rwischenbart – Seite 14 – Ruediger Wischenbart

Oktober 5, 2012 In bestseller, Europe, Germany

Die Marktmacht von Amazon und wie sich der Zugang zu Büchern verändert. Eine Nahaufnahme.

Amazon gibt immer mehr den Ton an, auch was die Aufmerksamkeit für mögliche nächste Erfolge ausmacht. Die Zeichen stehen auf Sturm

(…)

In allen diesen Veränderungen, Verlagerungen und Beschleunigungen kommt den Internetseiten von Amazon eine zentrale Rolle zu. Bestsellerlisten mit ihren zehn oder 20 Spitzentiteln bilden nur die alleroberste Spitze des Eisberges ab. Doch abseits von „Shades“, „Twilight“ oder auch, in bescheidenerem Umfang, Wolfgang Herrndorfs „Tschick“, verästeln und spezialisieren sich die Präferenzen der Lesenden immer weitläufiger. Wir nehmen alle möglichen Informationshappen und Empfehlungsimpulse aus vielen Richtungen auf und steuern damit die Entscheidung, welches Buch wir als Nächstes öffnen. Um hier etwas Übersicht zu gewinnen, auch um das Aufgeschnappte zu überprüfen oder weitere Meinungen einzuholen, klicken viele immer regelmäßiger dann bei Amazon. Denn dort gibt es kurze Beschreibungen, eben die Bewertungen von Lesern mit Sternchen und Besprechungen – inklusive Fakes, aber ich denke, dieser Aspekt wird eher überschätzt -, die Verkaufsplatzierung und den Verweis auf ähnliche Titel zum eben gesuchten.

Genau dies finde ich beim kleinen Buchhändler im Grätzel natürlich auch – vorausgesetzt, ich wohne in einer größeren Stadt. Aber die Ballung an Informationen im Netz wächst.

Mehr im Standard nachlesen.

Oktober 4, 2012 In Asia, digitization, Europe, global 50 ranking

Join us for the Frankfurt CEO panel: Disruption and New Frontiers

The CEO panel debate at the Frankfurt Book Fair is hosting leaders of this transformation, to discuss the transformation of the industry, and its future perspectives as they are shaped by their companies.
Wednesday October 10, 2012, from 14:30 to 16:00
Hall 4.2, room Dimension.
Speakers:
• Santiago de la Mora, Director, Print Content Partnerships, EMEA , Google
• Jamie Iannone, President, Barnes & Noble Digital Products
• Elodie Perthuisot, Director of Books, Fnac
• Michael Serbinis, CEO, Kobo
• V.Valliappan, Category Head-Books, Indiaplaza

Details here

September 17, 2012 In Allgemein

Publishing in the Arab world – a detailed report on the example of the Emirates (UAE)

Books and publishing are a key to be a part of the globalizing knowledge society. What does this mean for the Arab world? We could research a detailed report, together with Nasser Jarreous, commissioned by the Emirates Publishers Association.

Publishing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a young industry, but with a significant potential to develop into a sector of strategic relevance domestically and a hub in the Gulf region’s development into a knowledge-driven society and economy in accordance with the standard practices and ambitions of the twenty-first century.

Imports of reading materials in the English language predominate those in Arabic at an estimated ratio of 65 to 35 per cent, and the overall market is worth an estimated 260 million USD, reflecting the reading practices of an audience that generally lives in a multilingual and multifaceted cultural environment. Furthermore, various indicators point to growth in the importance of Arabic publications.

Download the full report here, or meet us for its presentation in Paris or at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Juli 9, 2012 In bestseller, book markets, Germany, piracy

Weltbild, Urheberrecht (ACTA), Piracy – überall eine lustig verkehrte Welt!

Der Buchhandelskonzern Weltbild soll verkauft werden – aus moralischen Gründen. Oder doch nicht? Kaum haben die katholischen Bischöfe die Kehrtwende beschlossen, steht die Welt der Leselust Kopf: Rechtzeitig zu Urlaubssaison und Strandleselust erscheinen ein, mit Verlaub, Softpornoroman mit dem Titel „Shades of Grey – Geheimes Verlangen“, plus zwei Folgebände, vorgemerkt für Spätsommer und Herbst, und sehr vieles spricht dafür, dass diese Trilogie die Gesamtbilanz des Buchjahres 2012 ganz nachhaltig prägen wird.

Bloß, was macht Weltbild nun damit? Die schlüpfrige Schmonzette boykottieren? Wohl kaum. Den Schmöker in den Läden und Online irgendwo weit hinten verstecken? Schwierig für einen Händler, der so gekonnt auf sein Publikum zugeht. Kaltschnäuzig promoten und abcashen? Wie steht es dann um die eben umkämpfte Glaubwürdigkeit des kirchlichen Eigentümers?

Ähnliche Volten gibt es aber auch bei allerlei anderen Debatten geht es heiter bis wolkig zu. Mehr beim Perlentaucher im Virtualienmarkt.

Juni 25, 2012 In book markets

RELEASE: The Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry 2012 out today

After Digital, Globalization Plus Emerging Markets Is The Next Frontier For The Publishing Industry.

The « Livres Hebdo Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry 2012 », co-published by Livres Hebdo (France), Buchreport (Germany), Publishers Weekly (USA), The Bookseller (UK) and PublishNews Brazil (Brazil) maps old champions and new contenders fighting over the global knowledge society.

The top five, as portrayed in the updated “Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry” shows, at the top, a bunch of old champions in the global knowledge society: British Pearson, made of the uncontested leader in Education, and one of the biggest brands in fiction and nonfiction Trade books, Penguin, followed by Reed Elsevier, Thomason Reuters and Wolters Kluwer, spearheading mostly digital services for scientific and professional information, and French Hachette, the new comer to knowledge in a truly worldwide perspective.

Those five companies are giants with yearly publishing revenues (not counting newspapers, magazines, TV of advertising) of more than 2 bn € (or 2.5 bn US$), and imposing a strong presence truly around the globe, to provide book or similarly ‘complex’ content, notably leading journals, to the world.

The ranks beneath the very top mirror a landscape of ultimate change though, with new contenders, including Spanish Grupo Planeta, which owns both a massive share in Latin American and in French publishing, or a lineup of mostly educational publishers from emerging markets, like Brazil’s Abril Educacao, and Saraiva, or “China Education and Media Group”, a recently government sponsored merger of several Chinese publishers into a new global actor, or Russia’s EKSMO (which only a few weeks ago, saved its closest rival, AST from going under, by acquiring it). In Korea, publishers have successfully learned to operate not only entire schools, but hire 30,000 or so teachers for after school tutoring on their materials, and aiming at having entirely digital textbooks by 2015. India, which harbors not one publisher in the Ranking, as its knowledge is still governed from abroad, mostly from market leaders in the UK, has announced a 60$ tablet and grooms its domestic rival to Amazon for distribution, branded Flipkart, to step into the new global race for reading and, more importantly, for learning.

As a consequence, what matters most in the newest update of the Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry, is probably as much to be found at the top, as at its long tail, which is growing rapidly in both length and substance.

The Global Ranking has been initiated by the French book trade magazine Livres Hebdo (www.livreshebdo.fr ) in 2007, and is researched by Rüdiger Wischenbart Content and Consulting, and currently co-published by buchreport (Germany, www.buchreport.de ), The Bookseller (UK, www.TheBookseller.com ), PublishNews (Brazil, www.publishnews.com.br/ ), and Publishers Weekly (US, www.PublishersWeekly.com ). It lists all publishing companies worldwide with revenues from publishing (excluding newspapers, magazines, or financial services) of more than 150 m€ (or 200 mUS$).

Background information: www.wischenbart.com/publishing

Contact: ruediger@wischenbart.com

Juni 8, 2012 In US

Read Russia at BookExpo America in New York: How globalisation works for the book industry (and culture)

A little tired I am, I admit, and spent hours just, at first, pointlessly wandering around at the New York West Side (yes, where the wonderful Musical by Lenny Bernstein was set), to wind down from 4 days of most compact talking and looking, and listening, and interacting.

Working for BookExpo America now since 2003, this was the biggest story, and the most stunning success: Read Russia – helping to bring 260 Russians to New York, publishers, booksellers, librarians, writers, wizzards, consulting to all sides about the program, networking, making this happen, and now, also, celebrating the big event. An adventure.

See, from left to right, Svetlana Adjubai from Academia Rossica, John Siciliano of Penguin, Peter Mayer of Overlook, and Morgan Entrekin of Grove Atlantic, flooded with questions after their panel (which was moderated by Ed Kasinec, librarian emeritus of Columbia and NYPL.

The hour before I have had the pleasure to host the CEOs of the 2 largest Russian publishing houses, Oleg Novikov of Eksmo, and Yuri Deikalo of AST, who as a surprise notice, announce the merger of those houses (which had been reported exclusively at this www.BookLab.info!) – which will genuinely re-shuffle all of Russian publishing.

The massive interest of ALL major US / global actors for the Russian guests, which resulted in a long line of business meetings that had started already 6 weeks ago at the London Book Fair, was not all though.

Read Russia also has been all over New York, with literature and culture. They have a gorgeous exhibitione on children’s book illustrations on display downtone in Tribecca, and we could assist at a lavish performance of readings of Pushkin’s peoms, at his birthday yesterday, at the Russian Consulate on the Upper East side. In between a literary soirée at the New York Public Library, readings of some 30 writers all over the city (including controversial voices indeed – see www.readrussia2012.com , when Natalya, the widdow of late Alexander Solzhenitsyn, spoke on the legacy on the writer’s archive, which is currently digitized together with Yale University (which called in even David Remnik, the editor of The New Yorker).

For me, I admit, the most exciting part was the making of this vast program, over the past 2 years, including meeting and on the US side also actively bringing in all thosevoices).

I willblog, over the coming weeks and months, on Russia and other emerging markets here. and twitter at @wischenbart about it. Please join me for alerts.

Nevertheless, I must admit that I also had a wide open EAR at BEA for a much different couple, Patti Smith interviewing Neil Young.

No more words about this.

I suspect however, that thatone Russian instigator, who had thought out all of this, and who had toured previously Mick Jagger around Moscow, and without whom all this would have not have happened, and, more importantly, the preparations wouldn’t have been half so exciting and not a quarter so fun, Vladimir Grigoriev, will have also a story to tell about Patty and Neil. While my old buddy Peter Kaufmann smiles.

Thanks to all.

Juni 5, 2012 In Uncategorized

Breaking International News: With the two largest Russian publishers, EKSMO and AST, announcing a surprise merger, an emerging market will be re-defined.

Announcement made at the BEA Global Market Forum Russia in New York, at a project of Rüdiger Wischenbart Content and Consulting.

The news was short, yet its impact on Russian publishing will be huge. “Two days ago, we signed an agreement on a joint venture between EKSMO and AST”, said Yuri Dikalo, the CEO of the second largest Russian publishing group AST, and EKSMO’s CEO, Oleg Novikov, sitting next to him, just nodded. In fact, EKSMO, the number one in Russian publishing, is acquiring the number two, AST.

The surprise was made public at the kick off panel of the BookExpo America: Global Market Forum Russia, which I had the pleasure to organize and moderate earlier today in New York City. A line up of prestigious speakers had gathered to introduce “The Vast Russian Book & Publishing Marketplace” to the American publishing community, thereby analyzing recent turbulent developments.

Vladimir Grigoriev, deputy head of the Russian government’s Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication, had started the overview by introducing Russia as a country with a unique tradition of reading and literature, and now an emerging market opening up to globalization. Then, legendary literary agent Andrew Nurnberg, who had opened an office in Moscow already in 1993, recalled the Soviet era of only state owned publishing, before my innocent question to Dikalo and Novikov, asking them to present their perspective triggered the stunning announcement.

The surprise deal is the latest shake up in the Russian publishing market, which since the crisis hit in 2008, has shrunk continuously from almost 3 bn US$ of value at consumer prices to below 2.5 bn$ in 2011. The overall economic turbulences are generally held to be responsible alongside a booming ebook reading based however on a 90% piracy rate for downloads, a pattern also highlighted by Oleg Novikov in his analysis presented at the BEA conference in New York.

And yet, Russian publishers showed high ambitions at BookExpo America to overcome such challenges with a mix of trust in their domestic entrepreneurship and innovative spirit, mirrored in ventures such as the LitRus ebook platform (www.litres.ru ), government sponsored initiatives to boost their infrastructure notably in distribution, and in searching for international partnerships.

The approach has indeed triggered interest among global players, with French Hachette Livres buying into children and adult youth literature group Atticus, or with the highly successful creation of a Russian arm for Scandinavian Egmont.

The takeover of AST by EKSMO may be however bringing about an entirely new format, as was instantly emphasized by agent Andrew Nurnberg who pointed to the vertical integration of EKSMO with its retail arm as well as its high profile in spearheading the ebook revolution.

Building such consolidated power is, according to Oleg Novikov at the BEA panel, just a life saving measure given the scope of the challenges confronted by publishers and, even more dramatically, by retailers in Russia. (The largest book chain, Top Kniga, went out of business recently).

EKSMO, established in 1991 as a small book-selling company, which gradually became a major player on the Russian market. The EKSMO portfolio includes books of fiction and non-fiction, books for children and young adults, reference and educational publications, as well as a significant position in distribution, with notably 9 regional distribution centers, and the acquisition of LitRes in 2009, claims a 20 percent market share on the Russian book market. For 2010, EKSMO reported revenues of 6580 m Rubles (or 160 m€).

AST was established in 1990 and has become one of the largest book publishing groups in Russia, responsible for about 13% of the Russian book production (by number of copies). AST Publishing comprises of several imprints including Astrel, Avanta+, Premiera-Media, Corpus, comic book and Manga publisher Comics Factory. It also owns a book-store chain called „Bukva“.

EKSMO and AST have been the first Russian publishing companies with a presence on the Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry in 2011, which we research and update every year since 2006 and which has been initiated by Livres Hebdo, and is co-published by The Bookseller, buchreport, Publishers Weekly and Publish News Brazil. The 2012 update is under preparation for release later this month (June 2012).

For details on Oleg Novikov and Yuri Deikalo see at ReadRussia2012.

Mai 7, 2012 In Uncategorized

„Schwedenkrimis als Epidemie“ – ansteckend, aber nicht gesundheitsschädlich

„Schwedenkrimis als Epidemie“ stießen im Hauptgebäude der Universität Wien, bei der langen Nacht der Forschung 2012 auf reges Interesse.

Zwischen 18 und 22 Uhr wurden zahlreiche Besucher auf unsere Charts, Statistiken und Bestsellerlisten zu Larsson, Läckberg und Co. aufmerksam und wollten mehr erfahren. Tendenz steigend. Wir unterhielten uns mit Viel-, Wenig- und Gar-Nicht-Lesern über Erfolgsanalysen und Trends. Zu unserer Überraschung fanden auch einige Nordic Crime Begeisterte zu uns, die einen Großteil der thematisierten Bücher gelesen hatten und sich als wahre Experten erwiesen. Die fünfte lange Nacht der Forschung erwies sich somit auch für uns als sehr informativ. (Eine Auswahl der Charts stellen wir demnächst auf unserer Seite hier online.)

An dieser Stelle auch ein Dankeschön an das Institut für Europäische und Vergleichende Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft, dafür dass wir uns am Themenschwerpunkt „Mehrsprachigkeit“ beteiligen durften.

Der kalte Krieg ums Urheberrecht. Ein Plädoyer für Abrüstung und pragmatische Lösungen – im Perlentaucher

Wie konnte es geschehen, dass eine so abstrakte wie randständige Materie wie das Urheberrecht solch massive politische Wirkung entfaltet, mit Hebeln, die von den Rändern bis ins ideologische Zentrum der Gesellschaft einhaken? Ein Plädoyer für pragmatische Lösungen.

Nachzulesen als „Virtualienmarkt“ im Perlentaucher.

April 5, 2012 In general

Publishing is globalizing NOW. But how does this work, really?

I have spent quite some time lately, in researching and trying to understand how globalization impacts publishing in the various regions. Parts of this is digging up and digesting dry statistics (thanks to the MANY helping hands, and apologies to all where some – hopefully corrected – mistakes have occured).

But of course, desk research has been enlivened by journeys, as most recently and most fascinatingly, to India and to the United Arab Emirates.

Working on export data (from UK/US into various markets), one huge question has formed in my mind:

Over the past decades, these exports have grown significantly overall, being one of the best indicators for that globalization. Yet this obviously must have produced contrasting patterns:

In some places, this has certainly supported growth of a domestic publishing scene (e.g. in China), while in other regions, the growth of imports seems to have coincided with a significant decline of an often well established book trade (e.g. in several Arab countries – for a mix of factors and reasons).

While I am working on a first analysis of all this, I am highly curious to learn more on how imports and exports have influenced domestic markets internationally, over the past decade or so.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter