Is „hating Amazon“ a good option? A new round in the controvery in Germany, and a reply.

„If I hate a company, it is Amazon“, was the cry of battle that Sibylle Lewitscharoff, winner of the prestigeous Büchner Prize in 2013, offered to her cheering audience at the opening of this year’s Buch Wien fair. As her address was published in Germany, in the daily Die Welt, an avalanche of 1500 posts on Facebook, a couple of hundred reader commentaries and many many tweets followed. However, the response was mixed between approval for the anti Amazon emotions, and more critical comments.

The debate coincided with an interview that Amazon’s Jeff Bezos had given to the CBS „60 minutes“ news show, and yes, this was the talk with the book drones. But more interesting to me at least was a short, yet pretty sharp comment of Bezos with  regard to the book trade, as he said:

The book markets in Armenia, Georgia and the Ukraine: Globalization and the peripheries

The globalization of the book trade is discussed mostly with regard to the most powerful, plus some emerging markets like Brazil or China. But obviously, the many smaller countries, and those on the peripheries from the centres of globalization, look at a challenging future as well. Local publishers and booksellers have to struggle with a difficult economic environment. Reading elites often import the newest books, in English though, as they do with electronic devices. And often enough, a strong neighbor country competes through regional exports for a culturally fragmented local audience. Armenia, Georgia and the Ukraine are three highly interesting examples for getting an understanding for scenarios of change that are applicable in many parts of today’s book world.

Invited by the NextPage foundation, we have had the priviledge to act as an external advisor to a project mapping the book markets of Armenia, georgia and the Ukraine. Find the full reports and other relevant information on these countries and their book markets at the BookPlatform website, a summary video of our presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2013, and a short overview of key findings for download here.

Discussing wih Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, how global publishing works, really.

A packed room with 350 visitors of the Frankfurt book fair, including numerous executives from around the world, questions – from my colleagues of Livres, Hebdo, buchreport, The Bookseller, PublishNews Brazil and Publishers Weekly – ranging from „How will you make this merger work“, after he had pushed for forming the largest trade publisher worldwide in today’s industry, to „What was the last book, published NOT by Penguin or Random House, and how did you actually ‚discover‘ it (on the table of a friend, said Dohle, switching inadvertedly from English to German, thus making the proof that discovering a good read is very local, not global – but the, at first unnoticed involontary, change of languages gave him an amused, friendly laughter from the audience!).

What are the plans for Penguin Random House in emerging markets like Brazil or China or India? And why is Random House Deutschland, in Munich, not a part of the new entity (but Dohle is the boss for both, on Bertelsmann’s board).

And last but not least a few surprises, when Dohle said for instance (tongue in cheek): „You know, when I was in Brazil, and met those great people at (Brazilian publisher) Companhia das Letras (in which British Penguin had invested earlier), I decided that we just HAD to merge with Penguin, to be a part of this!“

Well, there were many interesting details, amusing sound bites, and pretty thoughtful insights during those 60 minutes. You can hear all of that soon. We will post a complete stream here shortly.

Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, will be the single speaker at the Frankfurt CEO Debate 2013

The Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry 2013: Re-Inventing Publishing at a Global Scale

Markus Dohle, newly appointed CEO of Penguin Random House, will be the single guest speaker at this year’s Frankfurt CEO debate. He will be interviewed by the editors of leading professional magazines of the international book trade: Livres Hebdo (France),  buchreport (Germany), PublishNews (Brazil), Publishers Weekly (US) and The Bookseller (UK), in the context of the Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry 2013, and in cooperation with the Frankfurt Academy. The event will be moderated by Rüdiger Wischenbart. It will take place on Wednesday, 9 October, 2013, from 2.30 to 3.30 pm at room Dimension Hall 4.2 at the Frankfurt Book Fair. (Registration to the event here).

Publishing as an industry rich in tradition is currently re-inventing itself radically. As new global players redraw the map of what used to be the “book industry,” and traditional publishing houses form new ventures, anticipating new mergers and a process of consolidation, new, emerging economies become attractive markets through their integration into global knowledge-driven societies.

With the merger of two of the largest trade publishing groups worldwide which became effective on July 1st, 2013, Penguin Random House will be a defining contributor to the future of the book publishing industry. Markus Dohle has helped shape this process, and now leads the new group.

The formation of the largest trade publisher opens new horizons for the industry, as it will be a significant factor with digital developments, globalization, the relevance of emerging markets, and a reorganization of the entire value chain. And it will be closely observed over how publishing could do business with players such as Amazon, Apple or Google on a global scale.

The CEO debate at the Frankfurt Book Fair will explore these topics with Markus Dohle.

„Global Ebook“ report asks for your insights with online questionnaire. Special attention to small and emerging markets!

The „Global Ebook“ report, which had been launched in fall 2011, had been updated since then twice a year, and was downloaded a stunning 5,000 times! (see http://www.wischenbart.com/page-4 )

For the next update, due to be out by September 30, 2013, I ask (again) for the help of stakeholders in te field!

As real statistics on ebooks are a rare species, I very much rely on direct input from book professionals like you – publishers, retailers, distributors, experts -, sharing their insights and observations.

For the fall 2013 update, I notably want to better understand

a)The current dynamics in emerging markets. (We will update our chapters on Brazil, China, India and Russia); and

b) The role and impact – between opportunities and challenges – that ebooks & the expansion of global platforms have on smaller and medium sized markets, notably in Central and Eastern Europe.

For this, we prepared a detailed questionnaire, which in its first part, asks about general developments with regard to ebooks, and then in a second version, adds questions on the specifics of Central and Eastern Europe.

You can find both these these questionnaire online at

https://de.surveymonkey.com/s/Global-Ebook2013 

and the more specific questionnaire for Eastern Europe at

https://de.surveymonkey.com/s/Global-Ebook2013CEE

Please allow yourself 20 minutes of your precious time, and complete those questions that you feel comfortable with (and skip those questions, which you consider to be irrelevant or not applicable to your view and insights).

I also must urge you really hard to do this as soon as you can, allowing me the required time to get your valuable insights into our report – which is due for release by September 30, 2013.

Please feel strongly encouraged to forward this email and link to colleagues who you consider as insightful in our context!

We will alert you when the report is out. And you can always find updates at www.wischenbart.com

Many thanks for your great help!

The Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry 2013 is out

The Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry, started in 2006, has been released in its fully updated edition of 2013.

The ranking lists the 60 largest publishing groups worldwide, with their revenues (mostly based on 2012 figures), and with a detailed analysis of recent developments in global publishing markets over the past year. For all listed companies, company profiles are available.

The 10 largest publishing groups worldwide account for over half of the revenues of the total 50 houses listed, yet with that share slightly decreasing from 57 % (in 2008, 2009 and 2010) to 55 % in 2012. At the same time, the share of the 30 companies listed between rank 21 and 50 rose from 21 % in 2008 and 2009 to 25 % in 2012.

This evolution mirrors well how new companies, notably from emerging markets, enter the global arena and claim a role of their own.

Also, the three main sectors of the publishing industry – professional information & Science-Technical-Medical (STM) publishing –, educational and trade publishing evolve fairly differently.

The STM segment accounts for 41 % of the reported revenues, while educational publishing represents over a third, or 34 %, and trade (or general literature) is down to only 25 % of the total value that has been created by the leading actors in international publishing. Notably the gap between the share of educational and trade publishing is opening ever wider, highlighting that “educational” is currently the perhaps most competitive sector of the industry.

The Global Ranking has been initiated by Livres Hebdo, and is co-published by buchreport, Publishers Weekly, PublishNews Brazil, The Bookseller.
Find a summary for download here.