Yesterday saw me chairing my last Publishers Association Council meeting. The next one will be chaired by my successor, Stephen Page. Phew!!!

The thing about trade associations is that they were established as a means of protecting businesses. Frequently their aim was to ensure 'fair' ie 'high' prices. They were effectively legal cartels rather like OPEC. But times have changed. And the PA has changed with the times.

The key role of our trade association today is to help our members navigate through the complexities of the new digital world. This means revisiting business models, relationships with authors and distributors, established technologies and ways of working.

The strength of British publishing is in its diversity - large, small, general, specialist, domestic, global. The PA can help all its members to find their position in the digital world and ensure that authors are both protected and rewarded. I'll continue to do my best to help but am relieved I can now concentrate even more on steering Macmillan. At some moments in the last year it has been running automagically. Now we are back on full manual steering.