By Chad Post “Market Trends in Russia and Digital Publishing” was the topic of Wednesday’s Business Breakfast, kicking off a hectic few days of Professional Programs at the Fair with an introduction to the contemporary publishing scene in Russia. Vladimir Grigoriev, the Deputy Head for the Federal Agency of Press and Mass Communication, presented a lot of summary data, using …
Analysing the Global Ranking of Publishers
By Rüdiger Wischenbart Editor’s Note: For the past three years publishing consultant Rüdiger Wischenbart has released a “Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry,” which looks at companies with revenues over $US250 million. Here is his analysis of the latest ranking, focusing on how the changing dynamics between the professional/science, education and trade sectors have have affected this year’s ranking. It …
Bonus Material: Interview with Icelandic Publishing Association President
During Chad Post’s visit to Iceland for the Reykjavik International Literary Festival, he interviewed the President of the Icelandic Publishers Association, Kristján B. Jónasson, himself a publisher. In the video, Jónasson offers a great overview of Iceland’s publishing industry, including statistics, current challenges and opportunities. Also discussed is the effect of being Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, …
Bonus Material: Stats, Video and Images from the BIBF
By Edward Nawotka The keynote speech of the Beijing International Publishing Forum (discussed in our lead article) was delivered by Wu Shulin, vice-minister for the General Administration for Press and Publications (GAPP). He cited numerous figures — as documented by Emma House, the UK Publishing Association’s International Director — which give a picture of the current state of Chinese publishing. …
What to Expect at the Beijing International Book Fair
By Edward Nawotka BEIJING: Trying to take in the totality of Chinese publishing is a lot like sitting down to a Chinese banquet and trying to figure out what to eat first. With thousands of publishers, both state sponsored and independent, putting out some 300,000 titles each year (about the same number as in the US), there’s a lot on the …
German Buch News: Book Sales Up 4% in July, Translations Up Too
By Siobhan O’Leary July was another good month for the German book trade, with sales climbing 4% for book retailers, department stores, and online retailers, according to the August Branchen-Monitor BUCH newsletter, issued monthly by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers and Booksellers Association). This brought overall sales for the first seven months of 2009 up 2.5% over the …
German Buch News: Thalia Bookstore Sales Up 7.5%
By Siobhan O’Leary Booksellers in the US and UK may be struggling, but the latest news from Thalia — Germany’s largest book chain — is actually encouraging. Parent company Douglas AG announced a 7.5% increase in sales for the period from October 2008 to June 2009, for a total of 618.6 million euros, reports buchreport.de. However, a large part of …
What’s the Buzz: Twitter Indifference; Anderson’s Anti-news Views
By Hannah Johnson The latest stories that have everyone atwitter in the social media-o-sphere… Why do we even care about Twitter? According to a Harris Interactive study (via Mashable), 69% of adults have no opinion about Twitter because they don’t know enough about it. A now infamous 15-year-old intern at Morgan Stanley said that “teenagers don’t use Twitter” either. So …
Bonus Material: Israeli Books in Various Languages
For much of the past decade, the National Library of Israel has been documenting the nation’s publishing scene and collecting statistics. For 2008, it reports 6,384 new books were published in the country in a variety of languages. Of those 5,621 titles were in Hebrew, followed by 368 in English, 206 in Russian, 121 in Arabic, 21 in Spanish, 18 …