkhamsted in order 
to release space at Stephen Street. 
- Sales of BFI DVDS are already managed by a third party. We intent to 
engage in a re-tendering of that activity over the next few months. We 
also wish to review whether we can deliver DVDs in a different way. This 
includes a potential procurement tender. We plan to tender the production 
process for DVD to see if we can improve performance through managing the 
editorial and delivery in-house, but the production process out-of-house. 
- Sight and Sound remains an important part of the BFI’s cultural outreach 
but we need to work on a growth plan to secure its future. In particular, 
we want to get a better understanding of Sight and Sound’s editorial role 
within the emerging BFI digital strategy through retaining editorial 
content in house but market testing the production process. 
- The BFI Membership Scheme, which was relaunched within the Trading 
Division and is now attaining stability verging on growth, is now in good 
enough state to transfer to the Marketing Team where there are obvious 
links and strategies.