e-bookNielsen’s data gathering on print and e-books is growing stronger.

Nielsen has announced an agreement to acquire Bowker’s Business Intelligence and Commerce Solutions products to measure the impact of sales in the United States and the United Kingdom, both companies announced recently.

Nielsen said that adding these new products to its current portfolio will “build on Nielsen’s existing global book intelligence by adding enhanced offerings in transaction services and sales measurement and analysis.” Nielsen’s tracking platforms already include BookData, BookNet, UK ISBN Agency, and BookScan.

In addition, Nielsen will offer a B2B service that enables retailers to order books throughout the English-language book market. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Nielsen“We are committed to elevating the global book industry’s understanding of print and digital book measurement and discovery within an evolving media landscape,” said Nielsen’s books president, Jonathan Nowell, as part of the announcement.

Nielsen and Bowker’s data on the print and e-book market have been invaluable for publishers and booksellers.

Nowell added:

Nielsen
Jonathan Nowell, Nielsen

“Bowker has developed first-rate book analytic solutions, which offer a great complement to Nielsen’s existing solutions for the book industry. We are excited to welcome Bowker’s team to Nielsen and we will work together to provide our clients with the measurement, tools, insights and linked commerce solutions needed to exceed their current and future expectations.”

In a release, Bowker states that it will focus on enhancing book discovery with Syndetic Solutions and Summon, and through identifier services (including ISBNs and ISNIs).

This move gives Nielsen a wealth of knowledge regarding the publishing industry, essentially putting all that data in one company’s hands. However, consolidating the information could make sense in the long run.

As publishers and booksellers look at data for print and e-books, there is an importance to find emerging trends and solutions to challenges.

The one big piece Nielsen would still lack would be from Amazon, which keeps its book data secretive outside of the ratings on each book page. But even that’s obscure (read Dan Bloom’s recent post on the confusion behind Amazon statistics).

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