Publishers’​ Forum on May 9 & 10, 2019, in Berlin: Key speakers announced. Early Bird tickets available until Feb 28.

The strategy dispute in the publishing industry: Drive diversity? Or focus on the core business? How to increase efficiency in either case!

 

New perspectives, reorganization, implementation – these are the key guiding principles in publishing in 2019. After last year’s self-critical debates over dwindling customer numbers, ever more complex markets, and new competitors, it is time to turn our gaze back to the future.  Check out details and speakers at www.publishers-forum.com.

At the conference, you’ll hear first-hand accounts of how publishers and other media like TV and film are vying for the best author talent and the attention of consumers in the area of storytelling.

The speakers for this focal topic stake a broad field with their lessons learned.

·        US publisher Michael Reynolds, for example, first helped make Elena Ferrante’sstroke of genius “My Brilliant Friend” a bestseller in North America and has collaborated on a TV adaptation for HBO and RAI.

·        At the world’s largest trade publisher, Penguin Random House, Sara Sargent is responsible for collaborations with digital communities such as Wattpad, unearthing the most exciting material and fledgling authors – particularly for younger audiences – so that Penguin Random House can hold its own against smartphone and TV.

·        Before he returned to publishing to strategically reposition Denmark’s biggest publishing house, Gyldendahl, for the era of new media, Morten Hesseldahl first brought the world some of the most successful international TV series (“Borgen”, “The Killing”, “The Bridge”).

However, new perspectives require that the financial foundation produces stable results, even in a turbulent economic environment. Jesús Badenes will speak to this subject. For over a decade, he has been piloting Planeta, the largest Spanish publishing group and thus one of the world’s leading trade publishers, through especially rough conditions. Market slumps, new business models and competitors and, of course, radical changes in consumer behavior are factors that top the list of challenges in many countries.