With a May 31 registration deadline that’s still looking too close for comfort for many, the Frankfurt Book Fair is expanding further on their already-promised “generous cancellation policy.” Additional funding from the German government has led the fair to proclaim that “the terms of cancellation can now be updated so that exhibitors will bear no financial risk from the impact of the global pandemic. Even if the fair is cancelled or if exhibitors are unable to travel to Frankfurt in October on short notice due to the pandemic situation, no cancellation fees will be charged.” Separately, the UK’s Competition & […]
International News
Storytel Streaming Sales Increase 20 Percent in Q1
Swedish ebook streaming service and publisher Storytel reported results for the first quarter ended March 31, with streaming sales of SEK517.1 million ($62.1 million), up 20.5 percent from SEK429.3 million a year ago. Print publishing sales were SEK125.2 million, up from SEK114.7 million, gaining 9.1 percent. Pre-tax loss for the quarter was SEK(73.5) million, compared to a loss of SEK(37.5) million in Q1 2020. (Still in growth mode, the company doesn’t consider earnings a key performance indicator.) During the quarter, Storytel acquired a majority stake in Swedish publishing house Lind & Co., and added a new market, Israel, following the […]
Lagardere Agrees to New Corporate Structure, Will Keep Group Intact For now
As previewed earlier in the week, Arnaud Lagardere and the principal shareholders in Lagardere have reached an agreement that would end the special corporate structure under which Mr. Lagardere has controlled the company, despite owning only 7 percent of the public shares. Lagardere’s holding company is “relinquishing their rights” in exchange for 10 million new shares in the public company — worth a little over 230 million euros at current prices, and doubling their current stake after the dilution — and he will serve as chief executive for the duration of his current six-year term as a board member. While […]
Storytel Meets Its Growth Goals for 2020, Sets Aggressive New Targets
Swedish audiobook subscription service Storytel published its 2020 annual report, with total sales of SEK 2.39 billion ($268 million), up from SEK 1.84 billion, exceeding its goal for the year despite a strong Swedish krona. The company’s pretax loss was SEK (210) million, an improvement from SEK (380) million last year, though the company remains focused on growth over profit. “Storytel’s strong expansion focus, which prioritizes growth over profitability, will remain in place as long as customer acquisition creates value and contributes to making more markets profitable at a local level.” (One more market reached profitability in 2020, in the […]
Tencent’s Ebook Outlet Launches North American Platform
China Literature, the ebook venture of the Chinese chat and gaming giant Tencent, has launched a North American platform, featuring more than 200,000 original English-language titles as well as 1,000 works translated from Chinese. (All My Beasts Are Legendary and Rebirth: Pampered Wife’s Counterattack are the two titles currently featured on the front page’s top carousel.) Called WebNovel, the platform seeks to “transplant the strategy proven successful in China to the new market, to build a content eco-system where we could build on our IP,” China Literature’s head of international business Sandra Chen, told Reuters. In China, the ebook platform […]
Lagardere Signals Openness to a “Change in Sponsorship”
While announcing Lagardere’s annual results last week, ceo Arnaud Lagardere dangled the possibility of a change to the corporate structure of his company, which is currently controlled by Lagardere’s private holding company. During the Q&A for analysts, Lagardere explained that no decision had been made regarding a sale or change of sponsorship: “I’m the one in charge, absolutely no decision has been made at this stage.” But, he added, “the change of sponsorship has always been an option,” conditioned on a return to “peaceful relations among the shareholders.” He added, “Maybe we are going towards that.” Lagardere is referring to […]