A Survey about the problems of the publishers of province of Tehran during 1997 to 2007

The goal of this study is to investigate the problems of the publishers of Tehran province during 1997 to 2007. The methodology is a descriptive survey., and 130 publishers were chosen. Data were collected by interviews and an organized questionnaire distributed among the publishers. The data were analyzed by SPSS and Excel. The findings show that during this period, the most important barriers and problems are as follows: the main problem of the publishers is that their activities are not economically justifiable, 94.6% of the publishers declared that investment in publishing books is not profitable. The most important barriers and problems of book reading in the society are as follows according to the publisher's views: Low culture of the society with 42.3%; lack of reading habits and reading education in the society with 28.5%; dropping the book out of the purchase basket of the family because of the economic conditions with 26.2%. The most important problems of the distributing books are as follows: Lack of information through mass media with 33.8%; lack of information by the publisher with 37.7%; and lack of the book distribution with 28.5%. The circulation status had a different one in the period and the most subject produced are in pure sciences with 21.5%. The hypotheses of the research are tested by chi-square. The first one is confirmed, namely there is a meaningful relation between union formation and the stimulation of being a publisher; the second hypotheses is not confirmed, namely there is no meaningful relation between union support and the membership in the union. the third hypothesis is confirmed, namely there are meaningful relation between union support and investment of the publishers. To improve the publication economics the following suggestions are presented by the publishers: propagation for free book with 34.6%; and fostering book reading culture via TV and the other media with 33.8%; paying subsidy to the publishers by the government with 28.5%.