Publishing Perspectives caught up with Frankfurter Buchmesse CEO Juergen Boos, who will retire this fall after 20 years of guiding the fair through one of the most eventful periods in recent publishing history.

By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief

With the 2026 Frankfurter Buchmesse just a little over two months away, Publishing Perspectives reached out to FBM  CEO Juergen Boos to talk about this year’s event, set to run from October 7-11.

No question, this year will be bittersweet for Boos: he will retire after this year’s fair, ending a remarkable 20-year tenure as CEO that saw him ably adapt the fair to meet some of the thorniest challenges in the publishing industry’s modern history, from ebooks and the rise of digital, to political and economic challenges, wars, recessions, and threats to the freedom to publish; and of course, the pandemic. Meanwhile, as we prepared to go to press with this interview, we learned of one final challenge for Boos and his team: that Hall 6 will not be available for this year’s fair.

We caught up with Boos to talk about the 2026 Frankfurter Buchmesse, his impending retirement and the future of the fair, and how the fair is adapting to the last minute loss of Hall 6.

It’s that time of year: another Frankfurter Buchmesse is upon us, and this one will be special as it is your last as CEO before retirement. What are you looking most forward to at this year’s fair—are there any speakers or programs that you’re particularly excited about?

I am very excited to see the entire international publishing community coming together in Frankfurt in October. And after 20 years of heading the book fair, you know how much I value literary voices and good stories. So, I am thrilled that numerous international authors will again be at the 2026 book fair. Pulitzer Prize winner Jill Lepore will be kicking off the week with her speech at our Opening Press Conference. I’m also looking forward to seeing Colson Whitehead, Yang Shuang-zi, who won the International Booker Prize, and nominee Shida Bayzar, as well as bestselling author Cornelia Funke. And of course, Czechia will be our guest of honor, and I’m quite excited for their plans.

As for this year’s fair, the rights trade continues to thrive, which our booked halls and packed Literary Agents & Scouts Center reflect. We’ll be having more stages at this fair—one in each hall and each with its own dedicated networking area. This means we will not only be having the usual slate of CEO talks and panel discussions about the topics that move the industry, but also a lot of events where our publishing colleagues can connect with old friends and meet new business acquaintances. By this I mean not only from the publishing industry, but from the film and creative industries too. We are also currently developing further plans for new trade and networking events, so stay tuned.

What do you think are some of the issues in the global book business that we will be talking about at the 2026 FBM?

Well, clearly AI is the topic that everyone continues to talk about. From what I see and hear from the heads of houses and publishing colleagues, this is clearly both a challenge and an opportunity. Stories are the currency of our industry, and we need to make sure that authors and publishers continue to be fairly paid for that. However, we also need to ensure that our industry is making proper use of the opportunities AI offers. And I think we are just beginning to explore the possibilities AI might offer, both now and in the future. Naturally, this will be a topic to be addressed and discussed during numerous events at the fair.

The rights business is also growing, and it’s interesting to see that our colleagues from the English-speaking markets are increasingly looking to buy rights instead of solely selling them. Also, book-to-screen, meaning adaptations of books and stories for films and series for the big streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon, continue to be a really important area of rights sales opportunities in publishing that hasn’t been fully explored yet. This is why we’ll continue to have our Book-to-Screen Day in Frankfurt, bringing the publishing and the film worlds together. Just this week, in fact, the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is taking place in our Guest of Honor country Czechia, and my book fair colleagues are organizing an event where publishers and agents are pitching stories to international film producers.

What I also see internationally—and this is no surprise to you—is that genre literature like romance and romantasy continues to drive book sales. And since reading is also all about community, I also see bookstores and libraries regaining their importance for people as spaces where we come together to find our next read as well as online, on platforms like TikTok.

In many international markets, audiobooks continue to be the area of growth. We will not only have events with Audible and Spotify, but also discussions about how audio is developing around the world and the roles many other players in the market are taking on, including how they are making use of AI.

And I have to say, sadly, we are living in times of difficult political situations and tensions, which is impacting publishers’ ability to publish freely. When traveling and speaking with friends and colleagues from different regions of this world, the freedom to publish is a topic that continues to be something we need to fight for. This is why our cultural and political program at the fair, Frankfurt Calling, is of such importance.

The fair is always evolving, and one of the big changes heading into this year’s fair was a layout change in the halls to engage more readers who will be attending. Can you talk a little about the process that went into the new hall layout?

The proposed new hall layout is not something that has happened overnight. We have been listening to feedback for quite some time about how we can enhance the experience of trade exhibitors and visitors in Frankfurt, and that we needed to adapt to reflect those needs. So the new hall layout is designed so that the B2B focus will be located on the upper hall levels and those focused on attracting the fair’s public visitors will be based on the halls’ ground levels. This will allow for more focused business meetings and many more networking opportunities. It should also drive increased reader engagement too.

There always seems to be a last-minute wrinkle to deal with, too, and true to form, just before we went to press, we learned that Hall 6 won’t be available this year. Can you tell us more about why, and how the fair is addressing this? 

Yes, that’s right. We were recently informed by Messe Frankfurt that there are structural building inspections taking place in Hall 6 and, as of now, we have yet to see their final report. So, with the information we have been given so far, and with time ticking by before the start of the fair, we have taken the decision to refrain from using that hall for this year. Obviously, the safety of all our exhibitors and visitors comes first, so we had no choice but to take this action.

But I can assure you that we are hard at work on a plan now that will deliver a safe and attractive fair at the usual high standards. We have already started to inform and speak with our customers, and plan to inform everyone effected of their new stand or table number within the next 10 days. It’s a complex situation, as you can imagine, and we are really sorry for the last-minute changes. But closing Hall 6 for this year was really the only sensible solution at this stage.

I know this has just happened, but can you say a little more about how the fair will support Hall 6 exhibitors this year? Will the loss of Hall 6 force any other changes around the fair, with the various stages, perhaps? 

Our experienced sales teams have been working around the clock to come up with a new plan and they will be doing their very best to make sure everyone is kept up to speed with what’s happening and informed about the new logistics just as soon as possible. We are doing our best, given the circumstances, to deliver this new plan as quickly and smoothly as we can.

As a result of the Hall 6 closing, the international exhibitors in Halls 6.1 and 6.2 will move to the centrally located Hall 4.2, and the Literary Agents & Scouts Center and the Publishers Rights Center will move from Hall 4.2 to Hall 1.2 which, you will remember, is right next to the City entrance and is full of natural daylight.

There will be a few further changes as a result of these moves. For example, exhibitors in Hall 6.0 will move to the Festhalle, and the Comics Business Center and the Workstations from Hall 6.2 will move to Hall 3.1. The Meet-the-Author area will move back to the Agora, at the center of the exhibition grounds, from the Festhalle.

Each hall will still have its own stage and networking area, as we’ve been planning all along, so there is no change there.

As you approach your last fair as CEO, have you had a chance to look back at the great work you’ve done over the years? And how do you feel about the future of the fair, and the future for book fairs in general?

It’s quite hard to believe that this will be my last Frankfurt as CEO, actually. The announcement of my successor, Joachim Kaufmann, was made right at the start of the year so that has made things easier in lots of ways, a smoother transition, if you like. I know the book fair will be in safe hands.

I will, of course, have many happy memories of my time as CEO. After all, it’s the best job out there. I’ve also been witness to lots of change, too. The shift to digital across the industry; the gradual dominance of the big-name publishers around the world; and, of course, now we have the emergence of AI and where that will take us. And let’s not forget about the pandemic!

Through all the change, I still firmly believe in the power of stories and the importance of the printed word and the freedom to publish. They are all more crucial than ever before, in fact, as is the importance of meeting in person at book fairs. You simply can’t make up for the personal connections, chance encounters, and in-depth discussions.

That’s not to say we don’t need to adapt, too. We need to stay relevant for our visitors and to offer the best possible book fair experience, and that requires a lot of good planning, and listening to what our customers want. At Frankfurter Buchmesse, I think we have the team to do that.

As for me, the people behind the books—the authors, translators, publishers, agents, editors—have always been so important to me, and I will for sure miss them! Over the years, many of those literary and business encounters have developed into friendships. After October, I’ll take some time away from the hustle and bustle of the publishing world, but I’m sure that travel—which I love—will still play a huge part of my life going forward.