Reed Exhibitions created their proposal for a consumer book fair in Toronto in the fall in response to publisher requests (and complaints about the inefficacy of Book Expo Canada). But now Random House Canada has announced that they are disappointed in the plans for the new fair and will not participate. Spokesperson Tracy Turriff says in a statement, “We attended a presentation about the plans for the show, and a number of challenges were raised, including basic elements like the venue and timing for the show. We are concerned that it will be difficult for this show to achieve success given these challenges, and that we would need to commit extensive resources for our involvement to be successful.”
The Globe and Mail–working on its own festival now with Random House–reports that Penguin Canada is passing on the new Reed show, too. Spokesperson Yvonne Hunter says the company “has a lot of public events scheduled … [so] we
don’t plan to be there.” The paper says “With the Random and Penguin exits yesterday, a cancellation of its book
fair wouldn’t be unexpected. The two other big Canadian publishers –
HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster – are said to be ‘reviewing
[their] options.'” And “expectations are high that Reed will soon announce it is shuttering BookExpo.”
Globe and Mail
QuillandQuire